Reviewed by: Virginia Peterson, former church librarian, Rochester, N.Y.

Introduction

Title: Congo Dawn

Author: Jeanette Windle

Publisher: Taraja Press

Publication Date: 2017

Format: print, audio, e-book

Length: 416 pages

OVERVIEW

As an Afghanistan war veteran with linguistic skills stemming from her childhood as a missionary kid in Africa, Robin Duncan signs on with a private security company as a translator, hoping to use her pay to assist a niece with medical needs. The mission is to help local officials in the Congo combat rebels who have been attacking the mining operations of an overseas company. On the way into the country, she encounters an old friend from the war, also an MK, but whom she had lost touch with due to a misunderstanding. Michael is now a doctor with the group Doctors Without Borders, working at a newly re-established clinic in the same area as the mine.

As Robin learns more about the situation and the operations of her employer, doubts begin to arise about the goals of the mission, how the local population has been and should be treated, and how suffering fits with the idea of a good God. She also wonders if her relationship with Michael can be repaired, and once she’s put in a dangerous position, what her faith in God really consists of.

ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5)

5 stars

Suggested Audience

High school and up, men and women

Christian Impact

Illustrates how people with faith in God react differently than others when under stress in bad situations, and what some of the answers to the problem of evil are.

Other Notes:

There are some incidents (past and present) involving violence and death, in a very suspenseful story at times.

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