The Witnesses

June 20, 2016
In his latest legal novel, Whitlow (A House Divided) brings readers to New Bern, N.C., where Frank House and his grandson, Parker House, wrestle with an uncanny ability to see the future and the turmoil this talent inspires. Frank was a German soldier in WWII who deserted to Switzerland when the responsibility of his gift and the burden of its misuse began to weigh on him. Parker is a lawyer, who is working as an associate at Branham and Camp. Readers meet him as his life is about to change due to the manifestation of his clairvoyant gift, and his first meeting with Layla Donovan, who comes to play an important role in his life. Told through Frank's flashbacks and Parker's seemingly haphazard encounters with ordinary people in the courtroom and local politicians in back rooms, the novel explores what it would really be like if the future could be seen. Whitlow's characters continuously prove that God loves the broken and that faith is a lot more than just showing up to church. When Frank's past catches up to him and he realizes that Parker has inherited the gift, Frank is challenged to find a way to heal the scars of his soul and guide his grandson to a path that honors the gift that God has given them. Whitlow's contemplative novel is a fine rumination on ethics, morality, and free will.

October 31, 2016
Whitlow’s new novel features novice attorney Parker House and his 82-year-old granddad, Frank. It hops back and forth from present-day North Carolina to WWII Germany. Young Parker seems to have some sixth sense that’s put him on the legal fast track. It’s ESP, inherited from Frank, who, as a young German officer, used it to rise in the ranks. But is this a gift from God, or something that will eventually require God’s forgiveness? The author keeps interest high by switching from Parker’s career upticks to Frank’s flashbacks to nightmarish military days to Parker’s budding romance with Layla Donovan, a beautiful, ambitious photographer, to a suspenseful subplot when Frank is suddenly kidnapped. Narrator McClure, though no stranger to the author’s intriguing work (he’s also read A House Divided and The Confession), takes an earnest but otherwise unemotional approach to the material. It’s as if he’s concentrating on the words while ignoring their subtext. Even in the novel’s most thrilling moments, there’s no sense of excitement. This is not enough to totally detract from the dimensional characters or the well-structured plot with its significant religious message, but it is disconcerting. A Thomas Nelson hardcover.