"nobody" by creston mapes

About the book (provided by Litfuse): They said, "He's a nobody." They were dead wrong.

When reporter Hudson Ambrose hears an early morning call on his police scanner about an injured person at a bus stop on Las Vegas Boulevard, he rushes to the scene to get the scoop.

His world is blown off its axis when he discovers a murdered homeless man with a bankbook in his pocket showing a balance of almost one million dollars. Should he wait for the police, knowing the case will get lost in reams of red tape, or swipe the bankbook and take the investigation—and perhaps a chunk of the money—into his own hands?

With sirens bearing down on the scene, Hudson makes an impulse decision that whisks him on a frantic search for answers, not only about the mysterious man in the black Converse high-tops, but about the lost soul lurking within himself.

My take: Nobody is the third Creston Mapes book I read for the Litfuse tour. (You can see my reviews of Dark Star and Full Tilt here and here.) I wish he had a fourth book for me to read. What I've learned is that Mapes is a compelling writer, no matter what or how he's writing.

In a nutshell, Nobody is the story of how one man—Chester, the murdered homeless man—lived his life completely sold out for Christ. He impacted everyone with whom he came in contact as he showed them love.

Hud is the main character in the novel, and while the reader follows him most closely, the point of view shifts for each chapter. I can see how this might be annoying, but I liked it—it was like a game to discover who was talking as I began each chapter.

While I didn't find Nobody to be quite as gripping as Dark Star and Full Tilt, I did think it was more suspenseful. And, once again, the gospel comes out loud and clear! 4 stars.

You can buy a print copy of Nobody here or the Kindle version here. If you're an Amazon Prime member, you can read Nobody free for a limited time!

About the author: A proud native of northeast Ohio, Creston has been writing professionally for almost 30 years. He earned his degree in Magazine Journalism from Bowling Green State University in 1983. 

After working as a reporter and photographer for newspapers in Florida and Ohio, Creston became a corporate copywriter, then a creative director, before starting his own freelance writing business 20 years ago. Since then, he has written marketing and magazine copy for fine organizations such as Chick-fil-A, Coca-Cola, The Weather Channel, ABC-TV, Oracle Corporation, TNT Sports, BellSouth, Focus on the Family, Hockey News, and Random House. 

Creston has edited and ghost-written a growing list of non-fiction books, and has penned three contemporary suspense novels for Waterbrook-Multnomah, a divison of Random House. All three of Creston's novels are available in e-Book format and have been printed in Dutch. He has finished a fourth novel and is working on a fifth. Find out more at crestonmapes.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Litfuse Publicity Group. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."