thriller, anyone?

As part of our writing group December launch, I am presenting you with excerpts of a few books coming out this month. Here is an international thriller. Martin's background intrigues me--sounds like someone who knows his subject. Thanks for checking it out! Do check out the other books on launch--including mine!

John 3:16 Marketing Network – Book Excerpt Tour

“Brother Half Angel”

By Martin Roth

“Brother Half Angel” is the first in a series of international thrillers by Martin Roth. These feature Brother Half Angel, the leader of a secret new church military order dedicated to helping Christians under attack around the world.

In this first book of the series he is dispatched urgently to China, where an underground seminary is under siege from fanatical sword-wielding members of a local cult who still pay homage to the bloodthirsty extremists who tried to expel all foreigners from China in the nineteenth century.

The following is a short excerpt from the book (continued from http://www.emmaright.com). Scroll to the end to learn how to read more, and also to learn how you can buy the book for a special price and with the chance to win a $200 Amazon gift voucher.

Chapter 4

Fulang, China

Nights were awkward at the seminary.

Brother Yoon’s wife Lin cooked dinner each evening, and they ate together, seated around a table in the kitchen. It was usually a sparse affair, based on whatever vegetables she could source cheaply at the market each day on her way back from her work in one of the components factories. Sometimes she added some meat, usually tough and stringy, or some strange fish that no one seemed to have heard of.

Daniel knew that Jenny hated these meals, and he didn’t especially like them either, although fortunately both of them had been raised in Christian homes where you gave thanks for whatever was placed in front of you, and accepted it joyfully. Neither of them was a foodie.

Conversation at dinner was generally subdued. Uncle Ling and Lin did not speak English. Jenny did not speak Chinese. Someone was always translating.

It was after dinner that things often became more difficult. They were all stuck together in this house, the five of them, with nowhere to go. Fulang, a city of half a million people, offered little in the way of nightlife. A few coffee shops were open, along with some internet cafes and a couple of discos, and young people populated these. Daniel and Jenny had tried several of the restaurants, only to decide that they had eaten better Chinese food back home in North Carolina.

So after dinner they studied the Bible, and sometimes they would talk with Uncle Ling about his amazing past. Daniel was teaching Jenny Chinese, which occupied a lot of time. Sometimes Jenny taught English to Lin, although the latter displayed little interest in learning. “My mission field is China,” she would declare. “I was born here, and I will die here. I will never leave here. I don’t need English.”

On this evening Brother Yoon and Lin joined Daniel and Jenny in their bedroom for coffee. The former invariably came across as something of an odd couple. Brother Yoon was stocky, with a big, round, jovial face. He looked like the kind of guy who wore loud Hawaiian shirts and regaled you in bars with stories of his golfing and fishing exploits. By contrast, Lin was a slight, skinny lady with a long, sad face, no make-up and short black hair that was always parted in the middle.

Yet they were adoring of each other, devoted to God and passionate about their work together for the underground church.

“Maybe it was just a simple robbery that went wrong,” said Daniel. “Why do you think it’s those guys at the temple? Those guys doing martial arts?” He was sitting on his bed. Yoon and his wife sat on the two chairs in the room. Jenny had been amazed to discover Starbucks instant coffee available cheaply at a store in town, and she had bought a large supply, along with an electric kettle for their room. She brewed four cups, added powdered milk and served them, then sat next to Daniel on the bed.

“You know this town was once a center of the Boxer movement?” replied Yoon. “I’ll bet it was them. This wasn’t a robbery.”

“You know, that’s one reason I was so excited when I got the call to come here. My great grandmother was a missionary in Taiyuan, not far from here. She was killed in the Boxer uprising. She sent a series of letters back home that became real family treasures. They inspired so many people. My grandfather, my father, and now me.”

“The famous letters,” said Jenny. “I think when we were courting he spent most of his time talking about his great grandmother. It was like another woman in his life. I was getting jealous.”

“I wonder if Christians were killed in this town, Fulang,” said Yoon.

“There were a couple of hundred missionaries killed during the Boxer uprising,” said Daniel. “And tens of thousands of Chinese Christians. Plenty came from Shanxi province. Probably more than anywhere else. I heard that this place became known as the martyr province.”

“Why Shanxi?” asked Jenny. “Why here?”

“There was anti-Western and anti-Christian feeling all around China at the end of the nineteenth century, but it was worst up here in the north. And then it also depended on the attitude of the authorities. Some local government officers actually protected Christians. But the governor of Shanxi was quite ruthless, and he encouraged the Boxers.”

“So what’s this about plum boxers?” asked Jenny.

A further excerpt from the book will be published on December 15 at http://connectwithcarolbrown.blogspot.com.

“Brother Half Angel” is on sale at Amazon (goo.gl/icqeOA). From December 1 to December 16 it is part of a special promotion. Go to bitly.com/Christian_Books to learn how you can win a $200 Amazon gift coupon.