DECEIT Among Top Ten "Inspirational Fiction" Titles for 2010

Booklist, the magazine of the American Library Association, has announced its Top Ten lists for 2010. Deceit is among the titles in the "Inspirational Fiction" category. Booklist notes that its Top Ten inspirational titles "handle their religious themes with great skill while also offering engrossing plots."

Here is the complete list in alphabetical order. I'm in good company, to be sure.


The Bishop, Steven James, Revell
The fourth Patrick Bowers thriller finds the FBI criminologist encountering his cleverest foe in a fresh and exciting story.

Deceit, Brandilyn Collins, Zondervan
Joanne Weeks, a skip tracer by trade, is convinced that bigwig Baxter Jackson killed both his wives, and she intends to prove the man is a murderer.


Fatal Convictions, Randy Singer, Tyndale
In a novel whose religious themes are handled adroitly and subtly, Alexander Madison, a Virginia Beach attorney and part-time pastor, really cares about finding justice for those in desperate need of it.


Her Mother’s Hope, Francine Rivers, Tyndale
Rivers’ first full-length Christian novel since 2003 is an emotionally rich exploration based loosely on her own family history as it follows four compelling women who seek to do what they feel their faith demands.

A Hope Undaunted, Julie Lessman, Revell
A rich girl and a poor boy find that love can be the great equalizer in an engrossing tale that has more awareness and sizzle between the hero and heroine than your average inspirational romance.

I Shall Not Want: The Psalm 23 Mysteries, Debbie Viguie, Abingdon
Presbyterian church secretary Cindy Preston and rabbi Jeremiah Silverman are trying to stay out of the way of a murder investigation—their last amateur-sleuthing foray landed them in the sights of a serial killer—but when homeless people begin getting killed, keeping out of it is no longer an option.

Maid to Match, Deeanne Gist, Bethany
This snapshot of the lives of late-nineteenth-century servants is rich in detail, and readers will root for the characters as they face one difficult situation after another with courage and faith.

A Memory between Us, Sarah Sundin, Revell
Sundin’s second wartime inspirational romance set among the pilots of the U.S. Army Air Force stationed in England during WWII is an exceptional read that features characters living large under emotional and physical stress.

More Church Folk, Michele Andrea Bowen, Grand Central
This entertaining and timely look at the politics of religion picks up in 1986, 23 years after the events detailed in Bowen’s best-seller Church Folk (2001), and ably demonstrates why the author is considered the queen of African American Christian fiction.

The Voyage of Promise, Kay Marshall Strom, Abingdon
Straight from the nightmare of the eighteenth-century African slave trade comes the robust story of Grace Winslow, a woman with an African royal for a mother, an Englishman for a father, and an African husband recently taken captive in the slave trade.