For most of my life I have been a non-fiction reader. I have read lots of fiction, but my primary diet is a healthy mix of history, theology, politics & theology. Recently I have been making more of a concerted effort to add more fiction into my reading diet that doesn’t have the name Lewis or Tolkien attached to it. When I was asked to review this soon to come out novel, I was excited. I hadn’t read a thriller/mystery novel in a long time, so it was long overdue, and boy was this a great reintroduction into the genre. As I opened and began reading my advance copy, I was immediately engaged.
Ashes to Ashes is the first thriller foray for Christopher Thoma. While I haven’t read any of his other writings, they are now on my list to eventually pick up. As an author, Thoma paints a picture that is exquisitely vivid. I could easily picture every scene of his book with 4K quality as he not just described the scene, but also helped you feel every tense moment as if you were a fly on the wall. While more can be said about this, Thoma is an excellent writer.
I will try to not go beyond what you read on the back of the cover, and save something for you to read yourself. The only fitting way I can encapsulate the book is by imagining Father Brown meeting Crime & Punishment.
This story is challengingly prophetic. On one hand we are called and spurred into action. As God’s people there is a lot of evil that happens in the world, and more often than not we sit passively by while it happens. Like Father Brown, the protagonist pursues justice,even asking for the confession of those who participated in evil deeds. And like Crime & Punishment, the protagonist has to continually contend with the strain and struggle of the violent path that he has gone down.
Yet, Thoma’s narrative is likewise prophetically challenging as it calls each of us to self-assessment even of our own motives, and what we are willing to do in the name of justice. Our protagonist takes justice into his own hands, pursuing evildoers, crossing names off a list, but at what cost? The most striking and chilling scene of the book was towards it’s conclusion where the protagonist has a dream, or a vision. In it, Claire, the death that kicked off Michael’s (the protagonist) crusade of justice speaks to him, busting through the layers of his ego and righteousness to show him that what he was doing wasn’t the way to do things. As I read this, I could feel the cold challenge in my own soul, to ask the Holy Spirit to check my own motives and actions. Do I take things into my own hands? Even mundane normal things in life that don’t seem that significant? That’s a question we all need to ask ourselves from time to time.
At its core, Ashes to Ashes is a Christian and theological work. At numerous occasions in the narrative, the reader is introduced and engagingly immersed into a Lutheran liturgical worship context, that even for the uninitiated will be easy to follow and grasp. While Thoma is not as brash as C.S Lewis’ lion that is obviously Jesus, he is not as subtle as Tolkien in his commentary on questions of theology, tradition & worship style. His bad guys are both well written and humanly flawed as characters, but there were a few moments in some dialogue that was a bit cartoonish in its commentary on contemporary vs traditional worship styles, creating a black & white dichotomy between traditional being grounded and sincere, and contemporary being manipulative and completely contrived. I myself am traditional, sacramental and liturgical in my worship style (as the author is), and while I have my qualms with some of the fruit of the contemporary seeker-sensative world, it’s not all manipulative, at least intentionally. But on the other hand, it’s a thriller novel, and so that’s always going to happen to some degree.
While the book does not conclude with a Hallmarkesque ending, it is still wholly Christian. Why? Because our stories on this side of eternity often end that way too. Just as Frodo in Lord of the Rings still faces the scars and pain of his wound from Weathertop, we too deal with our own scars and pounds (both physical & emotional), until we meet our Lord face to face. Michael’s has to live with the reality that the path he went down has changed his life, for the rest of his life. This is often the case for us all in our own ways. Yes, there is forgiveness and the ultimate hope of glorification, but that does not preclude the realities on the ground.
Overall, I recommend this book if you are into the thriller genre, and able to get through detailed descriptions of some horrible things. I will be giving it a 5-star on Amazon when I am able to. You will be engaged with Thoma’s detailed and accessible writing style as you are propelled through the narrative. You can find this book, and others by Christopher Thoma at www.christopherthoma.com
Ashes to Ashes comes out on September 1, 2025