The Devil in Pew Number Seven by Rebecca Nichols Alonzo

"God is still good even when life is hard." (page 255)

"Forgiveness is the language of heaven."

This book was really not what I expected.  When I asked our book club members to suggest titles for a January book, The Devil in Pew Number Seven was mentioned.  I briefly perused the description online and somehow got the wrong impression.  I understood that the author was the daughter of a pastor who had faced a very challenging congregant, a man who always sat in the seventh pew and generally made life difficult for him.  What I absolutely didn't get was how difficult, dangerous actually, this real-life villain was to the devout and dedicated Christian couple and family, including the author as a young child.  I predicted the plot would involve a character change of the culprit but I was pretty far off the mark!
We all know truth can be stranger than fiction and in this book, truth is very intense!  I found it a "page turner" and read it fairly quickly. This probably had something to do with frequent foreshadowing, a technique I thought was a bit overused. The photos included in the book seemed to give me an even closer connection to the characters.  I didn't care for the final chapter where the author gets a little "preachy." I thought the message of redemption and forgiveness came through rather powerfully in the story itself.  

I am not the biggest fan of nonfiction but this book was a good one---both heartbreaking and inspiring. I'd rate it a 4.
***
Our Page Turners group met on the 31st and had a rousing discussion of this book, even though the group rating turned out a 2.9. Many in our group of 16 were incredulous that Pastor Nichols did not give up and get his family out of that place! Some were angry at the parents for allowing their children to remain in such danger along with being furious at Mr. Watts. We also couldn't understand why law enforcement, or at the very least members of the congregation, did not DO SOMETHING much sooner! We felt that the writing was not that good. In fact, I had the feeling if we had given our rating based only on the writing, it would have been lower. We were in agreement that it was a worthwhile read if only to inspire us to greater heights of forgiveness.