Erin Healy: Supernatural Mystery

Review By Lisa Norsworthy
The Promises She Keeps by Erin Healy



Chase is a 30-year-old autistic man with a savant-like talent for drawing, and a knowledge of trees. He awakes to the voice of his father--who has been missing in action for over ten years--telling him to draw a certain tree.

Porta Cerrato, an aging woman adept at witchcraft, opens an art gallery in Chase’s hometown, and uses her evil craft to influence people, while searching for a person she believes has the key to eternal life.

When Chelsea, Chases’s devoted twin sister, brings Chase on his usual walk over the same route one Saturday, she is shocked to see him deviate from his usual routine and enter Porta’s gallery. The pictures he is being told to draw all have recipients and Chase eerily knows who they are and why they need them.

In the meantime, Porta’s son, Zac, comes to know a young woman with cystic fibrosis. Because she knows her lifetime is limited, she is obsessed with becoming famous so she will not be forgotten.

All of these lives converge into a suspenseful, supernatural story of evil, greed, and the quest for eternal life. But, ultimately, it is child-like love, perception, and loyalty that are victorious. It can be difficult to find a story with supernatural elements that are not contrary to scripture but this tale unfolds in a way that doesn’t leave the Christian reader uncomfortable. Because a main theme of this story was the desire for eternal life, I was left wishing the author had emphasized that Jesus was the only true answer especially in Promise’s quest.

Erin Healy developed the characters nicely, and the uniqueness of this thriller was engaging. I look forward to Healy’s next work.



Book at Amazon by Erin Healy, alone and with Ted Dekker.