Book Title:  Dogwood
Author: Chris Fabry
Publishing Company:  Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Released:  August, 2008
# of Pages: 352
ISBN-13:  978-1-4143-1955-1
ISBN-10:  1-4143-1955-X
$12.99 

4 Stars

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner 

Dogwood is set in the small West Virginia town of the same name.  It is a town inhabited by rednecks, trailer trash, bad cops, and just plain hard-working people trying to make the best of life.  It is a town scarred by a tragedy that occurred eight years ago, the kind of tragedy people don't forget and feed on in a quest for revenge.

Will Hatfield, just released from prison, makes the choice to return to Dogwood.  There is someone there for him, Karin, a woman he has never forgotten, the one he decided long ago should be with him.  Karin has her own troubles, nights without sleep, a life that seems a lie, torn between wanting to be a good wife and mother and being haunted by feelings from the past.

Through her friendship with Ruthie, an older woman, Karin begins to face the issues in her life, keeping a journal, asking herself difficult questions, even traveling to the prison to visit Will shortly before his release.  Eventually, the answers come, but not in the way she or the reader might expect, and not before a great deal of turmoil and struggle. 

Author Chris Fabry already has a writing resume of some fifty novels for children and young adults (such as the Left Behind: The Kids series), but this is his first venture into writing adult fiction.  His message of faith is clear, but it is a faith that is grappled with by real people trying to make sense of their lives and find God's purpose for them. Fabry draws on his West Virginia roots to create a no-holds-barred setting, honestly facing all that is known of the good and bad of the territory and its people.  His background in radio gives a realistic, dust, spiders and all, portrayal of a small-town radio station and its personnel and listeners, and the book is filled with cultural and literary references that one of the right age will recognize and appreciate. 

Years ago, I read a submissions guideline statement for a Christian publishing house (no longer in business) that had a long list of "don'ts" and "can'ts":  "Our characters cannot swear, they cannot drink, they cannot smoke, they cannot engage in extra-marital affairs, they cannot engage in violence . . . ."  I commented on this with a noted Christian romance author of the time; she quipped, "and our stories cannot have a plot!"  This is certainly not the case with Dogwood.  Fabry's plot is intricate and involved with more twists than a backwoods country road.  There is a little confusion in the beginning since each chapter is told in first person by a different character.  The reader needs to pay attention to how the individual stories begin to entwine and, ultimately, reveal the story of the past tragedy and the lives forever changed by it.  It is a page-turner that keeps the reader guessing until the end.

The character of Ruthie seemed a bit too "preachy" to me, but no less real; I suspect everyone has known a Ruthie on some level, the little old lady aunt, friend, or neighbor, who has a cup of tea and a pat saying to solve all the problems of the world.  She is as annoying as she should be, the person who forces one to consider new possibilities and face old troubles. 

Will Hatfield is expertly drawn, an honorable farm boy who plays the hand life dealt him, tries to do the right thing, and never gives up on the idea that a higher power is watching over him through all the tricks of his life.  His patience is Biblical, his faithfulness enduring, and his life believably real.