The Bastard Preacher / Dee Dawning

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery/Drama

Approximate word count: 40-45,000 words

Availability
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Author:

During the day Dee Dawning works his day job, designing and building homes. Then he comes home to his wife of twenty-eight years, heads for bed early, and wakes up in the wee hours of the morning to write. Dawning’s many novels and shorter works span many genres; the only sure thing is that the action will take place in contemporary times and have a possibility of really happening. You won’t find any vampires or werewolves, although you’ll definitely find sex, and lots of it – erotica is Dawning’s most frequent genre choice. For more, visit the author’s website.

Description:

This is part one of the two part Televangelist series. Part two, The Ruthless Preacher, is expected to be released in July, 2011.

After meeting Missy Riverton, smooth talking sociopath Jamie Lee Vincent attends a revival put on by her televangelist father, Reverend Sonny Riverton. Observing the money the Riverton’s rake in at the revival, Jamie Lee believes he’s found his calling, and joins the Riverton ministry.

Appraisal:

My thoughts on The Bastard Preacher are contradictory and all over the place. One part of me looks at the book as fluff for the brain. It’s an easy read – short, not too many characters, a plot that is relatively simple and easy to follow, plus plenty of sex. The equivalent of the movie you rent for the sex scenes that have enough plot so that you can pretend otherwise.

Each chapter starts with a quote from a real world televangelist. I questioned the validity of the quotes after a while, believing a true “man of God” would not really say things like this (from Reverend Pat Robertson):

Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.

A quick internet search verified this quote and a sample of the others. Apparently televangelists say the darndest things.

My contradicting thought is that the book is taking aim at televangelists almost like a fictional exposé. Sonny Riverton and Jamie Lee Vincent aren’t real, yet aren’t that much different from their real life counterparts. I doubt The Bastard Preacher will appeal to people who are believers in any of the not-yet-discredited televangelists, so Dawning might be preaching to the choir, but he’ll reinforce the thinking of non-believers. Or you can just read it for the sex scenes like I did.

FYI:

The ending of this book is a cliffhanger. If that is a potential problem, wait for the second volume of the two volume series, due in July.

Although I’m sure the sex in The Bastard Preacher doesn’t approach the frequency or intensity of Dawning’s erotica, it is still frequent and hot enough that anyone who finds sex in fiction objectionable should consider this a warning.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four stars