Fiction From Ray Keating

Keating, Ray. Cathedral: An Alliance of Saint Michael Novel. Long Island: Keating Reports, 2022. 370 Pages. Paper. Kindle Available. $21.99. (Also available signed and in bundles at author site) https://raykeatingonline.com/products/cathedral

Keating, Ray. Persecution: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel (The Pastor Stephen Grant Series Book 16). Long Island: Keating Reports, 2022. 370 Pages. Kindle. $9.99. Paper. $21.99. (Also available signed and in bundles at author site) https://raykeatingonline.com/products/persecution

The two novels today are an addition to all those depicted above. Ray Keating is branching out again. Author of the engaging Pastor Stephen Grant Novel series, Keating is worldbuilding again with the novel Cathedral, first in a new series, Alliance of Saint Michael.

Cathedral: An Alliance of Saint Michael Novel is Ray Keating’s sixteenth work of fiction, and the first in the Alliance of Saint Michael series. 

 

The Alliance of Saint Michael brings together men and women with varied backgrounds and talents to work covertly against the two most significant threats to Christianity and civilization at the dawn of the 1930s - communism and fascism.

 

In Moscow, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is going to be obliterated to make way for the Palace of the Soviets. The Alliance of St. Michael readies itself for its first mission – find and salvage a rare item of great significance from the cathedral before the building is lost.

(Author website)

With both World War II and a Cold War still on the horizon, Cathedral has its work laid out before it with regard to worldbuilding. With this novel, we're back to all the necessary character and scene development we've learned to appreciate from Warrior Monk and The Traitor. There's a whole new cast of characters to meet. Some find their portion of the story ended quickly. Which will endure to the end? 

As we live in our own present, we rarely have 20/20 foresight into the potential future threats and dangers around us. Keating excels in telling us just enough of the European and Soviet situations to give us a perspective on what people at that time knew and didn't know. This kind of time-sensitive narrative helps us better understand the threats fascism and communism posed to Christianity and Western Civilization then and now, as well as how to pay better attention to the world around us for clues to those threats.

Cathedral lays a solid foundation for the Alliance of Saint Michael series. 

I have questions. Are Alliance of St. Michael novels in the same universe as Pastor Stephen Grant? Is there a possibility of crossover? If so, how long will we have to wait? 

Persecution is a 2022 Pastor Stephen Grant novel. 

While the charge of “persecution” gets tossed about rather casually, Pastor Stephen Grant and some of his closest friends and associates get a close-up, bloody view of what it truly means to be a modern-day martyr. From the White House to the Vatican, and from Russia to the Middle East, the action is unrelenting and the suspense is palpable. Can Grant and his former CIA colleagues act in time to save innocent lives?

(Author website)

Persecution begins with powerful flashback scenes. That exposition is necessary given the royal intrigue at the heart of this novel and ongoing friendly tension between main characters who used to be involved with one another. Trust is earned. That goes for their significant others in-universe as well as the expectation of the readers, fans of our Warrior Monk. 

Keating also handles well the vocational tension amid the extraordinary situations Grant and his colleagues find themselves in. 

Persecution and martyrdom is real. Interdenominational and interreligious controversy is handled deftly, and with respect. I'm wondering how the Luther/Hus research sub-sub-plot will resolve in the future.  

The Tom Clancy novels reached the point where the narrative took current events into a future alternate to our own in the multiverse, similar, yet noticeably different. Keating has done that, too, given the popes, presidents, and kings that populate the series to date. The right person at the right time can make a difference, especially if he is faithful, steadfast, and dependable. Pastor Stephen Grant is that man in-universe. Ray Keating is an author cut from the same cloth, entertaining, engaging, and expert because of substantive research, often traveling to some of the sites about which he writes. 

A new Pastor Stephen Grant novel, Under the Golden Dome, is currently available for preorder at https://raykeatingonline.com/products/underthegoldendome.

Rev. Paul J Cain is Senior Pastor of Immanuel, Sheridan, Wyoming, Headmaster Emeritus and Instructor of Liberal Arts at Martin Luther Grammar School and Immanuel Academy, a member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education, First Vice-President of the Wyoming District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Chairman of its Board of Directors, Rhetoric Teacher for Wittenberg Academy, a regent for Luther Classical College, a Director for Steadfast Lutherans and Associate Editor of Curriculum for Steadfast Press, and Editor of Lutheran Book Review.   He has served as an LCMS Circuit Visitor, District Worship Chairman, District Evangelism Chairman, District Education Chairman/NLSA Commissioner, and District Secretary. A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Rev. Cain is a contributor to Lutheran Service Book, Lutheranism 101, the LSB Hymnal Companion hymn and liturgy volumes, and is the author of 5 Things You Can Do to Make Our Congregation a Caring Church. He is an occasional guest on KFUO radio. He has previously served Emmanuel, Green River, WY and Trinity, Morrill, NE. Rev. Cain is married to Ann and loves reading and listening to, composing, and making music.