And Then She Was Gone is Book 1 in the Jack Stratton Mysteries series by Christopher Greyson.  Rating *****

Readers will love and admire 17-year-old Jack Stratton, with his family allegiance and his dreams of joining the Army, going to college, and becoming a policeman. Jack’s story is full of mystery, excitement, suspense, emotion, and horrifying revelations from Jack’s abysmally checkered past, so some readers will be surprised that this story also boasts a deeply Christian worldview.

The novel follows Jack’s quest to clear the name of a boyhood bully he never even liked, largely because his former foster mother insists that as a Christian, Jack has a duty to help. So Jack helps, using the knowledge he has spent his short lifetime pursuing in his desire to someday be a cop. In the course of events, Jack will endanger friends, family, and even his own life in attempting to save an innocent man and value the lives of the murder victim and her unborn baby.

The more we learn about Jack’s own beginnings, the better we understand his compulsion to prove his own life’s worth. We also come to understand Jack’s philosophy: I am/You are NOT garbage.

Kudos to author Christopher Greyson for crafting an entertaining, enthralling, uplifting, clean, Christian page-turner. This is the first of the Jack Stratton novels, and readers will be eager to get others in the series as soon as possible.

The writer received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest, objective review.