Only a couple of chapters into Critical Times, one gets the feeling that this novel is the one that E.K. Jonathan really wanted to write; All Things New and The Unrighteous were just practice.
I'm not sure if Critical Times is his best work yet (it may be), but it is easily the most thrilling. In fact, Critical Times has the most suspenseful final act of any book I've ever read. If you're expecting another pleasant trip to the New World, think again. Critical Times is a conspiracy thriller with a clear villain. It is filled more with worldly people than Witnesses. It is dark and ugly.
Don't let these facts scare you away.
This novel is not dark-for-the-sake-of-being-dark. It's dark because this world is awful even though we'd sometimes like to think it isn't as bad as it seems. It is also more than the twothousandwordsandaturn melodrama that it starts off seeming to be; the vividly drawn situations shine through more than the plot as you keep turning the pages. It feels unapologetically written the way it was with a clear purpose in mind.
E.K. Jonathan has grown teeth as a writer and he just keeps getting better and more versatile. Jonathan has proven why he's the undisputed champion of Witness Fiction--and not just because there are only a few other others in the ring.
Critical Times is a fantastic action-thriller that should be sold with hot buttered popcorn.
