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Reviewed by Rebecca S Winner for Readers' Favorite
The Way Things Could Have Been by Douglas Wiese is listed as Christian fiction but is also very much a murder mystery. Billy and Kathy were sweethearts as kids. Kathy's parents were well-to-do and snobbish. Billy's family were Christians, his dad being a minister. Kathy's parents discouraged the romance, going as far as refusing for Kathy to go to college anywhere near where Billy was going. The sweethearts still planned to get married when they were out of college. A tragic accident changes Kathy emotionally and her parents refuse to let Billy take care of her. Instead, they let her associate with Calvin, who was jealous of Billy when they were kids, and is not a nice man. More tragedy follows leaving Billy blamed and imprisoned for something he did not do. The mystery of who was guilty has to be solved in order to save Billy.
The Way Things Could Have Been by Douglas Wiese is an enthralling mystery, besides being a Christian story. Because the book is not long, the author got right into the story and it was fast-moving, without extra stuff that is just filler. A good thing that came out of a bad situation was rounding up a crime syndicate. While this story has many sad elements, it is all right since justice is served and the Christian man who suffered so much was happy and at peace in the end. I love how Dresden does not give up. He is the hero of the story and is the one who learns something about God. I appreciated that Billy had champions: his parents, Dresden, and the chaplain at the prison.
