The Proposal

By Angela Hunt

Tyndale House, $11.99

ISBN 0842349502

Truth Makes Great Fiction

Review by Anne Callahan

Angela Hunt is a writer with a mission, and that was never clearer than in her recently published The Proposal. Her first non-series novel is packed with suspense. The main character Theodora Russell is an aspiring writer, who had written radio and ad copy for about five years, has taken time off to write a book.

As the story opens she has only enough funds left for about three months before she must return to work. But she happens to have almost the same name as a famous best-selling author who has disappeared, and she is drawn into the web he was about to expose in a new book linking abortion and cancer.

Hunt worked around two main points in this story: Theodora's character flaw of plunging blindly into things, taking chances without thinking about the consequences; and the health issue itself which Hunt had noticed in the press some time ago but had difficulty pursuing. Developing a story about the issue gave her both a reason for searching out more information and a means of publicizing what she found.

Hunt does not develop cardboard characters. Not a diatribe in fictional format, The Proposal includes other women with different backgrounds and experiences, e.g., Victoria Elliot, an editor who is shocked to find a computer printout of a study done in New York indicating that women who had an abortion prior to a live birth more than doubled their chances of developing breast cancer at a later time. Victoria had had both.

There's lots of action, both physical and psychological, in this novel. Like many other authors writing today, Hunt carries her story forward on several fronts simultaneously, the pace increasing as the plot develops. The more Theo learns in the process of writing the book, the more a victim she becomes of those who do not want the truth known. Active protestors and criminals, perhaps acting from different motivations, constantly barrage her. She returns home to discover on her bed a large glass jar with a tiny premature dead baby inside. In shock, anger, and frustration, Theo calls on God for help, and with His reassuring strength, she is able to continue the writing and the search for truth.

When the final question in this novel is addressed to Theo, we have the feeling it's one that Hunt wrestled with herself: "Which is more important, Theo, getting your name on the cover or getting the truth out?" And we suspect that Hunt would have answered as Theo does: "Why, the truth, of course!"

Hunt keeps a busy schedule writing the truth for one age group or another. She maintains a schedule of writing four books a year, but she immerses herself in a single book and completes it before starting another. That system must work because she has produced the Keepers of the Ring series, the Theyn Chronicles, Dreamers, and several nonfiction titles for teens. Her new series for younger readers, The Colonial Captives, involves children who were shipped to this country as indentured servants in colonial times. Readers will also know her best-selling children's book, The Tale of Three Trees.

Anne Callahan is a freelance reviewer from Chicago, IL.

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