Oliver is pastoring in the middle of a hot desert where the weather seems unforgiven when he is interrupted by a stranger. When the stranger charges Oliver he dispatches it with his two revolvers. While the parishioners stream out of the tiny desert church a lonely woman steps out of the darkness to tell Oliver he just killed a ghoul. The woman informs Oliver he is actually a part of a secret society God uses to fight the evil of the earth.

B.P. McCoppin’s Record of The Paladins: Book of Oliver is one of those books I feel Christians should be writing. We are called to be in the world not of the world. We authors should take risks with our writing of fiction but not twist the words of God when doing such, which McCoppin does not do. In fact one of the things I enjoyed about the book was his using of scripture through it.

He also reminds us there is an unseen battle all around us. The battle of good versus evil in the super natural realm. Several times through out the book I caught my self smiling. One thing was his flashback to his childhood and riding in a Chrysler LaBaron which if you of a certain vintage as I am you know the LaBaron was the “Luxury” model of Dodge 400 and Plymouth Reliant. I also found it fun when he shows us the way some of the demons were able to posse the living. (I’m not sure how to explain this without giving it away. You’ll have to read the book to find out)

I did have a little difficulty with some of the dialogue. It seemed to be a little clunky at times. It wasn’t so bad I couldn’t push pass it, but it was there. The other thing that I felt detracted from the story was every other chapter was a look back to Oliver’s youth. Oliver was adopted by Gerin who took him across the Atlantic to Ireland. Every other chapter was used to show us the training Oliver undertook to be a Paladin, only he didn’t know that’s what was happening at the time.

I understand why McCoppin did it. He’s giving us Oliver’s backstory and showing us, even though he didn’t know it at the time, Oliver was destined to be a warrior in God’s Army. I think it could have been done differently.

Despite the little bit of the dialogue and his choice of style (which I don’t think should be a reason to give a bad review) I really like Record of The Paladins: Book of Oliver. B.P McCoppin wrote a book where the characters faith is unwavering and they risk their lives to rid the world of the evil. I hope McCoppin continues the adventures of the Paladins and builds on a strong foundation of his story telling.

I’ve never done this before, but I’m giving Record of The Paladins: Book of Oliver a split rating. I’m giving in the middle of “Buy The Paperback” and “Invest In The Hardcover”

• Author: B.P McCoppin
• Pages: 312 Hardback
• Series: Record of Paladins
• CIA Review Rating: Buy The Paperback and Invest In The Hardcover

The link above is for Amazon. While I try to link to Christianbooks.com, this book is not on that site.