Crockett Grey is a teacher of troubled children. He has gone through a terrible tragedy and all he wants to do is start his summer vacation by forgetting his problems. Little does he know that one of his students, Jaimie Piper, is on her way to his house with a whole new, terrifying set of problems of her own. Now Crockett is in a race for his life, trying to solve Jaimie’s nightmare in order to end his own, even if that means taking on the largest religious organization on the planet!

“The Canary List” by Sigmund Brouwer started out well with compelling characters and questions. It kept me wondering what was going to happen, and I really did care. I wanted things to work out for Jamie, the 12 year old girl, and I cared that Crocket was being framed for things he didn’t do. Oh, and the sweet neighbor, Nana, was also a loveable character. I was caught up in the great beginning, and wanted to know more.

The writing was subtle and compelling, although there were many, many typos that will hopefully be corrected. It REALLY made me appreciate a good editor and proofreader because it was so distracting. Honestly, there were extra words or mistakes on nearly every other page. But, since this was an advance copy, I have to overlook those mistakes and focus on the story.

Even though this story was very Dan Brown-ish (ala the DaVinci Code or Angels and Demons) and had way too much reference to demons and corruption hidden in the Vatican for my taste, I still continued on. Normally all that supernatural stuff would turn me off of a book, but the characters and the plot drove me to continue reading.

The ending. Sigh. I have a thing about endings. I like the story to wrap up at the end. I also like the characters to be somewhat happy. Yes, I admit, I’m a sucker for a happy ending. I just like to know that those characters who have been in my head for a few days or weeks are going to go off and live happy, normal lives. I don’t want to spend any more time worrying about them. Sappy, I know. But that’s just my personal opinion. Without giving away too much about the ending here, I will say that things do get resolved and I can stop fretting about if they will all get out of the terrible situation they are in, HOWEVER, I do not enjoy a WHOLE BUNCH of twists and turns and hidden agendas right at the end of the book. As I’m reading, and I know there are only four pages left, I scan to the end and think, “How is this all going to end in just four pages?” Once all the secrets have been revealed, it seems there are even MORE secrets, and then I wonder…What the heck? So, I have to say I didn’t like the ending, but that’s just my opinion.

In all, I enjoyed the book. I wanted to read it, and wanted to know what happened to the characters. I would have liked the book to be more about Jamie and hear more from her point of view. I didn’t LOVE the book, and don’t know if I would recommend it to everyone I know, unless they were into the supernatural or kind of creepy thriller books.

This was the first book I’ve ever read by this author, and while I didn’t immediately search to see what else he had written, I would read another book by him if given the chance.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.