Reviews

“An Academy of Murder” by Luke Davis

October 7, 2026 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

Detective Cameron Ballack is not only back; he’s on a roll. Two mysteries so far this year!

The wheelchair-bound detective is the creation of writer Luke Davis. He’s works with the Greater St. Louis Special Investigative Division. The unit functions as a special task force focused on murder and occasionally general mayhem.

In The Burning Glow, published in June, he helped track down a car bomber. In his recent adventure, An Academy of Murder, Ballack finds himself on farm more familiar ground. A janitor has been found dead at King’s Prep, a private Christian school. It almost looks like suicide, but the forensic investigation shows it was murder.

The setting is personal because Cameron’s father, Martin, had taught there until he left for elsewhere. And much of the reason had to do with Cameron. The school’s administration had been unwilling to accommodate a special needs child.

The reader knows before Cameron and his team do that the janitor had come across evidence of a cheating scandal involving the chemistry class. Then the chemistry teacher is brutally attacked. Another murder follows. The school administration is something less than welcoming, and the tension with the investigators doesn’t help the investigation.

Cameron will do more than track down a killer. He will also uncover part of his own personal story, a part he never knew.

Davis teaches at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis and chairs the Bible Department there. He’s also taught at schools in Louisiana, Florida, and Virginia. He describes himself as “Presbyterian body, Lutheran heart, Anglican blood, Orthodox spirit,” all of which have served him well in writing the Cameron Ballack mysteries. He has published five Ballack mysteries, Litany of Secrets (2013), The Broken Cross (2015), A Shattered Peace (2017), and A Burning Glow (2026); and now An Academy of Murder; and Joel: The Merivalkan Chronicles Book 1 (2017). He blogs at For Grace and Kingdom.

An Academy of Murder is a terrific read. If you’re from St. Louis, there’s the added fun of seeing the places the police team visit, the roads and highways they travel, and the numerous references to the institutions of the city (including a few restaurants). It’s a fine mystery, full of twists and turns navigated by an exceptionally intelligent police mind.

My review of Island Games by Luke H. Davis.

Redemption: The Church in Ancient Times by Luke H. Davis.

Reign: The Church in the Middle Ages by Luke H. Davis.

Reform: The Church at the Birth of Protestantism by Luke H. Davis.

Renewal: The Church That Expands Outward by Luke H. Davis.

Reading a Novel that Stars Your Hometown.

My review of Litany of Secrets.

My review of The Broken Cross.

My review of A Shattered Peace.

My review of The Burning Glow.

My review of Tough Issues, True Hope by Luke Davis.

“The Declaration of Independence” by Bradley Birzer

June 17, 2026 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

I was on a multi-day business trip to Washington, D.C. I had a free afternoon, so I walked from the hotel to the National Gallery on the Mall. And then, for reason or reasons unknown, I walked across the street to the National Archives. And there it was – the original Declaration of Independence.

Drafted mostly if not entirely by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is to America what the Magna Carta is to England. The statement of beliefs. The citation of grievances against an unjust ruler (also an English king, no less). The signatures.

As Bradley Birzer points out in The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Experiment in Liberty, the Declaration is all these things. And it is more. Like the Revolutionary War that was already underway, the Declaration was about ideas. One of the most radical ideas it contained was the rights come not from a king or a government, but naturally from a creator.

How the Declaration came about is a thrilling story, and Birzer tells it accurately and contextually without losing any of the thrill or drama. Straws in the wind began as early as the 1740s, and the British government’s determination to make the colonies pay, or help pay, for the French and Indian War began to accelerate momentum. By the 1770s, whether it was rebellion (as many British defined it) or liberation and freedom, the war of ideas was moving into a real war. And Birzer says that war started when the first colonist was killed at Lexington outside Boston.

*Edmund Burke in 1774, by Sir Joshua Reynolds*

Birzer also provides the lesser-known context. The colonies were already beginning the rupture well before the Declaration was signed in July 1776 in Philadelphia during the Second Continental Congress. New Hampshire issued its own declaration, as did other colonies like Virginia. The tide was rising, and the British kept making one mistake after another in not recognizing the reality on the ground.

But not all the British. Edmund Burke, for one, championed the rights of the colonies in Parliament. Set against Burke in the war of ideas (if not Parliament) was Samuel Johnson, the author of the great dictionary, who was almost extreme in upholding the position of king and Parliament. Those debates, too, are concisely included by Birzer.

Birzer holds the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies and is a professor of history at Hillsdale College in Michigan. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. degree from Indiana University. He serves on the boards of the Free Enterprise Institute and the Center for Cultural Renewal and is a fellow or scholar with the Foundation for Economic Education, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, The McDonnell Center, and the Center for Economic Personalism. His books include In Defense of Andrew Jackson, Russell Kirk: American Conservative, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth, Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson, American Cicero: The Life of Charles Caroll, Neal Peart: Cultural (Re)Percussions, and Beyond Tenebrae: Christian Humanism in the Twilight of the West.

The Declaration of Independence is a well-researched, highly readable account of the seminal document in U.S. history. The Declaration is now 250 years old, still projecting its radical ideas about governments, people, and natural rights. It still is one of the most revolutionary documents written by man. And it remains as vital and current as it was when it emerged from Jefferson’s pen in 1776.

Related:

Beyond Tenebrae by Bradley Birzer.

Mythic Realms by Bradley Birzer.

“The Atlas of Independence” by Chris Mackowski

June 10, 2026 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

If I had a mental image of John Adams, it was of a rather dour individual who bridged the presidencies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, whom my history teachers in high school and college seemed to find much more interesting.

Then came the 2008 miniseries John Adams, with Paul Giamatti in the title role and Laura Linney as his wife Abigail. I almost skipped it, but we decided to watch it. And I began to understand that my teachers and I had all missed the boat on this major figure of the American Revolution. I sought out some biographies and histories, and I discovered my understanding of the second U.S. president was seriously misguided.

It was with that improving understanding that I began reading Atlas of Independence: John Adams and the American Revolution by Chris Mackowski. Now it all clicked. John Adams wasn’t some relatively minor character; he’d played a major role in the Second Continental Congress, the one that eventually adopted the Declaration of Independence.

Adams gave speeches. He argued. He cajoled. He chaired committees (he chaired a lot of committees). He wrote letters. And as Mackowski points out, he paid a steep price. As radical as Adams was in his politics, he was equally devoted to his wife Abigail and his family. And his work with the congress and later his appointment as part of the diplomatic mission to France kept his away from his family for long periods of time.

Atlas of Independence concisely tells the story of John Adams. It’s a highly readable, fascinating account, and it gives Adams the attention and understanding he merits. John Adams himself saw his cousin Sam Adams as the central figure of the American Revolution, but by the time of the Second Continental Congress, “John would begin to eclipse his cousin as the main engine driving the movement.”

John Adams, the main engine driving the movement to American independence. Yes, my understanding had been seriously flawed.

A professor at St. Bonaventure University, Mackowski has received B.A., M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. degrees in communication, English, and creative writing. The author of some nine books, he’s written extensively on the Civil War for a number of publications. He also worked for the National Park Service and gave tours of the Civil War battlefields at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania.

Atlas of Independence is well-researched, and it provides a solid summary of what Adams did to move the country toward independence and then declare it, as well as what he did to serve the cause of independence afterward.

Painting: John Adams, oil on canvas by Gilbert Stuart.

“To Those Who Speak” by Adam Luke Hawker

May 20, 2026 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

Luke Adam Hawker is a designer who made the leap to full-time art in 2015. His background is architecture and design, and in his art, he works to connect places and people. His limited-edition prints can be found at several locations in London, including the Royal Opera House, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Old Royal Naval College, and Battersea Power Station.

Hawker has also published three books. Together (2021) is a graphic novel that turned into a surprise bestseller. The Last Tree: A Seed of Hope (2023) is a fable about a world without trees. This year, he published To Those Who Speak, a much more personal story that’s less a story and more of a non-fictional account with quiet, profound illustrations.

The story is this, simply: Hawker and his wife had a son born with an extra X chromosome. The boy is also non-verbal. Hawker did what most parents would do – researched, read, and try to understand how he could teach his son to understand and communicate. The family had or bought a dog, and the dog attached itself to the boy. The dog and the boy seemed to understand each other without a word being exchanged.

At some point, Hawker understood. Perhaps it wasn’t that the non-verbal boy could learn to understand words. Instead, perhaps the verbal parent could learn how to communicate to the non-verbal boy. And that’s what happened. One thing that resulted was this book, To Those Who Speak.

As Hawker says in his introduction, it is not a children’s book, but it is also not not a children’s book. Using black-and-white drawings and minimal words, the book is “an expression of gratitude” to his son for what Hawker calls an Invaluable education.

Emotion wells as you read and absorb the drawings. The boy meets the dog. They become each other’s world. The boy begins to hum. He and the dog discover the peace of wandering among trees. Hawker begins to see how much his son can say without uttering a word. The boy’s development is measured by steps, not milestones. The first unspoken but hand-shaped word. A respiratory illness (not uncommon among children with the extra X chromosome), an illness that was nearly fatal.

You don’t need many words to describe this beautiful book. You just nod and sit with it.

“The Burning Glow” by Luke H. Davis

May 6, 2026 By Glynn Young 2 Comments

Cameron Ballack is back. And he’s traipsing all over where I used to bike.

Ballack is the fictional wheelchair-bound police detective created by St. Louis-based writer Luke H. Davis. In previous books (and there’s been a gap of some years), he and his team were based in St. Charles County, Missouri, part of metropolitan St. Louis. In his new outing, entitled The Burning Glow, Ballack is now the lead detective for the Special Investigating Department, which operates across the metro St. Louis region. (St. Louis actually does have something similar that operates across jurisdictional lines called the Major Case Squad.)

What Ballack and his team are pulled into is a car bombing in the part of the city of St. Louis known as “Little Bosnia,” home to numerous immigrants who fled the war in the 1990s. The victim is a teenager, who had arrived at a spot behind an apartment complex to show his friends a body in a dumpster. The friends run off; the teenager dies when he returns to his car. The teen was Bosnian and Muslim.

The next day, another car bombing occurs – one in the parking lot of a synagogue in west St. Louis County. A Jewish couple is killed. The male victim happened to be the business partner of the man whose body was in the dumpster. Then a third car bombing is narrowly avoided, when the intended victim, another Bosnian in south St. Louis, happens to step outside his home for a cigarette after midnight and notices someone checking underneath a car.

And from there, the mayhem gets even wilder. Ballack is racing not only to find the killer or killers but also to solve the crimes before the FBI arrives. It culminates in a wild chase across south St. Louis. (By this time, I’m yelling at Davis to leave Ted Drewes ice cream store alone.)

Davis tells a nail-biting story. He also gets the geography exactly right. I know because I’ve biked those very same streets, and biked them a lot, including those in Little Bosnia. And I’m still trying to recover from the scene at the intersection of Chippewa and Hampton.

Davis teaches at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis and chairs the Bible Department there. He’s also taught at schools in Louisiana, Florida, and Virginia. He describes himself as “Presbyterian body, Lutheran heart, Anglican blood, Orthodox spirit,” all of which have served him well in writing the Cameron Ballack mysteries. He has published three Ballack mysteries, Litany of Secrets (2013), The Broken Cross (2015), and A Shattered Peace (2017), and Joel: The Merivalkan Chronicles Book 1 (2017). He blogs at For Grace and Kingdom.

So, Ballack is back, and his fans are thrilled. The Burning Glow takes the detective into new territory, deep into eastern European history and its transplant located in St. Louis. It’s a fast-paced, gripping tale, and here’s hoping we don’t have to wait long for the next one.

Reign: The Church in the Middle Ages by Luke H. Davis.

Reform: The Church at the Birth of Protestantism by Luke H. Davis.

Renewal: The Church That Expands Outward by Luke H. Davis.

Reading a Novel that Stars Your Hometown.

My review of Litany of Secrets.

My review of The Broken Cross.

My review of A Shattered Peace.

My review of Tough Issues, True Hope by Luke Davis.

Tides of Death by Luke H. Davis.

Island Games by Luke H. Davis.

Some Reviews of “Brookhaven”

February 4, 2026 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

Reviewers have had kind things to say about my novel Brookhaven. Here are a few of them.

Outstanding novel about the Civil War

“Though this is a novel, the author has included a lot of historical information about the Civil War times that amplifies the horror and destruction of this brutal war and its aftermath. The reader will find inspiration in the determination of the main characters. The book offers something for almost every reader– historical insights, a bit of romance, family dynamics but, most of all, the book highlights the indomitable human spirit to survive the tragedy and almost unimaginable hardship brought on by the Civil War.”

Beautifully written. Impossible to put down.

“This wonder of a Civil War novel captivated me from the first page. Set ostensibly in 1915 when the only female reporter for the NEW YORK WORLD is sent south to learn details about a mysterious Confederate spy, author Glynn Young spins a family saga that details the heartache and loss not only of the war specifically but the broken relationships and twisted lives that came out of those devastating years.

“What begins as a mystery to solve quickly evolves into an elderly man’s own story of the nation’s worst war. Set primarily in the town of Brookhaven, Mississippi, and the homes of a family still caught in the grasp of the war’s aftermath, the story moves back and forth between 1915 and the 1860s, taking readers on a personal tour of troop movement in the eastern border states, battles of Gettysburg and Wilderness, General Lee’s surrender, and ultimately, a very satisfying finale.

“As I read, the book and its characters felt very real. Not my ancestors, certainly, but people I learned to cheer for and care about as the ways of war and the world had their effect. That turned out to be not too surprising, as the author wrote an end-of-the-book note that BROOKHAVEN was inspired by tales he heard from his own family as he was growing up.

Finally, marvel of marvels for people like me who always “want to know more” after I’ve finished a historical novel, author Young provides readers with a comprehensive bibliography at the end of the book that ranges from general Civil War books, to books about the war in Mississippi, to letters and memoirs that offer personal insights into those years.”

Beautifully told, fascinating in historical detail

Glynn Young has crafted a beautiful, engrossing story that shines with historical details. I’ve always loved historical fiction and Brookhaven does not disappoint. The many twists and turns in the story made this one a page-turner for me. The author’s note at the end of the book relates how the book was inspired by an old family story, which I found to be so interesting. I could tell by the way the author handled the characters with such integrity that this story holds a special place in his heart. This book kept me company over the holidays and through a winter snowstorm. It was a very good companion.

Reviews

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