Peter T. Masson: up & coming

[Note: This is a continuation of a series of posts on up-and-coming authors. Whether newly published, in the process of selling a manuscript, or still looking for an agent, these are authors who -- through word-crafting, plot-building, or sheer poetry of action -- have captured my mercurial and selective attention.]

A struggle of faith, a war of destiny: Peter T. Masson's second novel, The First Coming, takes a religious question and works it into a classic thriller. When a Chicago policeman, mired in the ashes of a bad marriage and a dead end job, stumbles across an extant Jesus wandering the streets like some homeless man, he finds himself in the midst of a millenia-old battle. The twist? Satan himself is fighting to keep Jesus alive, thereby thwarting any hope for the future of a redeemed world.

A character-driven narrative packed with action and spunk, Masson's novel is engaging, succinct, and descriptive. He draws the reader in without subterfuge, giving us a protagonist we can empathize with, and maintains a break-neck pace interlaced with precious moments of clarity and contemplation. The First Coming is that winning combination of wit and valor, action and relationships, crisis and hope, but even better, it's the midnight read you can't put down.

Masson is currently looking for an agent and can be contacted at p-ter at hotmail dot com