Review: Absolute Proof

Absolute Proof by Peter James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was so intrigued by the synopsis of this one that I had to start it as soon as I received it.

Here we have Ross Hunter, an investigative journalist, who receives a call from a crackpot man of questionable sanity who says he can offer absolute proof of God's existence. Ross, naturally curious and far less skeptical than he should be, decides there's no harm in seeing what this old loon gentleman has to say.

So from there we embark on the journey to prove God's existence. Now, I'm not particularly religious, so I'm pretty ignorant about biblical legends, but I feel like this could have been far more exciting than it was. There is a lot of superfluous detail in here* that just seemed entirely irrelevant - lots of info on the trips Ross takes, his texts to and from his wife, Imogen, what everyone eats, and the music they listen to. There's also a lot of missed opportunity - for example, Ross travels to Paris at one stage and all we see is a hotel room before he's back in the UK. There's very little in the way of fast-paced action. Highly disappointing.

The scope of this story is so massive, and I imagine it will affect readers differently, depending on their own religious beliefs. Personally, as someone who does not believe in God, I found a lot of this to be far-fetched, and Ross's lack of skepticism really bothered me. I have so many questions and criticisms and found it incredibly frustrating that so much was just taken at face value. There are plenty of theological questions, but nothing is properly addressed and the story travels from real-world thriller to borderline fantasy. There are a lot of moments that lack logic, even when accounting for a lack of logic.

I'm also curious as to how proving the existence of Jesus Christ would constitute definitive proof of God's existence? But that could just be my ignorance showing.

We've also got a few greedy villains - a pastor who cashes in big on people's faith, and an atheist who seeks to increase the power of his pharmaceutical company. Plus Ross's wife, Imogen, who is just whiny and annoying and, honestly, I don't know why Ross didn't just dump her ass. The pastor was delightfully disgusting in his views, so I rather enjoyed reading from his egotistical viewpoint.

I enjoyed most of the journey, even if I was thrown by the direction it took, but it just never really grabbed me because it seemed rather slow and plodding, and there was a disappointing lack of puzzles and riddles to solve. (There were also some glaring continuity errors which will hopefully be fixed when the book is officially released in October.*)

Overall, it was an okay story, but not quite as action-packed or clever as I was hoping.



*This review is based on an uncorrected proof copy

With thanks to the publisher for my ARC

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