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I thought that EZ worked as a conversion story and I loved the premise of a horror writer who can't write horror any more now that he's become a Christian--or at least not the nihilistic horror he used to write.

Like Mark and Janice I didn't find the stalking scary, and I, too found it surprising that Ian didn't go outside to check who it was that first time, and didn't try to protect his wife if he thought someone was out there. I think this might have been a plot hole. But it made Ian come across as too timid, and inconsistent with the Ian who fought with the reporter later on, or who had been quite aggressive-sounding prior to his conversion. A few brushstrokes could have brought a bit more psychological consistency early in the story. I think Dave hit a better stride with Ian's psychological consistency as the novel progressed.

I also found the initial description of writer's block as a big problem hard to believe. If Ian was as successful a writer as portrayed, I figured he probably had enough income coming in, so big deal if he had writer's block. When the death of his mentor was mentioned almost as less important than his writer's block I was wondering, gee, where is the perspective here? Writer's block more important that grief? Was the grief causing the writer's block?

It turns out that later on we find out that lots of people's jobs at the publishing house hinge on his getting the book out.

So there are a few things that could have been done early on to raise the stakes so that his struggle with writers' block might have been more engaging. If there had been a scene with his editor telling him that he would be sued for millions if he missed the deadline, the company would have to lay off thousands, blah blah and Ian would lose his house and his marriage might suffer as a result, that would have upped the ante.

That is if you wanted to goose up the suspense component. I think the book could have been told without out it. I found it much easier to get into the story in the second half, and I have to really give Dave a lot of credit for trying to tackle something really ambitious and deep rather than a simple takeaway lesson on forgiveness. Lots and lots of good stuff in this book, for sure.

I don't have a problem with mixing genres.

I'm getting bleary-eyed, so I'm going to sign off before I blather on.