Everyone dies once. But what if a chosen few were raised from the dead?

Two thousand years ago Jesus resurrected his friend, Lazarus, who founded a secret organization: SOAR. Since then Jesus has added to the resurrected—The Awakened—to aid Lazarus in SOAR’s battle against Satan’s slaves, the UnVeilers. The threat is escalating. The UnVeilers have stepped up their attacks on mankind through a charming leader and a devastating series of bombings in Dubai and Tel Aviv.

But the invasion doesn’t stop with international terrorism. The UnVeilers are searching for a secret that Jesus embedded in Lazarus’ journal that not even Lazarus knows—and it will determine the fate of mankind. After a failed cyber-attack against SOAR’s computers, Lazarus and his team of experts must find the secret before the UnVeilers do. What clue is he overlooking that could turn the tide of this ageless conflict?

The souls fighting with Lazarus are weary, but the war against evil is far from won. Can Lazarus and his team set aside their longing for heaven and put a stop to these satanic attacks before it’s too late?

Book 1 of the The Lazarus Chronicles series.

In Richard Spillman’s The Awakened, readers find a world in which Lazarus, the man Jesus raised from the dead as recorded in John’s gospel, is still alive. Lazarus is joined by other people whom Jesus resurrected since that time. They call themselves The Awakened, and they have formed an organization called SOAR to fight against the “UDs”—people who have been resurrected after death by demons. Readers track Lazarus’s journal entries about his memories of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. Some of these attempts to roll away the stone from unknown parts of Jesus’s life can feel forced. Yet this story is set in the modern day. Characters use advanced technology and events break in many different parts of the world, making this biblical fiction also resemble a Tom Clancy thriller.

Best for: Discerning adult readers.

Discern: Violent elements, such as terrorist attacks, murders, and one character who is molested as a child. Readers may also challenge story elements, such as Jesus asking Lazarus’s forgiveness for raising him from the dead, or reflections of a shallow gospel that emphasizes mankind’s goodness.