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Reviewed by John Thornton for Readers' Favorite
Truth Crusaders: Evil Abounds by S. Renee Washington is a short story written in 1st person from the perspective of Lucida. Lucida and Lucas (siblings) are taken to their grandmother's to spend an extended period while their parents work out some marital troubles. The grandmother is a strange woman with lots of quirks and eccentric "habits" which Lucas and Lucida find interfere with their visit. Grandmother is overly religious, singing spirituals, and having an entire wall of her home as a shrine (but to whom? Well, no spoilers from me). There is another family member, named Truth, who is missing when the siblings arrive.
The setting is the town of Liberty (population under 300) and there is the very strict Liberty Church of the Almighty God which worships on the "real Sabbath," meaning Saturdays. The people at that church are quite judgmental. The way A. Renee Washington describes the church makes it feel as if it could exist in some backward little town. Pastor Cooke is another of the string of oddball people that inhabit Liberty, and he has his own issues and strangeness (cigar smoking just one of many). His brother is the sheriff, so that sets up an interesting power situation for the people of Liberty.
Without giving away plot twists and turns, suffice it to say there is murder, physical abuse, a lot of spiritual abuse happening, and there is weirdness to make the reader press onward to see what happens next. I enjoyed the characters which were as well developed as can be in a short story; also the good dialogue and a fairly well laid out plot. There was an interesting conclusion. I am not a fan of 1st person writing, but that is just my preference. There were a lot of different secondary characters introduced, and some of them played only a minor role. Truth Crusaders: Evil Abounds by S. Renee Washington is a short story that packs a lot of good writing into its short page numbers.
