Mark Andrew Olsen – författare

Powerful Biblical Fiction with a New LookAgainst a vividly painted historical backdrop, bestselling author Tommy Tenney breathes life into the incredible story of Hadassah, a simple peasant girl who is chosen over 127 other young women to become Esther, queen of Persia. Was it her beauty alone, or did she know an important and mysterious truth? Tenney takes readers to pre-Islamic Persia to uncover the secrets that helped Esther win the heart and gain the ear of the king, and ultimately to save her people. Interwoven in this gripping drama are extraordinary new insights into the Book of Esther, its purpose and message.

Young Abby Sherman has been summoned to Israel, where a Watcher, the Sentinel of Jerusalem, lies dying. In her last breaths, the woman tells Abby of an ancient document prophesying humanity''s full-scale entry into the ongoing conflict between the armies of heaven and fallen angels.When Abby issues an Internet prayer warning, she unwillingly sets in motion a series of events that will uncover one of America''s hottest secrets. Here''s a story to enthrall, educate, and energize Christians into participating in real-life strategic prayer--a novel featuring exotic international locales, chilling scenes of evil in action, multiple-character plot lines, and a clash against real-life spiritual "principalities and powers" carrying eternal consequences.

Just below the surface among the family of God lives another family tree--one traced in spirit, invisible and ageless, known as the Watchers. For two thousand years they''ve seen beyond the veil separating this world from the next, passing on their gift through a lineage mostly overlooked. Throughout history they''ve scouted the borders of the supernatural frontier, but now their survival hangs by a thread. And their fate lies in the hands of a young woman, her would-be killer, and a mystery they must solve. . . ."Congratulations. You just reached my own little corner of cyberspace.Who am I?Abby Sherman, that''s who. Who are you? And why are you checking me out?Drop me a few pixels, and let''s find out!"With that innocent invitation, Abby Sherman unwittingly steps in the crosshairs of history, and thus begins her harrowing tale--taking her from ocean-front Malibu to the streets of London, the jungles in West Africa, the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, and to the very gates of heaven itself!A sneak preview of eternity becomes her one-way ticket to danger--and discovery. . . .Two lives collide in a globe-circling adventure involving both peril and discovery: Abby, a young woman whose visions of heaven turn her into a Web-celebrity; and Dylan, a troubled young man sent by an ancient foe to silence her. From California beachfronts to Nigerian rain forests to Jerusalem and back again, The Watchers is high-octane blends of action, mystery, and spiritual battle spanning centuries.A woman''s awe-inspiring vision launches her on a quest through distant lands and ancient history, face-to-face with eternity and into the arms of a family line on the brink of annihilation . . .A man who is hired to exterminate her discovers the folly of blind loyalty, then learns how to wage war in a realm he never believed had existed . . .An extraordinary saga of the unseen war against evil, the reality of the supernatural, and the transforming power of forgiveness.

When an al-Qaida email is intercepted, promising a New Year''s Day attack on America, it leads to the capture of the group''s leader. But even under fierce interrogation, the terrorist clings to his jihadist beliefs and resists divulging anything of the threat. Desperate, the Army resorts to a contingency paper that proposes to break a subject''s resistance by inducing a religious conversion. One hitch: the top-secret attempt must be masked as an offer of clemency, and must rely on a completely innocent mentor, a so-called witness who is unaware of the project''s true aims. They find that witness in Greg Cahill, a disgraced FBI agent who has since turned to Christ and serves in a prison ministry. Lured by an offer of restoration, as well as the lifting of a restraining order that''s keeping him from seeing his son, Greg begins an unlikely friendship with a man the entire country despises. Despite himself, he begins to share his faith--yet with a combustible result unforeseen by either himself or his government handlers.

The modern-day Hadassah, introduced to readers in the previous novel, is the wife of Israel''s Prime Minister, with all its reflected power but also its isolation. The inner pain she feels as her beloved land and people are terrorized by political strife and bombings is made even more personal as her own father comes under attack. And then she learns of information that could have tragic repercussions on Jews living in Iraq, where Queen Esther had laid her own life on the line to save her people. The successor to Xerxes has no love for the Jews, and when he discovers the Star of David medallion on Leah (the young queen''s candidate Esther wrote to in Hadassah), he is outraged. Leah is delegated to the "rejected" category, virtually a prisoner for life in the king''s palace, with no hope and no future.Will Queen Esther and Mordecai be able to rescue Leah from the "ash heap" of Persian royal tradition? And even if they can, will Leah ever be able to truly love someone after all she has been through?