Poignant and thought provoking, this down-to-earth, sometimes humorous novel is filled with suspense, action, redemption, and even romance, as a 17-year-old honors his mother's dying wish and seeks his estranged uncle who was badly burned in the accident that killed the teen's father. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Deep in underground darkness, miners sometimes discover beautiful crystals in "bad ground." This lovely symbolism permeates Cramer's second full-length novel. The day before his mother's funeral, newly orphaned 17-year-old Jeremy Prine is given a letter in which she tells him, "When the time is right I want you to go find your Uncle Aiden.... You have something I couldn't give him, and he has something I couldn't give you." He hitchhikes to where Aiden, aka Snake, works a hard-rock tunnel south of Atlanta, and Jeremy manages to wangle a job. Cramer invites the reader into the life of the rock tunnel workersùhard-bitten, simple men with simple desiresùas Jeremy wrestles with change, loss and becoming a man. Cramer (Sutter's Cross) has a delicious way with a pen, whether he's crafting a lush Southern backdrop or offering glimpses of Jeremy's and Snake's interior lives. The sympathetic characters avoid the clichés so often found in CBA fiction, and Cramer somehow succeeds in making the horribly disfigured, hard-drinking Snake one of the book's most appealing characters. Rather than relying on the tired plots and settings often used in Christian novels, Cramer offers an unusual underground world that both repels and attracts the reader. Although a few scenes are too much of a stretch (Jeremy rides a deer; the miners have an encounter with Jimmy Carter), they are still engaging. With its notes of hope, humor and redemption, this delightful book exemplifies what good Christian fiction should aspire to. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

The letter said, "When the time is right, I want you to go find your uncle Aiden." Seventeen-year-old Jeremy Prine barely knew his father's brother, but he was determined to fulfill his mother's dying wish. With only a few belongings, Jeremy hitchhikes from Tennessee to Georgia, where Aiden works as a hard-rock miner. Jeremy's father had worked there, too, until a mining accident killed him and left Aiden terribly scarred. But Aiden's physical scars are nothing compared with the guilt he still carries about his only brother's death. The last thing he wants now is his nephew intruding into his solitary life. In a fiction market that mostly focuses on women, Cramer's second novel (after Sutter's Cross) offers a refreshingly inventive perspective with its portrait of the dangerous world of hard-rock mining and the men who do it for a living. The spiritual message is clearly about the healing power of forgiveness, but the well-developed characters never fall into the cookie-cutter stereotype of being "too perfect," as so often happens in Christian fiction. Both male and female readers will identify with Aiden Prine's physical and spiritual struggles. Highly recommended for all collections for its excellent storytelling and believable characters. Cramer lives in northern Georgia. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In Cramer's Bad Ground, a dying mother tells her teenage son, Jeremy Prine, to find his uncle Aiden. Aiden has something to give Jeremy, she says, and Jeremy has something to give him. After some adventures on the road, Jeremy finds his uncle in Atlanta, where he works as a hard-rock miner. Aiden is an embittered, reclusive, and disfigured man who nonetheless takes pride in his work, where Jeremy joins him. The issues between the two are worked out in perhaps too mechanical a fashion--that is, Jeremy becomes a man, and Aiden finds hope, both of them because of Jesus. But Cramer's detailed, enthusiastic portrait of rough men following the dangerous trade of hard-rock mining--a sort of cross between coal mining and highway excavation--is original, and in the end, the novel is almost a hymn to working men. JohnMort. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.