Book Review: Light Bringer by Pat Bertram

When strange things happen people go to Chalcedony. But what is so special about the little town?



Helen Jenks’ life changed with a drive home on a snowy night. That change came in the form of an infant girl, who she calls Rena, which she finds abandoned on her doorstep.


It becomes immediately apparent that Rena is not your usual kind of abandoned-on-the-doorstep baby. There is something special about the child. Helen soon finds herself living on the run with the child, but on the run from who or what?





And that is where her story ends and the real story begins.



Philip Hansen opens his door to unexpected guests, Agent’s Derrick and Hugh from the National Security Agency. Philip immediately suspects they are there to discuss the books he’s been checking out at the library. He sounds borderline crazy-guy conspiracy theorist, but Philip quickly shows himself to be no crazier than anyone else who thinks aliens are visiting Earth.


With a little help from an unlikely source, Philip escapes the two agents, who aren’t who they claim to be, and finds himself drawn involuntarily on a path not of his choosing.




Becka Johnson, baby Rena grown up and with a new name, returns to Chalcedony thirty-seven years after her adoptive mother found her.


Becka has decided it’s time to find the answers to her lifelong questions that center around “who am I?” And she believes those answers can be found in Chalcedony, Colorado where her life started on a snowy night on a stranger’s doorstep.





In a financial bind, Jane Keeler finds herself in Chalcedony searching for her sister George Keeler. Instead of finding her sister, she discovers an empty house, ransacked office, and abandoned car.


Georgy’s apparent wild ways make things difficult for Jane as she finds herself drawn by the need to investigate this mystery and learn her sister’s whereabouts. Only no one seems to believe her or to even care.



When the trio converges on Chalcedony with no knowledge of each other, things immediately take a turn for the strange.


Philip Hansen arrives to find himself thrust into the arms of Becka Johnson, literally, when he’s dropped off at her doorstep.


Things soon heat up for Philip and Becka when the strange things happening to each of them grow in intensity with their proximity, leading them forward on an adventure of discovery.


Jane is pulled into the strange events surrounding Philip and Becka, finding herself drawn into the midst of a bigger mystery than she’d anticipated.





In Light Bringer, Pat Bertram weaves a fascinating tale of a group of people connected by events in the past, beginning before they were even born, who are inexorably drawn together for the culmination of what was started so many decades before.


In drawing out the strange events linking these three, I also had the impression that the small town of Chalcedony, Colorado hides other secrets that could very well find themselves revealed in another tale entirely unrelated to this story.



Light Bringer is published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC.








Something apart from the story that you might find interesting is this excerpt from Light Bringer (Page 217).

There are three details in particular that will have a sense of familiarity if you have read Pat Bertram’s More Deaths than One.



Hugh & Keith in are in a conference room in the underground bunker going through files taken from George Keeler’s house



Excerpt:

Hugh lifted one transcript out of the file. “Here’s an interview she did with Bob Noone.”

“Who’s he?”

“You know. The weird guy.”

Keith laughed. “That narrows it down.”

“He’s the artist, the one you thought seemed like a chameleon.”

“Oh, him. His work sure mesmerized you. I could hardly drag you away.”

Hugh shuddered, remembering that a monstrous thing had seemed to lurk in the depths of the painting, pulling him in, captivating him in the archaic sense of the word: taking captive. He realized he’d been captivated in the same way by this place, the source of that dreadful hum. All at once he felt glad not to have found the source. Perhaps some secrets should remain unknown.

“What did he have to say?”

Hugh started at the sound of Keith’s voice. “He spouts the same rubbish as everyone else in that ridiculous town. Listen to this. ‘I didn’t move to Chalcedony until the late eighties, so I don’t know anything about the UFO flap, but if you want my opinion, it would have been a mind control experiment. Government is a beast without conscience, and when it teams with conglomerates, it can and will do anything. Even control us as if we were robots.’”