Book Title: Nobody’s Mulligan by Brian Holt
Category: Adult Fiction 18+, 337 pages
Genre: Spiritual, Inspirational, Religion
Publisher: Covenant Books
Release Date: March 2020
Content Rating: G – No excessive sex, profanity or violence
Margaret Sullivan, a troubled college student in her early twenties, becomes a modern-day Joan of Arc when she is compelled to save humanity as the pinnacle of evil comes to seize what he believes was his in NOBODY’S MULLIGAN by Brian Holt.
Orphaned at childbirth and raised by her maternal grandparents, Margaret feels the sting of loss when her grandmother dies. With no maternal figure in her life to offer her comfort and guidance, Margaret becomes a borderline traumatic social recluse and is treated as an outcast, despite participating in admirable callings, and is left with her ailing grandfather, Paddy Sullivan. What she doesn’t realize is that evil is actively afoot and identifies her as an impediment to Satan’s global apocalyptic conquest.
Craig Templeton, an unmotivated, barely graduated gamer existing in his mother’s basement, seeks employment at a PR firm, assigned to the mailroom, which he perceives as corporate leprosy and beneath him given his freshly minted college degree. Templeton’s rust-relic of a car is the perfect prompt for Satan, as he sees Templeton ogling the high-end vehicles believing that he is already deserving of such amenities.
Drawn against their will into the town square on the night of the apocalypse arranged by a series of circumstances under Templeton’s influence, the citizens of Grace’s Parrish are confronted by the accumulated product of their own transgressions, and universal suffrage is served. Perplexed by her grandfather’s apparent immunity to Templeton’s will, Margaret ultimately realizes that faith will triumph over evil. The price is heavy, as the town seeks redemption from the only one who can grant it. With it comes a caveat that one detractor in the group will re-invite the apocalypse with increased severity.
Margaret’s heroism is handsomely rewarded as she ultimately finds transcendence that no mortal could deliver—a unification with the one person whose absence created an emotional abyss, as well as an explanation of her grandfather’s immunity to Satan’s will which is epic. And she ultimately finds her happily ever after with a love-match that is intriguingly coincidental! The ending nicely sets the stage for the workings of a prequel.
MY THOUGHTS ON THIS BOOK
Nobody’s Mulligan was an interesting read I was sure about in the beginning but it that turns out to be a book about. I found the story to be slow for the first part of the book but it gets better and after several chapters. I like Margaret Sullivan, and felt bad for her as she fought against the forces of evil. She is a strong character and played her part well in the story, along with her supporting characters. There is so much going on here in the book, and the twists and turns kept me reading to see what was coming next. Brian Holt does a great job of weaving all of the storyline together to come up with the interesting ending. This is a great Debut novel for Holt. I’m interested to see what he has next for readers. Nobody’s Mulligan is Four Stars for me. I encourage you to check this one out.
A special thanks to the author/publisher for a copy of this book. I am not required to write a positive review, the opinions here are mine alone. I am disclosing this with my review in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN HOLT, author of NOBODY’S MULLIGAN
How did you get the idea for Nobody’s Mulligan?
Nobody’s Mulligan was culminated during a very tumultuous time in my life, believe it or not. I was in the awful process of a dissolving marriage, leaving my children as a result. I was sharing a house with two other people and literally had NOTHING. Everything I had, with the excepting of the clothes on my back and a 15-year-old transportation, I was encouraged to pray the Rosary for guidance.
Having always wanted to write, I had wanted to create something in the line of a crime novel, having a background in law enforcement. But I struggled with a viable storyline. Praying a Novena, I asked, not for the words to generate financial gain, but the words that He needed me to write.
At the end of the Novena, I sat in my desk chair, alone in my bedroom. I remember it perfectly. The only light was the entering the single window from the lamppost in front of the house. I had this epiphany and actually uttered the words, “Ok. Your way, not mine.” It was as if to say that God was telling me, Ok, I’ll grant you your request, but I need this done first. That’s when the first ideas for Nobody’s Mulligan started to materialize.
What’s Nobody’s Mulligan about?
Nobody’s Mulligan is set in a small town in the south called Grace’s Parrish. Our protagonist, Margaret Sullivan, is raised by her maternal grandparents as her father does not contribute to her rearing; more on that in the story itself. She is raised in a very Catholic household by her maternal grandparents, and inexplicably is treated like a social outcast in many settings. Her trials and tribulations, which include a quest to find clues that would give her a better understanding of her mother’s traits and talents, are preparing her for a colossal confrontation with evil that is the culmination of our nation’s escalating depravities, much of which she is unaware of. With death and time confiscated the tormented citizens of Grace’s Parrish know what suffrage is, as evil identifies Margaret as the impediment to global damnation and erupting purgatory. The antagonist, Templeton, who barely graduated college, is possessed by evil that’s been manipulating him through the portal of his own self-declared entitlement. [I’m sure your listeners are already picking people out in their own lives that fit this description quite closely] The end is epic but the price is hefty for everyone – especially the reader!
Many authors say that each novel that they write is a learning experience. Did you learn anything special while writing this inspirational novel?
To this day I’m not sure whether I was the author or the vehicle for God to use to compose this work. And Nobody’s Mulligan does contain some telling messages. Expect to ask yourself several times “What if the Margaret Sullivan didn’t exist? Our collective fate, not just as a nation or hemisphere, but as all existence, would be sealed !
Also, what if certain characters didn’t behave in such a way, would they have had the experiences they had? We need to take the perspective that one decision that violates the value set most of us were born with, the ones whose foundations were established in our Christian foundations, can lead to reverberating, life-altering consequences the likes of which can be seen in the narrative in many spots. Moreover, the accumulated violations of our faithful tenets and mores bring a collective consequence that relies on one person to address. I don’t want to give too much away, but I sew up every loophole!! So the reader will just have to wait for it.
At what time did you realize that you were on to something special, something life-changing? Why do you feel that Nobody’s Mulligan is more of an anthem than just a great story?
Ok, your question calls for a little insider information here, so here it goes: Have you ever gotten goosebumps for reasons you couldn’t explain? Not chills but legit goosebumps. It occurred numerous times when I’d enter the library’s resource room at the library where I wrote Nobody’s Mulligan, picture that same feeling pouring over your entire body and soaking every inch of your anatomy, and I mean inside and out! And it lasted for about a minute! It was like it was slowly poured all over me out of 50-gallon drum, starting at the very tip my head and causing every single hair on my body to stand on end!!! I believe to this day that I was touched by something or someone, supernatural, that my faith tells me that was very, very special. I’ll never forget it !
Also, along the lines of the saying, “there but the grace of God go I”or “what if Jesus comes back like that”– I work at a hospital that serves a metropolitan area here in NC – There was a frequent patient, obviously homeless, and unkept. He had a history of being drunk and aggressive with the clinical staff, and caused many problems, but he would come back sometimes several times a week, more soiled and unkept than the previous visits, and of course clinical people would treat him with dignity and treated his complaints. One day I simply addressed him with a “ Hi, George[not his real name]” and he turned to me and answered “ You..you know me?” and he said it in such a way that was uncharacteristically civil if not magnanimous.. Slowly a smile raised to his face as if to say “Finally!” – which I interpreted as relief that he was seeking some sort of acknowledgement he likely didn’t experience in his current transient circumstance. I said “sure I do. Why don’t you come in and let these people treat you?” and his visit was uneventful. Some weeks later I received a group text that George had been found dead. And it was in the same location as a major character in the book!!! A book I had started writing in 2016 !!!! So I’m not sure if this was a signal of gratitude for completing and publishing Nobody’s Mulligan, or some sort of communique that it was Jesus walking in this man’s shoes, and a thank you for treating him with civility and decency.
That’s a major take on the book – one I’d like everyone to come away with- that what you do for the least of my brothers you do for me. And that people are waiting for the second coming – what they are actually saying is Jesus isn’t here so let me get away with this. In reality, I say he never left. Yes he ascended into heaven, but He’s also a omnipresent being. He’s walking in every one of our lives and we treat him like our single parent working or distracted so much we all keep trying to get away with something we wouldn’t do in his presence. The message here is that he walks with each of us, every step of our lives. Just recognize, acknowledge and include Him. Sometimes I feel people go through this life like they’re at a dinner party and Jesus is the host. Everyone enjoys the gifts and blessing He provides, but don’t acknowledge Him or even say thank you. If their kids never said thank you they would correct them [we hope], but I think too many people don’t put their hands together for 60 seconds in silence, or better with the family, and simple acknowledge His gifts.
I wrote this to get people to start to think that all that is going on is more that coincidence. Evil is always afoot. There is nothing we see or experience that is unintentional. And if we don’t get ourselves back to church, and return to the tenets that birthed this great nation, we can expect our certain demise. There will be no second chance. Our plight has been by skillful, incremental design, nothing is a coincidence. In Nobody’s Mulligan, it takes our protagonist in her early twenties to save us. The entire world will rely on the faith of one person. And she goes in unarmed, with only the help of her disabled grandfather.
HINT: But nothing is as it seems!
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