The Chair by James L. Rubart

Corin Roscoe is a thrill-seeker. He has been for a long time. It is almost as if he has a death-wish. He always has to push the envelope to the very edge of danger. Unfortunately this life of danger has cost him a very important relationship-his brother Shasta.

Years before Corin and Shasta tried a risky ski jump at Corin's insistence. The result was that Shasta is now paralyzed from the neck down. Shasta refuses to speak to Corin. Has refused to speak to him for the last 10 years. Corin would do anything to take back what happened to Shasta.

When Nicole shows up in Corin's antiques store and gives him a very special chair Corin doesn't know what to think. It seems that The Chair is centuries old and made by a famous carpenter. Could The Chair really have been made by Christ himself? And if so, could it really have special healing powers? It begins to look that way when first a young boy who sat in the chair is cured of his asthma, then a friend of Corin's is healed of an old football injury. And finally Corin is healed of a life-long fear of small places.

Of course when you are in possession of something this special people are going to want it. Danger starts lurking at every corner. A famous preacher has offered to buy the chair. Someone else is threatening Corin and those he loves if he doesn't hand over the chair. But Corin has need of the chair himself. Will it be able to heal his brother Shasta? Or is The Chair just what it seems? A nice old antique not capable of healing anyone.

This is a story about restoration and redemption. For that I enjoyed it. But there were other pet-peeves in the book that turned me off. One was the author's frequent use of silly metaphors. An example: "the door squealed like a pig in labor"  I found myself saying, "REALLY?" There were several of those type of sentences that just hit me as being a bit too hokey. One of my favorite sentences in the book was: "The greatest healing would never be physical, but a healing of the heart." That rang so true to me and to the story.