As a proud Christian, Satta Kendor would not be the person expected to write a series about the seedy underbelly of Christianity, but her debut novel tackles just that. 

Author, NIU graduate and Northern Star alumn Satta Kendor’s novel “Liberty & Justice: Episode 1: The Flashdrive” is the first in her new “Liberty & Justice” series which covers Kendor’s idea that no one, not even one in charge of the church, is perfect. 

“I wanted to get that information out there,” Kendor said. “Christians are supposed to be these perfect people, but we’re not. I’ve had some bad experiences in the church. I thought I was supposed to come as I am. You’re not supposed to judge me for whatever you’re judging me for. That’s what I wanted to put out there, that Christians are not these ‘holier than thou’ people.” 

Kendor emphasizes the ways that Christianity can be tainted by the people in charge of these religious institutions. 

“We’re not perfect,” Kendor said. “Read the back of the book, ‘there’s a stigma that the leaders of the Christian church are perfect people.’ We’re not nearly perfect people. I want people to know that even people in the church can be criminals too.”

The criminality that Kendor talks about is displayed in a group in the novel called the Network. The Network is a drug empire that takes drugs from America to Africa and then launders the money via an intricate setup of steps, banks and people.

“The Liberty and Justice couple, Aminata Smith and Pastor Sahele, run a multimillionaire Christian journal and church enterprise. There’s this system that they use to commit these criminal activities called the Network,” Kendor said. “This is a book about deception and twists, where the Network loses a very important device, a flashdrive, that holds all of the Network’s important information, like codes. The Network is so secretive that because of their codes, their timing is off.”

Kendor reiterated the stakes at play with this flashdrive. It is of utmost importance to the Network to get it back into their hands and get everything back working again.

“Within a quarter, their criminal activity would stop because there wouldn’t be a way to access their funds and get into the different private establishments. So, there’s a hunt to find this flashdrive,” Kendor said.

The book is a quick and compelling read, at only 156 pages. Kendor’s energy is dynamic and hasty. At points, her prose may get bogged down by her big ideas or more literal use of language, but the plot drives the book forward. Its brief page count allows the novel no room to stray from the active and kinetic story that jumps from perspective to perspective.

Each chapter chooses a different character to focus on. This especially pushes the book along as the chapters are just a few pages each – with 57 chapters in a book of 156 pages. The frenetic energy is the book’s greatest feature. 

All of this energy builds up to the next novel, which Kendor is currently working on. 

“The next book is called ‘Liberty and Justice Chapter 2: Jehovah the Doctor,’” Kendor said. “The book gets a little presidential too in the next chapter. As you know it’s about organized crime, so the president gets involved in the plots. That’s all to be told in the next book.”

Kendor wants to finish the next book in the series sometime this year and get it published in 2023. In the meantime, check out “Liberty & Justice: Episode 1: The Flashdrive” which is available online on Amazon, both in paperback and e-book form.