Sat., 4/26/2014 2:04 PM EDT - The Ravine opens the floor for discussion of an extremely difficult topic: murder-suicide. I read the eBook in 5 hours and immediately sent a paperback copy as a gift to someone who had experienced this type of tragedy within the extended family. After the event that person dealt with, it was months before I could even speak about it to console the grieving relatives. I couldn’t find the words. My mind was a blank.This book fills a void. When the pastor lays Danny’s sins to rest by mentioning him in a loving way at the victims’ funeral over the objections of family members, he plants seeds of healing. The book ends with the words of Jesus that have helped me to cope with similar deranged acts that have shattered my own life: “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” These words of Jesus are not a blanket license to sin grievously, nor do they remove the need to impose penalties for sinful behavior on this planet. Instead, they point to the real source of the guilt: people who act from animal impulses are in the wrong part of their brains, and they are therefore incapable of consciously and correctly “knowing” what they are doing.I recommend this book to everyone who is capable of contemplating such unthinkable acts without undue emotional turmoil. The book handles the sordid details with a delicate touch. There is no gratuitous gore. There are many people (including children) who witness such evil, and they could be helped, at a certain point in their recovery from trauma, by reading this book and considering some of the perspectives it raises, or by hearing a therapist or loved one discuss the broad strokes of this story as a prelude to neutralizing the memories of evil that have embedded themselves in their hearts. Whether one chooses to forgive or not in the early stages of reacting to evil, this book helps to frame an alternate pathway out of hate that may eventually become one's chosen route to healing. But you can't choose a road you don't see clearly. The character of Joanna is the tool by which The Ravine connects the survivors in its story to the otherwise unknowable mind of the murderer, shining a spotlight on events from his chaotic point of view. Forgiveness comes from seeing things from that other direction on the two-way road of evil: "the other way."A huge thank you to author Robert Pascuzzi, writer Michael Fragnito, and the whole team, official and unofficial, that made this book come to life!