BAD GROUND
Author: W. Dale Cramer
Reviewed By: Marian P. Merritt
Publisher: Bethany House
ISBN: 0-7642-2784-x
Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction

Bad Ground sparkles like the clusters of quartz crystals described in this gripping tale by W. Dale Cramer.

Fatherless and now motherless, seventeen year-old Jeremy knows he must obey the dictate in the letter his mother gave him before her death. He knows the life he lives with his aunt and uncle is not right for him nor for them. A sheltered Jeremy decides to seek out Aiden, his long lost uncle. His mother’s letter always with him he reads the words again. “When the time is right I want you to go find your uncle Aiden, and when you find him, stay with him” How those words would haunt him during the months after finding his uncle.

Aiden, a gruff miner in Georgia, is content to be left alone. So when Jeremy shows up at his work site he doesn’t welcome him with open arms. The tough miner and the sheltered seventeen year-old make an unlikely pair. Jeremy must prove himself to Aiden, aka Snake, and the other workers. Can a seventeen year-old who’s led a sheltered life survive in the rough environment of the coal mining business?

“You have something I couldn’t give him, and he has something I couldn’t give you.” His mother’s words force Jeremy to stay in the inhospitable environment. When Jeremy realizes what Aiden can “give” him and what he can “give” Aiden. Their worlds collide as abruptly as the drill bit against the rock.


Cramer has crafted a moving tale of family, love, redemption, and of finding one’s way. He takes us to the mine and gives us a glimpse into the lives of miners. Readers will fall in love with Jeremy’s naiveté, tenacity, and dependence upon God to carry him through the difficulties life has dealt him.