Elijah's Coin — Steve O'Brien

Book of the Year, Fiction, Books and Authors
Winner, Novella, Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Winner, Teen-Young Adult Fiction, Reader Views Literary Awards
Winner, Fiction and Literature, Young Adult Fiction, National Best Books Awards
Silver Medalist, Men's Fiction, Living Now Awards
Silver Medalist, Nautilus Book Awards
Silver Medalist, Mid-Atlantic Best Regional Fiction, Independent Publisher Book Awards
Finalist, Audtio Book of the Year, ForeWord Magazine
Finalist, Best New Fiction, National Indie Excellence Awards

Reviews
Elijah's Coin is a story of pain, confusion, hope and finally redemption and serenity...This story is spiritual, moving and incredibly hopeful. It is about finding your way in your life, even if you don t want to anymore. It is about finding the good in people, but more especially, it is about finding the good in you...The author has written a wonderful, wonderful story of possibilities and love and I absolutely devoured this book. --Tina Avon, Front Street Reviews

It is a heartwarming tale of redemption, forgiveness and the power we all have to make a difference in someone's life. Author Steve O'Brien uses great storytelling and clever props to illustrate his overriding lesson the more we give, the more we get back and urges readers to spread that good word. --Jim Barnes, Editor, Independent Publisher.com

This is a deceptively simple, feel good story that is a sheer delight to read....The quality of Steve O'Brien's writing cannot be bettered, Elijah's Coin is a wonderful book, and although written as a novel it could easily share space in the psychology or self help sections of the book store. --Simon Barrett, Blogger News Network

Steve O'Brien has crafted a work of fiction that successfully negotiates the tricky balance between entertainment and instruction. Elijah's Coin is a highly suspenseful story that introduces us to characters we come to care about.
Elijah's Coin is the story of Tom, a young man who has suffered a tragic loss and is spiraling out of control. He's angry, anti-social, and rapidly descending into a life of crime. Then, during a night of folly, as he brazenly commits burglary, Tom encounters the night watchman Elijah King, a mysterious figure with a shrouded past. Elijah, unexpectedly, doesn't turn Tom in but instead becomes a stern and rather cryptic mentor to him. Rather than laying his lessons out in a straightforward manner, Elijah gives Tom an enigmatic coin and sends him on a mission of self-discovery.
The remainder of Part One of the story chronicles Tom's quest to find three powerful, respected men - an entrepreneur, a courtroom lawyer, and a philanthropist whose lives were forever changed through their own encounters with Elijah. Each step of the journey enriches Tom's sense of the world and of the contributions an individual can make to it, so that through searching for others he ironically comes to know himself. Each meeting also provides a piece of the puzzle that is Elijah and his give-to-get philosophy. Nonetheless, Tom becomes increasingly desperate to find Elijah himself again. The few clues he pieces together ultimately disclose a shocking truth.
In Part Two, Tom lives the message, learns to trust his own instincts and uniqueness, and becomes himself a mentor to other individuals on the verge of being lost. Each new, unexpected arrival, directed Tom's way by Elijah, presents its own difficulties. In dealing with these challenges, Tom is forced to discover resources within himself he had never suspected. A serious conflict between his new values and a thirst for vengeance arises, however, when Tom finds himself face-to-face with the darkest figure from his own past....
Author Steve O'Brien is an experienced litigator and international businessman. With Elijah's Coin, he turns his hand to fiction and draws upon his business and legal experience to create compelling scenes with corporate and courtroom settings.