Back to Featured Reads Author Spotlight · Book Ascendancy Editorial

Richard W. Perkins: The Dream That Became a Spiritual Thriller

Five nights. The same vision. No answers. What followed became a novel now in development as a major motion picture.

Richard W. Perkins 8 min readFeatured by Book Ascendancy Community
THE Insider by Richard W. Perkins

A Man, An Angel, and the Battle to Save the World's Forgotten Children

THE Insider

Book One: The Reckoning Is Upon Us

by Richard W. Perkins

View on Amazon

At seventy-two years old, Richard W. Perkins sits at his desk in Bath, Maine — a small brackish riverside town — and writes with the urgency of someone who has seen something the rest of us have not yet looked at directly.

His debut thriller, THE Insider, Book One: The Reckoning Is Upon Us, did not begin with a plot outline. It began with a dream. The same dream. Five nights in a row.

What he produced is not safe faith fiction. It is a full-throttle spiritual thriller that places the very real horror of child trafficking inside a cosmic war between angels and demons — and dares the reader to ask what they would do if an angel said: the mission is yours, if you choose it.

The Dream That Started It All

Perkins is not the kind of writer who waits for inspiration. He is the kind who wakes on the fifth consecutive night of the same dream and decides the universe is asking something of him.

He threw himself into research, uncovering the histories of angels and demons, the theology of free will, and the documented reality of global child exploitation networks. What emerged was a thriller with teeth — action-driven, spiritually grounded, and morally urgent.

“I wrote this book to create awareness in the hope of saving more children. Free will is one of God's greatest gifts — and with it comes the weight of every choice we make.” — Richard W. Perkins

Faith Without Sanitisation

Christian fiction has long been accused of avoiding the ugliest corners of human experience. Perkins walked directly into one of them and planted a spiritual war inside it.

His villain, Allison, runs a multi-million dollar global exploitation network at the behest of the demon Abaddon. His hero, Francis Chabrov, is not a soldier or a saint — he is a married fifty-something father of two who answers a divine call his wife knows nothing about, and whose odd behaviour she is absolutely not ignoring.

Hollywood Takes Notice

Submitted to a long-standing Hollywood production company, THE Insider did not quietly disappear into a slush pile. It is now officially in development as a major motion picture.

The novel's press release reached over 250 media outlets, generating responses from Christian networks, radio stations, book reading groups and online marketing companies.

Nearly Fifty Years of Writing

Perkins has been writing for close to fifty years, creating imagery for industries spanning entertainment, skiing and snowboarding, gardening and workplace safety. He is the author of eight books in the illustrated children's series The Salamander King.

As Managing Partner of Brilliant Kids Book Publishing — whose motto, “Every Child is Brilliant in Their Own Way,” was inspired by a young man named Jay who had Down Syndrome — he has built a publishing house around the belief that stories for and about children carry a particular moral weight.

“Do you believe Angels exist? I do — and know they are the real superheroes.”

Themes for Discussion

  • Free will and divine assignment: Francis is chosen, but not forced.
  • The reality of evil: cosmic evil grounded in a documented, human-faced horror.
  • Faith without certainty: acting as though the outcome will be good when you cannot see the path.
  • The unseen heroism of angels: you never see the good deed, but you know it happened.

Book Details

Author
Richard W. Perkins
Genre
Spiritual Thriller / Faith & Fiction
Cover Art
Anh Bui
Illustrations
Dibyoshree Sarkar
Publisher
Brilliant Kids Book Publishing, Bath, Maine
Next in Series
Book Two expected November 2026

Where to Find the Book & Author

“I invite readers to choose exactly what the earthly balance should be between good and evil — for without evil, good could never exist.”

THE Insider is exactly the kind of book our community was built for: one that refuses to make an uncomfortable subject comfortable.

Want to be featured next? Book Ascendancy Community writes and publishes editorial-style spotlights for authors.

Apply for a Spotlight

Reader comments & questions

23 entries · 8 questions from the community

🔒 Sign In to post a comment or question about this book

  • Rate and review the books you love
  • Build your personal bookshelf
  • Get personalized recommendations
  • Join book clubs and live discussions
  • Unlock exclusive author content

Membership is free and takes less than a minute

Loading the discussion…

  • Hiroshi Nakamura

    Osaka, JP

    Question

    Would this suit a mixed group where half of us don't usually read this genre?

    • Marcus Bellweather

      Our host built the whole discussion around chapter nine. It carried a full ninety minutes.

  • Lena Fjeldstad

    Dublin, IE

    Comment

    The dialogue does an enormous amount of work here. Characters reveal themselves through what they refuse to say.

  • Kwame Boateng

    Istanbul, TR

    Comment

    Gifted two copies after finishing. It's the kind of book you want other people to have read.

    • Yusuf Demirtaş

      We paired it with a shorter nonfiction title and the contrast made both books better.

    • Adaeze Ihekwoaba

      Great question — I'd say yes, it stands entirely on its own. I read it first and never felt lost.

  • Hannah Lindqvist

    Chicago, US

    Question

    Does this work as a standalone read, or should I start with the author's earlier title first?

    • Daniel Whitfield

      We spread it over three weeks and that felt right. Any faster and the middle would have blurred.

  • Nikolai Petrov

    Cork, IE

    Comment

    The dialogue does an enormous amount of work here. Characters reveal themselves through what they refuse to say.

  • Daniel Whitfield

    Edinburgh, UK

    Comment

    Gifted two copies after finishing. It's the kind of book you want other people to have read.

  • Rosalind Ayers

    Madrid, ES

    Question

    Any recommendations for a companion read to pair with this one?

    • Hiroshi Nakamura

      We paired it with a shorter nonfiction title and the contrast made both books better.

  • Julian Mbeki

    Toronto, CA

    Comment

    The dialogue does an enormous amount of work here. Characters reveal themselves through what they refuse to say.

    • Rosalind Ayers

      We spread it over three weeks and that felt right. Any faster and the middle would have blurred.

    • Kwame Boateng

      Same experience here. The first fifty pages are slow, then it clicks completely.