Madison & Barkus was formed as a writing partnership in 2012, combining the story-telling mastery of Neil Madison with the writing and editorial mastery of Steven Barkus. The result has been the creation of six morally oriented novels.

The books are neither preachy nor blatantly ‘Christian.’ Rather they employ gospel teaching and a Christian-oriented moral code as components within storylines that utilize the best elements of the so-called action novel with those of the nuance novel. Fast paced and lively, these books are carefully crafted, containing multidimensional and intersecting thematic and literary components. The books lend themselves to ‘multiple readings.’

These books delve deeply into the following themes and issues: conflict, change, and the value of traditional wisdom; good and evil; nurturing and abandonment; comfort and fright; discipline and punishment; friends and enemies; cheating and honesty; competition and cooperation; success and failure. Also explored are the questions of being ‘spiritual’ as opposed to ‘religious’ and what ‘love’ really means; how God and the Bible are related; can one really jettison the past if a person is not satisfied with his or her life and the related issues of forgiveness and atonement.