Thr3e

Ted Dekker

10/10/2003

Kevin Parson is a 28-year-old seminary student with a hidden past. He nows lives totally different from the unusual unbringing by his adopted mother. His cell phone rings one day as he is driving home through school on a congested Long Beach street. He has three minutes to call the newspaper and "confess", plus solve a riddle or his car will explode. Wildly he looks for a place where he can dump his car safely. Fortunately there is a WalMart across the street with a grassy ditch area. He barely gets away before his car explodes.

Suddenly Kevin's life is totally turned around. He had overcome his past. Now a man named Slater is threatening his and the public's lives with more bombings. Kevin has a man threatening him over the phone, using riddles. The man also knows Kevin's childhood friend, Samantha, and wants her in Long Beach as well. Kevin hadn't seen her in about ten years, but had been in phone contact since she had left for college. Samantha immediately responds.

So does Jennifer Peters, the FBI agent whose brother had been killed by "The Riddle Killer", a serial killer in Sacremento. Has the Riddle Killer moved to Long Beach? She takes over the case and works with Kevin to catch this murderer. Slater, as he identifies himself to Kevin, threatens to blow up Kevin's best friend next, and keeps escalating his targets. Slater keeps his riddles in opposites and threats in multiples of three. As the hours go on, Kevin realizes he is going to have to reveal his past to Jennifer and Samantha. Slater obviously knows Kevin's secrets.

This novel grips the reader immediately. It is tense as it builds throughout the book. It twists and turns as Slater stays a step ahead of Kevin and the FBI. The ending was still unexpected. This is an excellent novel.

Since Kevin is a seminary student, God is an important thread throughout the book. But God isn't preached, rather the questions about God are probed. How could God allow something like this to happen to a good man like Kevin? But that is only a small part of this book. Slater is a menace that makes a chilling antagonist. Kevin, Samantha, and Jennifer are against more than they realize.

You can find more about this book at . You can also check out your local Christian bookstore or the author's homesite, along with his other novels and his style that defines his stories.