Three (Thr3e) Book

Ted Dekker, Thr3e (Thomas Nelson, 2003)

Going into this book and knowing it was "Christian fiction", I really have to admit I didn't expect a great deal (read: anything) from it. There are really, really good Christian writers, but in general, they are writers who happen to be Christian (Madeleine L'Engle is an obvious example, as is Francois Mauriac); as with every other type of message, the really good ones just kind of let the message come through subconsciously and don't beat the reader over the head with it. I haven't encountered someone who does that consistently, and well, in quite a while, and so I wasn't expecting much from Ted Dekker.

More fool me, because no matter how awful its film adaptation may have been (as, unfortunately, all adaptations of Dekker novels seem to be), but as a thriller, Thr3e is the real deal.

Kevin Parson is a seminary student who's on his way home from class one day when he gets a call on his new cell phone from someone who calls himself Slater. Slater tells him he has three minutes to confess his sin to the world or his car will explode. He doesn't. It does. Kevin, who was smart enough to get out of the car before it blew, has to both figure out who Slater is and what the sin is that he's supposed to confess. Assuming the sin is from his childhood and he's somehow vlocked the memory of it, he calls his childhood friend Samantha Sheer, who comes to town to help him. Also aiding him is FBI agent Jennifer Peters, whose brother may have been Slater's last victim-- all the signs from slater's call and Kevin's car bomb point to this being the work of the same maniac. The question is, can the three of them solve the puzzle before Slater kills Kevin-- or all three of them?

Once the situation is laid out, you should have the Big Reveal in the back of your mind, and when Dekker goes exactly that way, there's probably going to be a bit of disappointment along with the self-satisfaction you'll feel for figuring it out early, but don't get too complacent-- Dekker still has some traps to spring, and the last few pages of the book blindsided me. I was very impressed at how well Dekker had set things up here, and as I intimated at the beginning of this review, the spiritual aspects of the work are there, but they're never jumping up and down on your spleen screaming "RECOGNIZE ME!". Which, of course, always makes for a more pleasant reading experience. Dekker's characters are well-thought-out and well-presented, and the plotting here is pretty durned close to genius (I'm always reminded of the test mine two of the trainees put together in Robb White's Up Periscope that nails the sergeant when I come across plotting like this). What a pleasant surprise Thr3e was, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Mr. Dekker's work. ****