"Thr3e"

by Ted Dekker, AF, 2003, 401p, rating=5
Winner of:  The Christy Book Award; Best Mystery Thriller

"By all accounts Kevin Parsons is leading a virtuous life.  But like all people, Kevin has his secrets.  And someone wants them revealed.  While driving home from graduate school, Kevin receives a call from a deluded stranger who calls himself Slater.  Slater demand that Kevin confess his sin in the next tree minutes or the car he's driving will be blown to pieces.  With the threat, he offers a riddle:  What fall but never breaks, what breaks but never falls?  Thus starts a harrowing chain of threats with progressively higher stakes.  Another riddle, another three minutes.  Confess your sin, Kevin.  The problem is Kevin has no idea what sin.  And Slater's cycle won't stop until he's dead.  Now only Samantha, the woman he once loved more than life itself, can help him uncover the secrets of a mysterious past.  But Samantha may soon be dead as well."  (book's synopsis)

Oh Brenda, oh Brenda at WV Stitcher, you reminded me not to judge a book by its cover.  I would have bypassed this book because the cover's too freakin' scary!!  But you were so kind to offer it to me and since it traveled over 3,000 miles to get to me and three being one of my favorite numbers, well, I took a deep breath and avoided looking at the cover as much as possible.
 
Wow, talk about edge of your seat thrilling!  I was hooked from the beginning.  My heart rate finally went down during the initial background scenes but that didn't last!  Holy Moly, things escalated and you were put into a wring of twists.  Just when you think you have a guess on what's going on, you're thrown a curve ball ...not once, twice, but umph times.  My heart is racing right now at trying to describe it.  Anyway, I so enjoyed this psychological thriller.  Mr. Dekker is the bomb!!

When I read the part in the beginning about having to solve a riddle in three minutes or the car (that you were in) would blow up, a couple of things crossed my mind.  First, I said to myself, "Hey, wasn't that a movie?".  Second, had such a thing happen to me, I would have died!  End of the book!  Good thing, Kevin was sharper under pressure and the book took on a run.

This was not a ghostly-chop the bodies to pieces kind of horror that I thought it would be.  Can you blame me?  Look at the man in the cover ...glassy evil eyes ...the hairs on the back of my neck took a military standing attention.  Instead, it delved into the nature of good vs evil that I haven't come across yet in novels.  Very interesting take on the angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other shoulder ...not forgetting the person in the middle.

By the way, Mr. Dekker addressed my movie question on the Author's Note section.  There was a movie called Adaptation starring Nicolas Cage that seemed to have similar premise but it turned out that it was really nothing like his book except for one detail.  I liked the lesson that he pointed out that he learned from that experience of watching a movie that he initially thought might have been ripped from him.  He said, "Truly there are no completely new ideas, but rather old ideas made completely fresh ... What's magical about ideas is how they are brought to life, not their inception.".

This will not be the last book that I will read of Mr. Dekker's works.  I understand there are others more exciting ones.  I better prepare because this was truly gripping!

Thank you Brenda for the book!!  You are wonderful!!!