Three

For the snapshot, I'd have to say that overall, Thr3e is great work. It manages to do a balancing act between the scientific psychobabble and actual action and keep all the plot threads pointed squarely in the proper direction without belaboring one side or the other or leaving you with mismatched loose ends. There's a small handful of issues, but for the most part it's solidly in the "recommended" camp, especially if you're a fan of Fight Club, Invisible Monsters or anything else where there's a whole lot going on behind the scenes and everything you know - or are told - could be wrong.

The premise: Kevin Parsons is a young seminary student, preparing for his thesis and generally living a good life. That is, until a mysterious man named Slater calls him with the ultimatum: Confess in the next three minutes, or I blow up your car. The madman makes good on his threat when Kevin proves unable or unwilling to make his confession or to solve a riddle Slater gave him; from there the game progresses. The riddles get odder, the explosions get bigger, and everything points to something in Kevin's past, something unforgivable. Along the way we bring in Jennifer Peters, an FBI psychologist on the hunt for the Riddle Killer - who may or may not be Slater - and Kevin's childhood friend, Samantha.

On the good: The language is clear and concise, without nagging, dangling sentence fragments or other technical faux pas. The characters all prove interesting, well developed and believable, with a wide variety of types, professions and mannerisms; while juggling this circus, Dekker manages to avoid having any of the characters feel like they're just puppets or clones of others, spitting out dialogue or performing actions that would run counter to them merely because the character who SHOULD be doing it isn't available. Given the final punchline of the book, I found this to be doubly impressive.

The multiple threads of what's going on - the hunt for the Riddle Killer, the personal attacks levied against protagonist Kevin Parsons, the broken family and warped past of Kevin and his childhood friend (and pseudo-love interest) Samantha - are all handled wonderfully, juggling between them without stepping on any toes and providing enough information that you're intrigued but without making it too obvious as to what's going on until the final act. There's a very Sixth Sense or Fight Club style to the whole thing, where if you come back to it after knowing what it was all about you'll see the clues and tip offs everywhere, but the way they were presented as merely part of the tale managed to not call undue attention to them. Managing that trick has always been something that impresses me.

Certain sequences in the book - in particular the return trip to Kevin's childhood home, and the things we find there, or Kevin's childhood confrontation with the boy who may be the young Slater - do an excellent job of raising the creep-o-meter without anything appearing to be directly threatening... at least at first. The final confrontation is also superbly written and despite being a trifle heavy on the religious metaphors manages to ironically avoid the deus ex machina that some might be expecting when a writer so thoroughly corners his characters.

Now for the bad: The last three pages or so are just slop. We could have ended when the guilty party was apprehended and closed the curtains; putting the sugar-and-spice spin on things felt forced and unrealistic compared to the 400 or so pages that came before it.

I thought I'd have more to list there, but honestly now I can't think of what it might be. I suppose that goes back to the good column, if all I can think of to say is that the epilogue kinda stinks.

Again, overall I heartily recommend this book to anyone who's into thrillers or tales of mental instability; Dekker's prose alone is worth the trip and the fact that it's wrapped around an excellent tale is just icing on the cake. ( )

Creepy to the core! This novel had me nervous whether I was reading it or just thinking about it. The psychological aspect of this thriller leaves you on the edge of your seat and even questioning your own sanity! Loved it! ( )

Tedious ( )

Here we have your typical suspense thriller novel where we find ourselves following along as the protaganist tries to discover a serial bomber / killer before anyone is killed. We start off fast with the killer calling the victim and telling him to confess his sin in three minutes or his car will be blown up. From here we follow increasingly violent episodes all the while trying to determine what this sin is he should be confessing. While I found this enjoyable and a quick read, there was nothing that special about this novel that will make me remember it in a few months time. There was a twist at the end that isn't that difficult to figure out if you're paying attention. The twist was interesting and made sense within the context of this novel, but it's execution was a bit disappointing as it was just too easy to see coming from far away. Despite that, not a bad novel and not a bad way to spend a weekend. ( )

Now this was my kind of story! Ted Dekker has done it again with this action packed thriller. Reminiscent of ‘Fight Club’ with suspicions of a split personality at work, the ending was still a total surprise, even when I thought I had it figured out. Bravo!
A seminary student starts getting threatening calls from a psycho killer who speaks in riddles. Kevin has to solve the riddle before something bad happens (usually a bomb). He never manages to figure it out and ... you guessed it - car bombs, bus bombs, house bombs - keep going off all over the city. Jennifer, a beautiful federal agent, is on the case (for personal reasons), and Kevin's childhood friend Samantha also offers to help solve the mystery. The plot thickens BUT ... this is so not your typical suspense thriller. I loved this book. I can't say more without blowing it, except to say, read this book! ( )