Deception

Deception

Posted On: February 10, 2009
Posted In: Mystery, Rachel, Randy Alcorn, Thriller/suspense
Comments: 2 Responses

Reviewed by Rachel: 7 out of 10.

Deception is Book 3 in Randy Alcorn’s Ollie Chandler series.

IN A DARK ROOM punctured by a bare hundred-watt bulb, two newspaper clippings on the card table appeared whitish gray, four others dim and yellow. Agile fingers arranged them chronologically so the handiwork could be better displayed. Should they be placed in a scrapbook? What if they were found? Of all places, surely no one would try to break into this one. The world’s full of stupid people, but not that stupid. Most of the people in the clippings had been stupid. But over the years, one by one, they’d been abruptly liberated of their stupidity. And the world had been liberated of them. A penciled list of names dropped to the table, by the playing cards, next to the clippings. It was time for another stupid person to go away. But which one? The liberator brooded thirty minutes, forearm bulging, squeezing hard a small object. Finally, one name rose to the top. The mastermind wrote the name down, then covered it with the ace of spades.

The thing that came across the strongest for me in Deception was its uniqueness. It is unlike any other book that I have read. Even Deadline (which is book 1 in the series) was very different to Deception. Also, each book is complete in itself so there is no need to read the books in order. Randy Alcorn has this amazing sense of humour which is littered throughout the pages providing constant entertainment. I also like the way it is written entirely from a man’s perspective; (Ollie Chandler the homicide detective) his personality, character and struggles coming through to make the novel seem more real. It kept me guessing until the very impressive and surprising ending.

The reason why I only gave Deception a 7/10 rating was because I found it very hard to get into until about half way through the book. It could just be a personality clash (like I said earlier, Randy’s way of writing is extremely unique), but for me, it’s like committing suicide if you haven’t been ‘grabbed’ by the book by at least the 2nd chapter. I think most of the introduction was necessary to establish the characters fully, but it did seem slightly too long to do so.

Overall, a great read and I also loved how Randy can’t help but throw in spiritual references (he is after all also the author of The Ishbane Conspiracy and Lord Foulgrin’s Letters) throughout the book. It really made me think, and gave me some great ideas for sharing my faith!

Click here for Randy Alcorn’s website.

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