SAINT

review by

Larry Shallenberger

SAINT: A Novel

by Ted Dekker

(WestBow)

Reader Appeal: Adults & Mature Teens

Genre: Suspense / Thriller

Ted Dekker’s Saint is the literary equivalent of the “Izzy-Dizzy” relay we were subjected to back in my JROTC days. In the Izzy-Dizzy you’d sprint from the starting line across the field to a baseball bat. You'd placed one end of the bat on the ground and your forehead on the other end of the bat. Next you’d spin around the bat ten times and try to sprint back to the starting line as the world spins around you. Like “Izzy-Dizzy,” Saint provide ample doses of high speed and disorientation.

This is the story of Carl Strope, the planet’s most dangerous assassin. Carl’s unorthodox training involved his being stripped of his memory and his past. However, as Carl works to complete his training (by assassinating the President of United States), strange feelings begin to well up within him—feelings which attempt to reconnect him to a strange past he cannot recall. Carl’s personal history returns back to him piece by piece and gradually he begins to understand his true self - and discovers he has a new lethal enemy.

Offering his readers a memoryless assassin was a dangerous move by Dekker; comparisons to Ludlum’s Bourne Trilogy are inevitable. However, Dekker doesn’t rehash Ludlum’s franchise but instead treats his audience to Matrix-like surprises. Dekker also ably paints his supernaturally charge universe without sacrificing an ounce of credibility.

Saint continues the mythology that Dekker introduced in Showdown. While not a true sequel, Saint is interrelated and draws from some of the history in showdown. And Saint ends somewhat abruptly with Carl undergoing something of a supernatural metamorphosis in the final pages. An online interview with Ted Dekker suggests that he will continue weaving his tales of good, evil, and shifting perceptions of reality.

I’m still getting caught up on Dekker’s bibliography (I just purchased Black and Showdown). However, Dekker seems to be consumed with making the case that evil does exist in a way that’s both intelligible and entertaining to our culture. Dekker paints the darkness of evil so absolutely that when he turns his attention to beauty it sparkles like a diamond on black felt backdrop.

Still, Saint is not a perfect novel. Carl’s personal transformation feels rushed at times. For instance, as Carl not only discovers who he was, but who he is becoming, the changes are so rapid and so dramatic that one has to wonder if any human personality can be that elastic. I wish that the page count would have allowed for more insight into Carl’s inner-world as he adapted to all these changes.

Even with that minor criticism, Saint is a turbulently paced thriller that will easily entertain fans of the horror/thriller/suspense/fantasy genres.

FAMILYFANS RATING:  A

 --LS