Ted Dekker's, Showdown~ reviewed

ShowdownTed Dekker
Hardcover 375 pages
WestBow Press
ISBN: 159554005




Reviewed by Cheryl Russell:


Paradise, Colorado, is an isolated mountain town where nothing much ever happens, until Marsuvees Black strolls into town. He claims to bear a message of grace and hope, straight from God. The townspeople are captivated by Black, his smooth words and apparent miracles. Only Johnny, who met Black when he first walked into town, questions Black's motives. But no one will listen to the boy with the limp.

In the mountains above Paradise, hidden from the world, is a monastery, built by former tenured Harvard professor David Abraham. He and a few other monks have spent years teaching a group of orphans the difference between good and evil, while keeping them isolated from the evils of society—Project Showdown. But now, the day David has expected and dreaded has come. Billy, one of the students, has challenged the monks' teachings. The path he takes threatens not only the future of the monastery, but the people in Paradise.

Samuel Abraham, David's son, and Johnny have a plan to save Paradise. But when that plan goes awry, there is only one way to stop the madness and that cost may be more than either boy can bear.

Showdown is a fast-paced novel with twists and turns that keep you a tad off kilter the entire book-typical Ted Dekker. Showdown is also a graphic novel about free will, choice, and the consequences of those choices. But the violence in the book is what powers Showdown's messages of grace and hope. Light isn't appreciated until it illuminates the darkness. This is a book I highly recommend.