Product Description

A freak storm has spawned three tornadoes that are bearing down on the town of Summerville.

Yet under the cover of the storm looms a much more ominous threat: A vindictive killer known as Red who's left a string of victims in his wake and is now bent on exacting his final revenge on the unsuspecting town.

But there is an enigma surrounding Red that the FBI is unwilling to admit-closely guarded secrets of something gone terribly wrong beneath the skin of Summerville. Secrets that will destroy far more than one small town.

Wendy Davidson is caught in the middle. She's a recovering cult survivor who takes refuge in Summerville on her way to visit her estranged mother. And with her, four strangers, any of whom could be the next victim . . . or the killer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93656 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-03
• Released on: 2007-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781595542779
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Derivative of such puzzle dramas as Lost, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club and The Matrix, this thriller by Dekker (Thr3e; Blink) reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Its third-person omniscient narrator includes mostly dialogue, blocking and description of scenery and little else. Early in the novel, five young adults are sucked into a serial killer's evil game. While experienced Dekker readers will see some of what is coming, a number of plot points are entirely unpredictable, due in large part to the constant barrage of red herrings the reader must endure before discovering the novel's final revelations. Unfortunately, the dialogue-dominated prose is hackneyed and juvenile; a reason is given for the childishness of some of the language, but this does not fully excuse the many clichéd passages of the book. These problems, however, are secondary to the novel's central flaw, which is that the ambitiously twisty plot does not make sense. The characters' backstories are implausible, and their actions and experiences in the present never quite add up. The novel is clearly intended to be a challenging exploration of the nature of beauty, morality and truth, but despite having put lots of words about these concepts in his confused characters' mouths, Dekker offers no new insights. (Apr. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* A freak tornado drives five characters together in the little Nevada town of Summerville in this striking morality tale superficially reminiscent of Stephen King's Desperation (1996). Dekker's philosophical considerations are his own, however. It seems that as the storm descended a serial killer named Sterling Red began his killing spree. The reader won't understand why for a long time, but, apparently, the killer is partially motivated by the desire for revenge against a nervous deputy--a Las Vegas emigre--named Colt. Sterling Red makes a curious demand of the group: kill the ugliest person among you within six hours. Otherwise, he will wipe out the rest of Summerville. Not that the little group will accede, but just suppose. Is it beauty or ugliness that's skin deep?

John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Ted Dekker is known for novels that combine adrenaline-laced stories with unexpected plot twists, unforgettable characters, and incredible confrontations between good and evil. Ted lives in Austin with his wife LeeAnn and their four children.

Customer Reviews

Dekker Needs to Take a Sabbatical
I have read all of Ted Dekker's books and thought that his insight into the human condition is exceptional. I loved the way he was able take a story and weave an examination of how I relate to God. For example, the children eating the worm slime in Showdown as an allegory for our appetite for sin despite how it destroys our lives. Another example is the whole Circle Trilogy. His description in White when people have to inhale the water, i.e. give up their lives in order to live.

Lately, Dekker has rushed to put out books every couple of months and has lost his originality. He is stuck in a rut. His last three books have suspense and gore but lack the originality that led me to list him as one of my favorite authors.

Skin is a rehashed story of Showdown and Saint. Revealing the killer at the end left me flat with no impact.

The teaser at the end of the book revealing an upcoming 6 book series based on the Horde seems more like a threat than a promise.

I hope he changes his mind and takes a sabbatical to work on a new storyline. The sad part is that I am a Ted Dekker fan but wish he would get back to being a creative writer instead of continuing to try capitalizing on the success of Black, Red and White.

Big Disappointment
I must join the others who've said that this book was a big disappointment. It took me much longer than normal to read through it because it just was not all that interesting. When I finally did finish it, I was left wondering what the point was. I am a mature Christian but if there is some deep spiritual truth to be gleaned from this work of fiction, it sure has eluded me.

I have not been all that impressed with his most recent novels but this one was the most disappointing. I see a trend here that I don't like. I hope Ted can refresh his ideas and get back on track to writing novels like "Blink".

If I wasn't desperate for something to read....
But I was desperate, unfortunately. A friend gave me quite a few books for a belated Christmas gift and this was one of them.

This is one of those books that I read completely out of boredom. I would probably lend it out and not mind if I never got it back (which is a big no-no for me usually).

The first half of the book reminded me of the book HOUSE with Frank Peretti (BIIIIGGGG disappointment on that book!). So it had a been there done that feel to it. Bunch of people who never met before, someone out to kill them and they don't know why even though there's some connection they have to each other. Nothing original. The second half of the book was actually the type of ending they tell you NOT to write in grade school, because it's a cop-out ending. Oh, but it's a cop-out ending with a twist! In which the fun is just beginning.... The twist is unoriginal as well.

I recommend borrow this book if you must, but don't buy it. It's vaguely interesting and mostly hectic. It either needed to be a lot longer to flesh out the story and characters or a lot shorter so it didn't feel like a waste of a perfectly good tree.

The characters were mostly vapid, which was sad because he wrote in there real potential for them to be fleshed out and rounded and real instead of the usual flat stereotypes they (in the book) turned out to be. He never actually made the characters anything more than two dimensional.

Five or six years ago I actually loved some of his books and recommended them. Something like SKIN? In my opinion it's a paycheck book. It's a formula story. Nothing new, nothing great, nothing terrible, nothing memorable, nothing horrible. It just exists. Exactly what a three star represents.