Adam by Ted Dekker

Published in 2008 by Thomas Nelson

Ted Dekker is a stalwart member of the Christian publishing world. He usually offers up a large helping of action, mystery and suspense with a Christian flavor. Dekker's strengths are maintaining a quick pace and the creation and development of interesting characters.

In Adam an FBI psychology expert named Daniel Clark is on the trail of a serial killer nicknamed "Eve" (he writes "Eve" on the walls above each of his victims) who kills twenty-something women every dark of the moon. He leaves no clues behind except that he drives a stolen white van, eats candy bars, drinks cherry Cokes, kidnaps his victims with an ether-like medicine that knocks them out. he kills with a form of meningitis and his rituals have strong religious overtones. He always leaves those clues and no others.

Clark is obsessed by this case and it has wrecked his marriage and threatens his career.

One night his team almost catches "Eve" but instead gets shot at point-blank range. The bullet grazes his skull, knocking him out and throwing him into shock, causing his heart to stop. After 20 long minutes of CPR and application of defibrillator paddles , Daniel Clark is revived, much to the shock of his doctors.

But, Daniel sees things differently now. He feels a connection to "Eve" that he just doesn't understand and he is driven more than ever to explore that connection and stop him from killing again.

There is a large paranormal flair to this book, especially with the last 100 pages or so.  Be prepared for that because it does change the feel of the book but goes a long way to explaining other things that happened in the beginning.

The book is interrupted about every 20 pages or so with an installment from a nine-part retelling of the case taken from a true crime magazine. The installments provide a lot of the background of the story as it moves along, cleverly taking the place of an omniscient narrator.

Relentless pacing combined with strong characters overcome some of the unbelievable aspects of the story making this a solid 4 star out of 5 book.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Adam

Reviewed on November 22, 2012.