Sinner: A Paradise Novel
by Ted Dekker
Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008, 375 pp., hardcover.

Sinner is the culminating 10th (12th if you count Skin and House) novel in the Books of History/Circle/Project Showdown saga, and I think it's one of the best.

Familiar characters Billy, Darcy and Johnny are at the middle of this sobering novel that addresses the warped view of tolerance that is destroying western civilization. Dekker tackles the dangers posed by hate crime legislation in a world where any exclusive claim to truth--as Christianity demands--becomes illegal. If you don't realize that free speech is threatened, take note of what's happening already in Canada and Australia, where people have been arrested or successfully sued simply for stating that the Bible opposes homosexuality.

Of course, Sinner isn't just a treatise on political dangers--it's an adrenaline-pumping thriller. Evil is personified again by old nemesis Marsuvees Black, but he's not alone in his scheming. As the plot develops, the world's focus shifts to Paradise, Colorado for another showdown at the site of the main characters' troubled childhoods.

If you're a fan of Ted Dekker's novels, you'll want to read Sinner immediately. If you haven't read him before, I'd suggest you start with either Black or Showdown.

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