Showdown by Ted Dekker

“The storm clouds always eventually come,” David said. “We always knew the children would be tested. The only question is how they will weather the storm.”
“Billy’s failed already, by going in. The subterranean tunnels with ruin him.”
The director started at him without speaking for a few seconds. His jaw-line bunched with tightened muscles. “Or give him the kind of power that you and I only dream about.”

* * *
Reading a Ted Dekker book is like experiencing a rollercoaster ride and a haunted house at the same moment. This Christian writer seems to enjoy nothing so much as creating situations where good and evil clash—a conflict that always produces quite spectacular fireworks in his plots. These are the kind of books that are meant to be read on a stormy night, curled up into a ball with your heart pounding loudly.

In Showdown, one of his two newest offerings, Dekker provides a novel that delves into the question of how far evil can be resisted by humans. Paradise, Colorado, is a complacent little town that is startled out of its nap when a black-trenchcoat clad preacher comes striding into town. And his first act is to kill someone. As the town falls immediately under his sway, hanging on his every word, only the young boy Johnny seems to see through this deadly charade. Has everyone gone mad? Or is the stranger really the messenger from God he claims to be?

Only a few miles away, in a monastery hidden from all outside civilizations, an intense experiment is underway. 37 children are being trained to resist the Fall. But the experiment goes deeper than anyone realizes. What if these children were given something that allowed what they create to become reality: but instead of rebuilding heaven, they unleash hell?

Dekker uses his novels to create a nice blend of “what if?” situations that probe the nature of both the natural and supernatural realms. Don’t expect them to be incredibly deep in a scientific or theological way, though; their main purpose is, after all, to entertain. One small part of the plot will leave readers of his Circle trilogy (Black, Red, White) gasping and going “Oh wowowowowow! So that’s how that happened!” but it is subtle, and doesn’t affect this novel’s ability to stand on its own. If this genre appeals to you, you should check out some of his other stand-alone books, like Thr3e or Blink. Thankfully they can be read fairly quickly, because this is the kind of book you don’t want to put down.