Published: September 02, 2008 10:51 am      

Randy Alcorn wraps up trilogy

If you want to sink your teeth into an intelligent, involved series, try Randy Alcorn’s trilogy “Deadline”, “Dominion” and “Deception”.

“Deadline”

In “Deadline”, Jake Woods goes on a pizza run with his two oldest friends, Doc and Finney, but they never make it home, crashing on an Oregon highway. Jake wakes up in the hospital to find his friends hovering between this world and the next.

On top of his grief, Jake soon finds out what happened was no accident.

He teams up with police detective Ollie Chandler to look into the wreck and find out the truth. Was someone trying to kill one of the trio?

They’ve grown up together since they were little kids and did everything together, including sports, college and serving in Vietnam. The only difference among them is their chosen careers and personal philosophies.

As a newspaper columnist for the Oregon Tribune, Jake has made his share of enemies. He’s gotten some pretty nasty letters from people who didn’t agree with his liberal writing.

Finney is a computer businessman and a devout Christian and family man. He’s donated time and money to causes that some people don’t like and his business has been boycotted by a few groups.

Doc is head of surgery at Lifeline Medical Center, good at his job, determined to get what he wants and charming enough to get it, but he doesn’t let his marriage get in the way of having a good time with the ladies.

Jake knows his buddies are very different men, especially since Finney’s conversion to Christianity a few years ago, while Doc stayed an atheist. Sometimes Jake wishes Finney would quit preaching and just live and let live and he knows Doc really hates it when Finney interferes with him having a good time.

In fact, Jake thought he knew both his friends really well, knew everything about them.

He’s about to find out he was wrong.

As Jake digs deeper into the accident, things in his personal life spiral out of control, making him question what he’s always believed. Can he sort everything out before it’s too late?

Alcorn follows Jake through the nuances of the thinking process so Jake’s revelations don’t feel so much like flashes of lightning as they do little things adding up to a sum total.

Along the way, Alcorn brings out facts about various social issues of our time, presenting facts and a different way of thinking than is politically correct in our times.

As a reporter, I was impressed with Alcorn’s detail of life on a newspaper. Let me tell you, he gets the details right, even down to the personalities and mentalities. It isn’t quite as literal as he puts it in his fiction novel with the multicultural committee, but the attitudes are there. And once again, Alcorn raises valid points about the status quo, especially when Jake goes to visit his old mentor.

In a way, Alcorn’s writing reminds me of Francine Rivers’ in The Mark of the Lion series and Roger Elwood’s “Angelwalk”. All have a knack for shining a light on the darkness of society and showing how our actions have far-reaching consequences, both in our own lives and in the world at large.

Alcorn throws a lot of balls into the air, but the conclusion makes sense because of the foreshadowing he’s done. I don’t think you’ll figure this one out because he’s added several twists at the end.

“Dominion”

If you liked “Deadline”, run out and get “Dominion”, the sequel. I liked this one even better than the first.

Clarence Abernathy has been trying for years to talk his younger sister, Dani, into moving her and her kids out of the gang-infested ’hood and into the Portland suburbs near him and his family. Dani believes that people like her — good, law-abiding citizens — need to stay in the rundown neighborhoods and work to bring them back into vibrant communities. She wants Clarence, a sports columnist for the Tribune, to move back to be a good role model for the black community and for her teenage son, Ty, who needs a man in his life.

The battle of wills ends one night when Dani is killed in a drive-by shooting, leaving Clarence to deal with his emotions and team up with police detective Ollie Chandler to find the killers, who seem to have disappeared like ghosts.

What Ollie notices right away is this doesn’t smell like a normal drive-by. With Ollie working the proper channels, Clarence takes to the streets, using his own methods. The more Clarence tries to find out what happened to his sister, the more brick walls he runs into. Somebody definitely does not want the truth to be discovered. And trying to uncover the truth may cost Clarence everything, including his faith in God.

Alcorn tackles new territory in “Dominion”. One of the things that blew me away about this book was how Alcorn (who is white) detailed the life and thinking of a black man. Alcorn points out that race, especially for blacks, is a constantly present thing. Clarence makes a good point — appearance is everything to perception — and even a trip to the hardware store must be thought out. “Dominion” will prompt some lively race debates, especially when Alcorn brings up the ancestry of Jesus. This book could be read for the racial insight alone, but it’s so much more.

Alcorn uses Clarence’s race to enter a world that most people, including Clarence, don’t want to go, where gangs and drugs rule. Clarence does battle with more than just his words. A former college football player, he’s 6-4 and big enough to scare people. Alcorn uses an eye-opening showdown in Chapter 23 to demonstrate that adults need to show kids a different way — a different way to live and a different kind of respect. If they’re never shown that, they never learn.

Two of my favorite characters in this book are Obadiah Abernathy, Clarence’s father, who has a unique way of phrasing things, wonderful homespun wisdom and strength of character; and Ollie Chandler, who’s always got a quick quip, but is so much more than a donut-eating cop.

Alcorn asks some tough questions about gangs and gives some solid information about guns and how police track down suspects and prove they committed a crime. It takes patience and persistence, as well as different kinds of smarts, but it does take time, which is frustrating for Clarence.

Once again, Alcorn gets the journalism side right, this time making a good point about photojournalism and how it can influence people’s opinions.

Although this story is fiction, Alcorn uses names and facts of real people, like Robert Sandifer and Emmett Till (although Till’s first name is spelled differently in the book). I thought at first he had to be making up those stories to embellish his novel, but after visiting google.com, I found out they were true, complete with news articles, as inconceivable as they may sound. Fact really is stranger than fiction, folks.

Alcorn’s intricately detailed story keeps you on your toes, but never overwhelms you. He shoehorns in a lot of information, without letting the story drag. Like “Deadline”, “Dominion” has an intricate ending and I bet you’ll find a few surprises.

“Deception”

For a long time after I read “Dominion” I thought Alcorn should write Ollie Chandler’s story. It took him more than a decade, but “Deception” completes the trilogy.

A lot has changed in the 10 years since Ollie Chandler worked on the murder case of Clarence Abernathy’s sister and most of it hasn’t been good. Ollie’s personal life is a mess and he’s drinking heavily. But Ollie’s still a homicide detective and still trying to solve murders. Then he gets one at 3 a.m. and this one stumps even Ollie.

A Portland State University professor has been murdered, and it doesn’t take Ollie long to suspect that the murder was committed by a cop — specifically one in his own department. It could even be Ollie himself. He can’t rule that out because he can’t remember where he was during the time the professor was killed.

Can Ollie figure out this murder before it kills him?

As always, Alcorn puts a lot of thought into his writing.

In the first two books, Ollie came across as a laid-back punster, always ready with a joke. In “Deception”, Alcorn shows us the cynicism under the jokes and the reason for it.

Ollie’s in a lot of pain. The drinking is covering up personal losses that just keep piling up. He blames God for those losses or at least for not preventing them. He also resents his Christian friends for trying to convince him that God has a reason for everything. Then there’s the heat he takes from his fellow detectives for breaking the code of silence and saying a cop could be the culprit. They just want Ollie to turn the other way, but Ollie can’t do that. One of the credos he lives by is he always follows the evidence, wherever it leads. It could be what kills him or saves him.

Ollie’s a dichotomy. At first glance, he appears to be a stereotype of the donut-eating, dumb cop. He’s out of shape, but he can hold his own in a street fight. He’s a slob, but absolutely meticulous in his fact-finding for cases. You wonder if he can spell c-a-t, but he’s a devotee of all the great old detective stories, like Sherlock Holmes, and sees himself in that vein. He’s unorthodox, to say the least, but it’s fascinating watching him puzzle through a murder case.

Alcorn’s style has changed a bit in “Deception”. For one, he’s written it in the first person, instead of the third, like he did the first two. This gives him more of an opportunity to use Ollie’s colorful narrative. Two of the ones I really liked are: “I woke with a hippopotamus sitting on my head. The fact that it was invisible unnerved me.” and “I marveled how that awful thought, on its face inconceivable, had walked right in the back door of my mind, taken off its shoes, and thrown itself on my cerebral couch.”

I’m not sure if it’s because Alcorn’s using Ollie’s voice and letting Ollie’s cynicism show through or because Alcorn’s 10 years older and trying to push home his point more, but the edges in “Deception” are a little sharper.

Alcorn holds to his style and comes up with a complicated, but believable ending, but doesn’t tie up all his loose ends. It’s scary to think that there really are people out there who are that evil, but all you have to do is check the daily news. Once again, Alcorn gives the reader a lot to contemplate.

I enjoyed these books, and I think everybody will get something out of them, whether you’re male or female, or young or older, because Alcorn includes characters of all age ranges.

If you’re a fan of Christian fiction, you need to read this trilogy. Even if you’re not a Christian, these books will give you something to think about and ask yourself about our society.