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Three
Three
Three
Ebook427 pages9 hours

Three

By Ted Dekker

3/5

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About this ebook

Imagine answering your cell phone to a mysterious voice that gives you three minutes to confess your sin or you die. You have one huge problem: you don't have a clue what that sin is.

Kevin Parson escaped a twisted childhood and built his own life, leaving his bizarre past behind him. . .until his cell phone rings and a gravelly voice calling himself Slater tells him he has just three minutes to confess his “sin” or his car will be blown to pieces.

Kevin panics. Who would make such a demand, and what sin is he supposed to confess? Not sure what else to do, Kevin swerves into a parking lot and runs from his car. . . just in case. Exactly three minutes later, a massive explosion sets his world on a collision course with madness.

Obsessed both with Kevin's downfall and the number 3, Slater initiates a game in which Kevin must answer riddles to avoid Slater's destructive, murderous retribution.

From #1 bestselling author Ted Dekker comes a powerful story of good, evil, and all that lies between.

  • The perfect blend of suspense, mystery, and horror in one psychological thriller
  • Now a major motion picture!
  • Also by bestselling author Ted Dekker: The Circle Series, Saint, and Sinner
LanguageEnglish
PublisherThomas Nelson
Release dateOct 13, 2004
ISBN9781418512514
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Reviews for Three

3/5

546 ratings47 reviews

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  • 5/5
    Thr3e by Ted DekkerKevin gets an alarming phone call while driving home one day. He has three minutes to tell the world his "sin" or his car will explode. He continues to get threatening calls, with impossible to answer riddles and dire consequences if he does not comply.A fast paced psychological thriller with an intense original plot. The characters are well developed, especially Kevin. With descriptive details, intense dialog, secrets revealed, twists and turns. I was on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend Thr3e to those who love a great psychological thriller.
  • 4/5
    Thr3e is a page-turner laced with many clever plot twists and turns. Dekker has successfully created a metaphorical novel that manifests the duality of good and evil. The philosophical underpinnings of this novel do not soften its continuous action and suspense. This genre could serve to be an appealing way to initiate discussions about religion, spirituality, and the dualities of human nature. Abuse and psychiatric disorders could also be subjects for discussion. Language arts discussions and activities could encompass elements of plot, making predictions and inferences, character development, and theme. Thr3e is a recommended addition to a high school library collection and could also be recommended to a more sophisticated upper middle school reader.
  • 3/5
    A good crime novel, it was weakened by revealing a far fetched surprise ending too early. The difficult to swallow ending served to deliver Dekker's Christian message... and not one that right wing conservatives are likely to find very comfortable;-)
  • 5/5
    An amazing book. I am a avid reader and I can usually predict the ending of a book halfway through. Not the case with this one. Ted Dekker always delivers a surprising and exciting read.
  • 5/5
    I first hear of Three when a good friend of mine had me watch the movie. this book was actually made into a very thrilling, heart-pounding, action-packed movie. Dekker's words instantly captivate any audience. The first few pages automatically draw it's reader in. The way Dekker puts so much detail into just the slightest things is amazing. I instantly fell in love with the characters. The way the main character, Kevin, runs his fingers through his curly brown hair when he is nervous. The way Slater, the evil, psycopathic killer, plays his awful mind games. The way the helpul FBI agent, Jennifer, truly cares for Kevin. These examples are just a few that really captured me. I have yet to read the entire book, but just judging by the movie, I know that this book will truly be a sucess. Three is just one of those books that, after a busy day at school, work, or running around, you can't wait to come home and sit down with. Curl up with your coffee, grab a comfy seat, and dive in feet first to a whirl wind ride.
  • 3/5
    This book was pretty okay. It read like an extended episode of Criminal Minds, but I really felt it could have been about half as long and still had the same impact. Overall, not awful, but not great either.
  • 4/5
    For the snapshot, I'd have to say that overall, Thr3e is great work. It manages to do a balancing act between the scientific psychobabble and actual action and keep all the plot threads pointed squarely in the proper direction without belaboring one side or the other or leaving you with mismatched loose ends. There's a small handful of issues, but for the most part it's solidly in the "recommended" camp, especially if you're a fan of Fight Club, Invisible Monsters or anything else where there's a whole lot going on behind the scenes and everything you know - or are told - could be wrong.

    The premise: Kevin Parsons is a young seminary student, preparing for his thesis and generally living a good life. That is, until a mysterious man named Slater calls him with the ultimatum: Confess in the next three minutes, or I blow up your car. The madman makes good on his threat when Kevin proves unable or unwilling to make his confession or to solve a riddle Slater gave him; from there the game progresses. The riddles get odder, the explosions get bigger, and everything points to something in Kevin's past, something unforgivable. Along the way we bring in Jennifer Peters, an FBI psychologist on the hunt for the Riddle Killer - who may or may not be Slater - and Kevin's childhood friend, Samantha.

    On the good: The language is clear and concise, without nagging, dangling sentence fragments or other technical faux pas. The characters all prove interesting, well developed and believable, with a wide variety of types, professions and mannerisms; while juggling this circus, Dekker manages to avoid having any of the characters feel like they're just puppets or clones of others, spitting out dialogue or performing actions that would run counter to them merely because the character who SHOULD be doing it isn't available. Given the final punchline of the book, I found this to be doubly impressive.

    The multiple threads of what's going on - the hunt for the Riddle Killer, the personal attacks levied against protagonist Kevin Parsons, the broken family and warped past of Kevin and his childhood friend (and pseudo-love interest) Samantha - are all handled wonderfully, juggling between them without stepping on any toes and providing enough information that you're intrigued but without making it too obvious as to what's going on until the final act. There's a very Sixth Sense or Fight Club style to the whole thing, where if you come back to it after knowing what it was all about you'll see the clues and tip offs everywhere, but the way they were presented as merely part of the tale managed to not call undue attention to them. Managing that trick has always been something that impresses me.

    Certain sequences in the book - in particular the return trip to Kevin's childhood home, and the things we find there, or Kevin's childhood confrontation with the boy who may be the young Slater - do an excellent job of raising the creep-o-meter without anything appearing to be directly threatening... at least at first. The final confrontation is also superbly written and despite being a trifle heavy on the religious metaphors manages to ironically avoid the deus ex machina that some might be expecting when a writer so thoroughly corners his characters.

    Now for the bad: The last three pages or so are just slop. We could have ended when the guilty party was apprehended and closed the curtains; putting the sugar-and-spice spin on things felt forced and unrealistic compared to the 400 or so pages that came before it.

    I thought I'd have more to list there, but honestly now I can't think of what it might be. I suppose that goes back to the good column, if all I can think of to say is that the epilogue kinda stinks.

    Again, overall I heartily recommend this book to anyone who's into thrillers or tales of mental instability; Dekker's prose alone is worth the trip and the fact that it's wrapped around an excellent tale is just icing on the cake.
  • 5/5
    Dekker is one of those authors that I either love his books or hate his books. Hardly do I find one I'm indifferent about. This one I absolutely loved - maybe the best one of his I've read. The suspense is fantastic and the plot well designed and well written. The twisted ending caught me off guard and was perfect. Highly recommend!!
  • 4/5
    Creepy to the core! This novel had me nervous whether I was reading it or just thinking about it. The psychological aspect of this thriller leaves you on the edge of your seat and even questioning your own sanity! Loved it!