Deadline by Randy Alcorn

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Heart-Pounding Murder Mystery

Involved in a tragic accident under suspicious circumstances, award-winning journalist Jake Woods teams with detective Ollie Chandler to uncover the truth. This alluring repackage of the Randy Alcorn bestseller finds Jake drawing upon all his resources in an ever-intensifying, dangerous murder investigation. Unaware of the imminent threat to his own life, Jake struggles for answers to the mystery at hand and is plunged into a deeper search for the meaning of his own existence.

Deadline by Randy Alcorn is a dramatic and vivid novel of substance, filled with hope and perspective for every reader who longs to feel purpose in life. This was Randy Alcorn's first novel, and I found it truly enlightening and inspiring. The plot was well written, and clearly portrayed Randy Alcorn's values, thoughts, and worldview. There was plenty of mystery, intrigue, and murder in the story. At times the story dragged along, especially when the story switches to heaven and the dialogue is slower and concentrates more on theology. However, the rest of the story is quite interesting and the last fourth of the novel flies by with action, intrigue, and near death experiences.

The main character, Jake Woods is quite the complex character. He is a liberal, outspoken journalist who is not afraid to speak ill of and misquote conservative positions and ideals. However, as Jake works to uncover the cause of a terrible accident with police detective Ollie Chandler, he begins to understand the problem with his viewpoint and its result on healthcare, organ transplants, abortions, sexual activity in teens, family interactions, and journalism. Jake realizes some of the truth at a very terrible cost to his own family and friends. The other minor characters, such as Finney and his family, were important in revealing the truth about morality and Christ to Jake as he struggled with the present state of American culture and journalism.

The themes of Deadline were clear and very accurate with regards to our current culture's ideals. The results of the lack of morality and the idea of "accept all worldviews except the Christian view" in our healthcare system and journalism were startling and quite scary. I could certainly see our culture sliding into the despicable practices that were mentioned in this novel. I loved the view of heaven that Alcorn portrayed, and his idea of hell was quite scary. The scenes in heaven were beautiful, and I enjoyed learning more about the relationship between one of the characters and his guardian angel.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this novel, and I cannot wait to read the next two books, Dominion and Deception. This is certainly not a book for young children and teens, but I would highly recommend it to adults. Deadline is well written, interesting, and leads to some great good for thought.

I received this novel for free in exchange from Blogging For Books and Waterbrook Multnomah Press.