BookOpinion

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: I could not put “Deception” down. The characters are real, complex and shrouded… the plot is unbelievably twisting and turning and takes you down one blind alley to the next. The story is funny, tragic and grips you with its reality and shakes your own confidence to the point of leaving you naked, vulnerable and questioning. And it’s just a work of fiction… but so full of honest life that you feel after finishing the book that a cool breeze has just passed you by and touched your cheek.

“Sometimes I think maybe what’s wrong with this world is that it’s made up of people like me,” thus speaks Ollie Chandler, homicide detective with the Portland, Oregon, Police Department. A complicated but thoroughly human character, occasionally pathetic but always compelling, Detective Chandler is handed a murder case that puts his life in jeopardy and leaves his relationship with fellow detectives at a new low. Chandler suspects that that murderer is someone in his own department, and, after experiencing several blackouts, possibly even himself.

The victim, a Portland State University professor with a roving eye for his female students, is found strangled and shot. Why multiple causes of death? Ollie wades through the evidence and finds the case to be far more convoluted than he originally suspected. He has leads on everyone from the chief of police to fellow detectives that open the door to the possibility that anyone could have committed this crime.

With encouragement from two friends, Clarence Abernathy and Jake Woods, Chandler pushes through the maze of lies and deceit to find the killer and put him behind bars. But Ollie’s first law, “Things are often not what they appear” proves to be only too true in this baffling, politically damaging and personally dangerous situation.

“Deception” is filled with terrific one liners, ”All your life you’re a wannabe, until you wake up one morning, and you’re a has-been,” that you will love. But the Christian-themed story is really not just about a fascinating murder case and how it’s solved. It’s about the man, Ollie Chandler, grieving widower, estranged father, dog lover and keeper of justice down to the bone.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. You will laugh, cry and be horrified by this unfolding story of a man trapped in his own web. Written in the first person, this novel quickly draws you into the mind and feelings of a wounded human being, with the frailties and concealed qualities that we all possess.

Don’t wait another moment. Do not go to the library, go directly to your local bookstore and pick up “Deception” today. You won’t regret it.

– Elizabeth Channery