Kiss
Authors: Ted Dekker
Tags: #Mystery, #Suspense, #Romance, #Thriller, #ebook, #book, #Adult
| Kiss | |
| Ted Dekker | |
| Thomas Nelson Inc. (2008) | |
| Rating: | **** |
| Tags: | Mystery, ebook, Romance, book, Suspense, Adult, Thriller |
### From Publishers Weekly
Master of evangelical Christian suspense, Dekker (*Thr3e*; *Blink*; *Skin*) joins first-time author Healy in this thriller, no less fast-moving than the Christy Award–winning author's solo prose, but also more gripping as it plunges into the life of a woman with frayed and painful family relationships. When a tragic auto accident leaves Shauna McAllister's brother brain-damaged and erases her recent memories, she discovers she has a paranormal ability to steal memories from others, a capability that will either get her killed or unveil hidden sides of the very people she thought she could trust. Against this background, she attempts to uncover the ugly truth about her father's dark secrets and to upend his run for president of the United States. True to Dekker's penchant for twists that keep you guessing till the very last page, *Kiss* also attempts to return to snappier dialogue and more logical plotting than *Skin*. A psychological suspense thriller that shines light into black-market child trafficking, Dekker's latest will satisfy Christian fiction lovers who want complex characters and who believe in the stark realities of true good and heinous evil. *(Jan.)*
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
### From Booklist
Imagine that you awake from a coma and discover that you have no memory of the past six months. You have a boyfriend you don’t remember; your beloved brother is severely brain damaged (your fault, apparently); you’re up on charges of drug possession and criminal negligence; and, oh yes, your father, who is currently running for president of the United States, despises you. That’s the situation facing Shauna McAllister, who must try to regain her memory if she’s to clear her name and find out what really caused the car accident that nearly killed her and her brother. But there’s one problem: a group of conspirators will kill her if she starts to remember anything. This is a very enjoyable thriller with plenty of twists and turns—one of those books where you’re afraid to get too close to the characters in case one or more of them turn out to be keeping some nasty secrets (and, here, some of them are). A definite treat, not just for Dekker and Healy’s devoted fans, but for anyone who enjoys a good thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. --David Pitt
Praise for Kiss
“A perfect 10 packed with romance, politics, scandals, and non-stop suspense.”
—Laura Wilkinson, Olympic gold medalist
and world champion diver
“. . . no less fast-moving than the Christy Award–winning author’s solo prose, but also more gripping as it plunges into the life of a woman with frayed and painful family relationships . . .”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Dekker and Healy form a powerful team in crafting redemptive suspense.
Kiss
is emotionally absorbing and mentally intriguing—don’t miss it.”
—Lisa T. Bergren, author of
The Blessed
“The human brain could actually be the real final frontier—we know so little about it and yet it drives the world as we know it. So when authors like Erin and Ted bravely explore these mysterious regions, going into complex places like memory and soul and relationships, I become hooked. The creativity of this suspenseful story is sure to hook other readers as well. Very memorable!”
—Melody Carlson, author of
Finding Alice
and
The Other Side of Darkness
“Dekker and Healy prove a winning team in this intriguing, imaginative thriller.”
—James Scott Bell,
best-selling author of
Try Darkness
“
Kiss
by Erin Healy and Ted Dekker is a superb thriller that hooked me from the first sentence. The original plot kept me guessing, and I may never look at a kiss the same way again. I’ll be watching for the next book!”
—Colleen Coble,
author of
Cry in the Night
“The writing team of Erin Healy and Ted Dekker has taken me through a pageturner with
Kiss
. It’s one of those books that you think about when you’re not reading it. I highly recommend it, especially if you don’t mind staying up late because you can’t put the book down!”
—Rene Gutteridge, author of
Skid
and
My Life as a Doormat
teddekker.com
DEK
K
ER FANTASY
BOOKS OF HISTORY CHRONICLES
THE LOST BOOKS
Chosen
Infidel
Renegade
Chaos
THE CIRCLE TRILOGY
Black
Red
White
THE PARADISE NOVELS
Showdown
Saint
Sinner
Skin
House
(with Frank Peretti)
DEK
K
ER MYSTERY
Blink of an Eye
Kiss
MARTYR’S SONG SERIES
Heaven’s Wager
When Heaven Weeps
Thunder of Heaven
The Martyr’s Song
THE CALEB BOOKS
Blessed Child
A Man Called Blessed
DEK
K
ER THRILLER
THR3E
Obsessed
Adam
© 2008 by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Published in association with Thomas Nelson and Creative Trust, Inc., 5141 Virginia Way, Suite 320, Brentwood, TN 37027.
Page design by Mandi Cofer.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The
HOLY
BIBLE,
NEW
INTERNATIONAL
VERSION
®
.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dekker, Ted, 1962–
Kiss / Ted Dekker and Erin Healy.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59554-470-4
1. Coma—Patient—Fiction. 2. Recovered memory—Fiction. I. Healy, Erin M. II. Title.
PS3554.E43K57 2008
813’.54—dc22
2008042009
Printed in the United States of America
08 09 10 11 12 QW 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Caress your history—who else will?
Promise to come back later
.
—JEREDITH MERRIN, “FAMILY REUNION”
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt . . .
—DEUTERONOMY 16:12
The view from my therapist’s window is unremarkable. Four stories down, the parking lot blacktop ripples under waves of Texas’s blazing summer heat. I stand here facing the view because it’s easier to look at than the two men in the office behind me. There is dear Dr. Ayers, the wisest old soul I have ever met. He might be eighty, judging by that wrinkled cocoa skin and his head of hair whiter than cotton, but he’s agile as a fifty-year-old. My beloved brother, Rudy, is also here. He has kept me tethered to my sanity in ways that should earn him sainthood.
Rudy comes to these sessions because he knows I need him to.
I come—have been coming for weeks now—because I am trying to put the past behind me.
But today I am here because tonight I will see my father for the first time in five months. My encounters with Landon are hard enough in the best of circumstances. They always end the same, with flaring tempers and harsh words and fresh wounds. But tonight, I must confront Landon. Not about my past, but about his future.