The String

A university cop must thwart the plans of a sociopath in Breakey’s suspenseful debut. Markus Haas has great rapport among the students of fictional Trenton University and feels protective over the new class that arrives each fall. He has recently started dating single mom Stephanie and is getting to know her two daughters when Markus receives a video message from a man in clown makeup who calls himself the conductor. The man threatens to hurt Stephanie and her daughters unless Markus joins “the string,” a web of people forced to participate in cryptic assignments. After Markus is introduced to the other members of the string, they work together to create a plan to take down the conductor by using his own techniques against him. As Markus tries to discover who the conductor is, Breakey’s complicated plot emerges as a parable about what it means to have faith in the face of evil. Though faith elements are subtle, fans of allegorical suspense in the vein of the works of Ted Dekker will want to take a look. [em](July) [/em]