Centralia

In Dellosso’s (Scream) newest thriller, Peter Ryan believes himself to be a university lab researcher, but discovers he is a subject in a highly secretive government experiment to train a new breed of supersoldiers. When things go wrong, military masterminds must reel Ryan in before he exposes the abuses of the program. The story draws on the premise of The Bourne Identity, with a protagonist on a quest for the truth of his own identity. For a readers of Christian fiction, the lost-identity concept parallels the main character’s wrestling with God’s identity and presence. A search for Ryan’s missing wife and young daughter runs concurrent with his quest for a seemingly hidden God, making Christian faith integral to the action-packed narrative. Dellosso, a creative writing professor, writes with punch and moves the story along briskly, but he relies on abrupt transitions too often, such as with the main character falling asleep or awakening. There’s so much waking, dreaming, “brain scrubbing,” recalling faint memories, and double-crossing that readers may be confused—though not unintentionally—until the very end. [em]Agency: Leslie Stobbe Literary Agency. (June) [/em]