Cortney Perdita Alexander is a brilliant, but very angry, genius. And she’s about to unleash her plan of robotic vengeance on the world. Only God’s providence stands in the way.
Cortney Perdita Alexander is a brilliant, but very angry, genius. And she’s about to unleash her plan of robotic vengeance on the world. Only God’s providence stands in the way.
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
Can you hear it? Something is about to happen.
“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” That’s a famous quote once penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And that Holmesian phrase applies to the little town of Castle Reef as much as anywhere in the world.
The residents of, and visitors to, this tranquil beach resort are mostly unaware of the dangerous things that are just days, hours, minutes away.
When an insect buzzes by, for instance, they only see a dragonfly, not an ever-watchful multicamera drone. People in the streets are assumed to be flesh and blood, not shapeshifting automatons with the strength of 10 men. Those strange sci-fi things and others have become a part of Castle Reef and gone unnoticed by many.
Why Castle Reef of all places? Well, it’s because this is where Cortney Perdita Alexander was raised. It’s where she was abused and broken. Her politically powerful dad cruelly mistreated her and offered her up to other sleazy men like himself.
And no one noticed. No one helped. No one took the time.
Tick, tick, tick.
Those terrible happenings didn’t incapacitate Cortney, though. In a way they crystallized what people soon came to see as her brilliance. Her painful past drove her to create powerful things and to plot the world’s painful future.
Fortunately, there are some who pause to see such things. There are those who sense something coming. They’ve seen the shark attacks, the strange man with the electric-blue eyes, the attempted abductions, the dangerous happenings in this formally quiet little place. Though they don’t know exactly what it all means, they’ve prayed and sought God’s wisdom and guidance.
Tick, tick …
Police Chief Julie Kerrig-Green is one of those. She and her husband, Trent, are expecting their first child, well, any moment now. They, and others like them, are watching, preparing and praying for God’s guidance. They trust in His providence.
For this small group of believers stand upon another famous quote: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
Tick!
And so, it begins.
Most of the central protagonists here—including Julie; her police dispatcher, Shirley; and her fiancé, Trent—are Christians. Not only do they pray for help amid their struggles, but they also quote strengthening Scriptures. Shirley, in particular, quotes relevant verses at key moments, including one when she tells worried Counter-Terrorism Task Force agents. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
At one point in the story, Julie and Cortney come face to face, and the pregnant policewoman tries to reach Cortney with words about Jesus’ love and forgiveness.
A local pastor and his wife awaken with a strong urge to pray. They gather local churchgoers together to pray for the things happening in Castle Reef, even though they’re unsure of what those dangers may be.
A young twentysomething turns away from his troubled past to become a Christian.
Some of the tech presented in this tale—ranging from super-robotic constructs to nanobot injections to incredible lunar energy gathering devices—requires an almost sci-fi belief system.
Nearly all the residents of Castle Reef are good, kind and hardworking people. The central protagonists here are Julie and Trent Green; Julie’s grandmother, Miss Shirley; and Julie’s dad, John—all of whom are devoutly Christian. And we see these characters praying or talking about their faith in God. (Shirley and John are both part of the secretive CTTF.)
Wilson Chadwick is a newly hired Black officer on the Castle Reef police force. He’s strong and giving, and we see him protect the innocent. We also meet the president of the United States, another godly believer.
Cortney Alexander is, of course, not one of the above-mentioned upstanding Castle Reef citizens.
However, we learn more about how Cortney’s father abused her in the past, which points to the fact that people can be badly damaged and negatively changed by someone else’s foul actions. Julie takes time, though, to point out that God can heal even that kind of foul injury if we give Him access to do so in our hearts.
A crusty FBI agent named Reese is obviously corrupt and being manipulated by outside forces (that also control a crooked federal judge.) This agent decides to strongarm several people and manipulate a young man with Down syndrome. He bribes the innocent guy with a box full of donuts to get him to do something shady.
Agent Reese smokes heavily, and we’re told that he “mutters profanities.” But we’re not told what they are. A woman who has trouble sleeping takes a sleeping pill.
There are discussions of the mass world-wide destruction that Cortney will unleash when she regains a specifically designed computer chip and once her “lethal weapons” reach their full potential. A large compound is detonated and burns to the ground. A robot blows up in a massive explosion, apparently killing a person in the room with it.
Most of the violence in this story is unleashed by Courtney’s robotic construct, called M3. This translucent, gel-like humanoid can take on the features and vocal sounds of anyone it meets. It grabs and slams several people around. And it manhandles the very pregnant Julie; at one point holding her up by her neck. (She isn’t badly injured.)
A man crunches down on a cyanide capsule, purposely committing suicide. There are a couple of stand-offs between men with guns. A woman who lost her leg in a robotic shark attack talks about her prosthetic limb and being injected with nanobots. A woman rakes her nails across someone’s face, “leaving four bloody scratch marks on her right cheek.”
Cortney admits to murdering a man.
An FBI agent references a sex trafficking ring. And Cortney talks briefly about being sexually abused in her youth by her father and a group of politicians that her father invited into their home. “Dear old dad violated me nightly,” she growls. “He sure loved his Scotch whiskey.” She also notes that her destructive plans are part of the vengeance she seeks for all she suffered.
A young adult with a checkered past notes the difference he feels in his attraction for a young woman he meets. And he attributes that positive difference to the fact that he turned his life over to God.
None.
This immersive third book in the thriller trilogy closes the Castle Reef story arc with ticking-timebomb urgency. It exhorts readers to pay attention to the small details that we often overlook and to rely upon God for help through life’s difficult moments. And the tale uses scripture references to support those encouragements.
Parents of younger readers should note, however, that there are deadly dangers in the story mix. There’s also a cyanide-induced suicide and some references to sexual abuse.
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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not necessarily their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
