Skin » (Unabridged)

TED DEKKER is the author of twenty-two novels, with more than 3 milllion copies of his books sold to date, 1 million of them sold in 2007 alone.

Known for adrenaline-laced stories packed with mind-bending plot twists, unforgettable characters and confrontations between good and evil, Dekker has earned his status as a New York Times bestselling author. 

A freak storm has spawned three tornados that are bearing down on the town of Summerville. Yet under the cover of the storm looms a much more ominous threat.

Publishers Weekly

Derivative of such puzzle dramas as Lost, The Usual Suspects, Fight Cluband The Matrix, this thriller by Dekker (Thr3e; Blink) reads more like a screenplay than a novel. Its third-person omniscient narrator includes mostly dialogue, blocking and description of scenery and little else. Early in the novel, five young adults are sucked into a serial killer's evil game. While experienced Dekker readers will see some of what is coming, a number of plot points are entirely unpredictable, due in large part to the constant barrage of red herrings the reader must endure before discovering the novel's final revelations. Unfortunately, the dialogue-dominated prose is hackneyed and juvenile; a reason is given for the childishness of some of the language, but this does not fully excuse the many clichéd passages of the book. These problems, however, are secondary to the novel's central flaw, which is that the ambitiously twisty plot does not make sense. The characters' backstories are implausible, and their actions and experiences in the present never quite add up. The novel is clearly intended to be a challenging exploration of the nature of beauty, morality and truth, but despite having put lots of words about these concepts in his confused characters' mouths, Dekker offers no new insights. (Apr. 3)