The Truth Of The Matter

They can find someone else to frame for murder. They can send someone else to prison to have his throat cut. Someone else’s mother can sit on the other side of the prison glass, sobbing. Let someone else leave his life and his friends and his girlfriend behind forever. It’s probably all baloney anyway. I mean, Sherman – a terrorist murder? No way. Maybe this Waterman is just some nutcase who goes around pretending to work for the government…But at the same time I was thinking about my friend Alex. Stabbed in the chest, dying in the park, whispering my name with his final breaths.

Book: The Truth of the Matter (The Homelanders Book 3) by Andrew Klavan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2010

Genre: Adventure/Thriller

Target Audience: Boys 16+

Subjects: Patriotism, Terrorism, Character/Identity, Sacrifice

Summary: The truth comes out. Charlie did choose this life. He did join the terrorist organization. And he did make a choice that led him to jail. And he made the choice himself to lose his memory. But Charlie isn’t a bad guy after all, he’s one of the good guys! He was offered an opportunity to help catch the bad guys, the whole terrorist ring. And knowing that that choice would lead to all of this, he still chose it. So now he knows who he is. But the sacrifice isn’t over. He still has to try to escape both the terrorists and the police and he still has to try to figure out who the last few people involved in this are. If he can’t figure it out, he will be a fugitive for the rest of his life – for however long that may be.

Notes: This, the 3^rd in the Homelanders series, explores patriotism to the extreme. Charlie literally has to lay down his life for his country. It’s not just going off to fight in a known war. Instead it’s a quiet infiltration into the terrorist community which comes by allowing himself to be framed for murder – to the point that when he “escapes” from jail, people who see him are terrified of him. It’s a willingness to be thrown in jail and abandoned by the very government he was helping. It’s a willingness to do a job so risky, it guarantees his death if he fails. As with the others in the series though, he is doing this for his country – not for God. Charlie’s identify and reasons for being a good guy are not based as much on Scripture as belief in the American system of democracy.  It’s more of a political cry than spiritual. Charlie’s beliefs are deeply rooted in patriotism, but loosely rooted in the Bible. When looking to find out what’s right and what’s wrong, it’s not the Bible he turns to; it’s the ideals of the government instead.

Recommendation Scale: 3/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

John 15:13 – Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.