For about forty pages past the middle of Lee Jackson's Redemption, I really thought I'd be giving it an absolutely rave review. The story starts out tame. The protagonist, Ben Trinity, comes to live in Redemption, a small town in Montana. (Writing that sentence, it dawns on me I'm supposed to be getting some salvation theme, but I'll choose not to go there because it moves the book into being pretentious way before the book itself becomes so.)
Anyway, Ben is part of some Homeland Security program designed to ease suspected terrorists back into society. But no big deal is made of this fact. He takes a menial job in a diner out on the highway and becomes part of the community. So far the story is classic plot line #42. Mary Richards moves to Minneapolis, finds an apartment and lands a job in the newsroom. A Stephen King character moves into 'Salem's Lot, which appears to be a pretty ordinary town. Likewise, it's all pretty much normal in Redemption until Ben's fellow townspeople learn he's been imprisoned for terrorism and they begin to prosecute him. Immediately we move into plot line #42, subcategory D: the newcomer has trouble with the old-timers. But so far, it's all pretty predictable.
And then the story makes a hairpin turn. (SPOILER ALERT!! I wasn't going to be specific here, but Jackson was unable to maintain the level of suspense and IMHO the book crashed. Disappointed, I no longer feel compelled to protect the surprise, but if you want to read a book that twists into the horrible and unexpected, stop reading here. Really.)
Ben, a woman he has made friends with, and her daughter go into "downtown" Redemption. Ben is kidnapped, forced into a government car and taken away. Is he again in the clutches of Homeland Security? Or might these people be saving him from Homeland Security? I don't know. Ben doesn't know. It's up fpr grabs.
Meanwhile the woman and her daughter try to find out what has happened to Ben. They enter a government building, and the reader sees the characters are living a completely state controlled existence. IDs are required for everything, all belongings must be left at the door, "service" is slow and sullen, and ultimately no one is required to tell them anything. They return home to find their house being ransacked. Of course, no warrant is needed. The Patriot Act had taken care of that. Finally the run of action-packed pages stops, and sadly the book moves into straight propaganda as plot lines are resolved into a happy ending.
(END OF SPOILER INFO)
So, do I recommend the book or not? Tough call. Those forty pages grabbed me like only my first reading Heinlein's The Puppet Masters and an action section in Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full were able to do. If you do read Redemption , expect to be messaged to death by the end. BTW, there's nothing about the message with which I disagree. It's just that a slump into the didactic after such an amazing twist was truly disappointing.
