Ted Dekker - Adam

ACCLAIM FOR TED DEKKERS NOVELS

As always with a Ted Dekker thriller, the detail is stunning, pointing to meticulous research in a raft of areas: police and FBI methods, forensic medicine, psychological profilingin short, all that accompanies a Federal hunt for a serial killer. But Dekker fully reveals his magic in the latter part of the book, when he subtly introduces his darker and more frightening theme. It's all too creepily convincing. We have to keep telling ourselves that this is fiction. At the same time, we cant help thinking that not only could it happen, but that it will happen if were not careful.

David M. Kiely and Christina McKenna, authors of The Dark Sacrament

If you read one thriller this yearmake it Adam . Its a high-octane thriller that lays bare the battle between good and evil in a way that will stun readers.

-Lis Wiehl, Fox News Legal Analyst and cohost
of The Radio Factor with Bill OReilly

Ted's words leap off the page with a whole new level of crackling intensity and frightening realism. You can feel him relishing every word, and each time you think this is as intense as he can take it, he tightens the screws even more. I don't say it lightly: Adam truly is the best work of Ted's career. I was obsessed from the first page.

Robin Parrish, author of Relentless

Young and old alike will enjoy this latest offering. Dekker fans will love this new story from the Circle universe and new readers will undoubtedly be sucked in to the greatness that is Ted Dekker. [ Chosen ] is a superb beginning to what is sure to be a fantastic series.

Bookshelf Reviews

Toss away all your expectations, because Showdown is one of the most original, most thoughtful, and most gripping reads Ive been through in ages... Breaking all established story patterns or plot formulas, youll find yourself repeatedly feeling that theres no way of predicting what will happen next... The pacing is dead-on, the flow is tight, and the epic story is down-right sneaky in how it unfolds. Dekker excels at crafting stories that are hard to put down, and Showdown is the hardest yet.

Infuze Magazine

As a producer of movies filled with incredible worlds and heroic characters, I have high standards for the fiction I read. Ted Dekkers novels deliver big with mind-blowing, plot-twisting page turners. Fair warningthis trilogy will draw you in at a breakneck pace and never let up. Cancel all plans before you start because you wont be able to stop once you enter Black .

Ralph Winter, Producer of X-Men , X2: X-Men United , and Planet of the Apes

[In Showdown ] Dekker delivers his signature exploration of good and evil in the context of a genuine thriller that could further enlarge his already sizable audience.

Publishers Weekly

Fans of Dekker and supernatural suspense will relish this creative thriller.

- Library Journal review of Saint

[Blink is] compulsively readable... you will be astonished.

Jean Sasson, New York Times best-selling author of Princess

[With THR3E ] Dekker delivers another page-turner... masterfully takes readers on a ride of plot twists and turns... a compelling tale of cat and mouse... an almost perfect blend of suspense, mystery, and horror.

Publishers Weekly

ADAM

teddekker.com

DEKKER THRILLER

THR3E
Obsessed
Adam

DEKKER FANTASY

BOOKS OF HISTORY CHRONICLES

THE LOST BOOKS
Chosen
Infidel
Renegade
Chaos

THE CIRCLE TRILOGY
Black
Red
White

THE PARADISE BOOKS

Showdown
Saint
Sinner (SEPTEMBER 2008)

Skin
House (with Frank Peretti)

DEKKER MYSTERY

Blink of an Eye
Kiss (with Erin HealyJANUARY 2009)

MARTYRS SONG SERIES
Heavens Wager
When Heaven Weeps
Thunder of Heaven
The Martyrs Song

THE CALEB BOOKS
Blessed Child
A Man Called Blessed

2008 by Ted Dekker

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with Thomas Nelson and Creative Trust, Inc., Literary Division, 2105 Elliston Place, Nashville, TN 37203.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Unless otherwise noted, scripture references are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Publishers Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the authors imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Drawing of children by Mary Hooper
Page Design by Casey Hooper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dekker, Ted, 1962-
Adam / Ted Dekker.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59554-007-2 (AE)
ISBN 978-1-59554-382-0 (CE)
ISBN 978-1-59554-424-1 (IE)
I. Title.
PS3554.E43A66 2008
813'.54dc22

2007033068

Printed in the United States of America
08 09 10 11 QW 6 5 4 3 2 1

The thief cometh not, but for to
steal, and to kill, and to destroy...

As quoted by John the Apostle
John 10:10

CONTENTS

by Anne Rudolph

Crime Today magazine is pleased to present Anne Rudolphs narrative account of the killer now known as Alex Price, presented in nine monthly installments titled Man of Sorrow: Journey into Darkness. Rudolphs award-winning investigative reporting provides us with a rarely seen glimpse of good and evil at work within our society today.

1964

N O ONEnot the migrant workers who remember seeing the baby kicking stubby legs while he lay on a brown blanket next to the fields, not the Arkansas farmers who chuckled while poking the childs belly, certainly not his adoring father and mother, Lorden and Betty Pricecould possibly imagine that the brown-eyed baby boy named Alex Price, born August 18, 1964, would one day stalk innocence like a wolf stalking a wounded lamb.

Then again, 1964 was more than four decades before Alex Price began the calculated cycle of terror that would end the lives of so many young women.

As the children of migrant workers themselves, Lorden and Betty Price had grown up with the same strong work ethic many migrant field workers shared throughout the south in the 1940s and 1950s. Devout Catholics, they planned on instilling love and sound moral sensibilities into whatever children God blessed them with.

They regularly attended Mass at a small cathedral in nearby Conway off Route 78, where the faithful congregated each Sunday. With just a little more fortune, a little more education, a few more helpful people, Lorden could have opened up his own mechanic shop, according to those who knew him. He had a way with machines that impressed the local farmers.

The small family of three lived rent-free in a trailer on the back side of the Hope farm, a deal brokered with Bill Hope in exchange for Lordens extra help maintaining all of the farm vehicles. Bill even loaned Lorden his 1953 Dodge truck for transportation. All things considered, the Prices were doing pretty well for themselves when little Alex came into the world.

Cutest little bundle of boy you ever did saw, Constance Jersey recalls with a soft smile and tired eyes. They used to tote him around in one of those wire buggies Lorden had found in the dump and fixed up. Didnt matter what they put him in, you couldnt make that boy stop smiling and cooing as if he was the luckiest soul in the whole wide world.