Play Dead

**Author: Ted Dekker**
**Published April 23, 2021**
**Page Count: Unsure, I listened on Audible**

Join author, Angie Channing, and detective, Randy George, as they investiage the ritualistic murder of two teens that discovered a secret that got them killed. The evidence points to a teen on the autism spectrum that is a “dead head” like the victims, but is the evidence misleading? Dead Heads are people that are heavily involved in deep VR technology, think Ready Player One and The Matrix, and spend more time in a virtual world than the real one. Reading Play Dead will take you on a political, philosophical, and spiritual pilgrimage into a futurist world that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page.

Reading Audience:

This psychological thriller is pretty intense. I would say it’s for high school and older.

Stuff to be aware of:

Dekker is advertised as a Christian author, so you won’t find traditional curse words, but a few times he mentions that a character, “curses.” There are some religious exclamations, the word fagot is used once, hell is used a few times (bat out of hell, enough to burn them in hell, welcome to hell, etc.), and the word crap.

There is a tense/graphic murder scene described, beer/wet bar/drinking is mentioned in passing, a brief mention of two court cases involving transsexuals (the reference mentions that there were two different outcomes to two similar cases), rape is briefly mentioned a few times in passing backstories and crime scenes, one character’s online bio reads “asexual,” there are several characters killed in gruesome ways, suicide is mentioned, and abuse is also mentioned. There are characters that kiss and talk about being attracted to each other, but nothing sexual outside of things mentioned about cases.

Overall:

I sped through this one, it is a real page turner. The story is great, but the deep theological allegory is the icing on the cake. The author manages to weave a futuristic psychological thriller with characters you will get very attached to, technology that will make you want to try it, a world that feels like it could be our future, and a theologically deep undercurrent with scripture references and a message that could preach. I was never bored and many time listened longer than I intended because I wanted to know what happened next.

If you like to think, solve mysteries, and enjoy allegory this one if for you.

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