House

by Frank Peretti & Ted Dekker

Published by Thomas Nelson
400 Pages

The Wayside Inn, by all outward appearances, is a quaint and well-cared for refuge. It brings together two couples mysteriously marooned in strangely similar car mishaps. But the Inn, miles away from civilization, isn’t what it appears to be.

At first the Inn looks to be deserted, but the proprietors strangely appear, seemingly from nowhere. They seem to know their guests’ darkest secrets and play off their stifled insecurities. Before night falls, the couples find themselves trapped inside the Inn with someone or something out to get them. There are no phones to call for help and their cell phones are useless. A can, thrown down through the chimney presumably by a murderous maniac, describes the macabre rules of a game in which participation is mandatory. It is the only way the house will allow them to leave. If the rules are ignored, by 6:15 a.m. they will all die.

Will good or evil prevail in this spiritual battle for souls?

In this much anticipated collaboration by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker (each known for supernatural Christian fiction), the duo fails to disappoint. They hook you in with the prologue and don’t let you go until the final page. The book is replete with spiritual metaphors, although at times, the metaphor gets so complicated the reader loses the point the authors are trying to make. Still, all in all, fans of Peretti and Dekker will thoroughly enjoy the novel.