Centralia

“You can’t trust your memories. Don’t trust them. Whatever you think is true may or may not be. Your reality has been so tampered with that you can’t know for sure that anything is real,” Peter is told in Mike Dellosso’s novel, Centralia. Part of the Jed Patrick series, this four-hundred-page paperback targets those who enjoy fiction filled with action, suspense, and mystery. With no profanity or sexual scenes, topics of physical abuse, torture, and death may not be appropriate for immature readers. This reader wishes all pronouns of God were capitalized for reverence. The ending includes an advertisement for the next book in the series, acknowledgments, nine discussion questions, the author’s biography, and ten discussion questions. In this current day story based on the East Coast, psychobiology research assistant Peter Ryan wakes up at home one morning to find his wife and eight-year-old daughter missing. Reminded again the two had died in a car accident months ago, the man wonders why his memories do not line up with reality. Having a recurring dream about a house with several rooms, the one locked door at the end of the hall is the key to finding out what has happened and why he cannot remember. When he reads a note written by his daughter, he seeks to find her and his wife’s whereabouts, believing he has not been told the truth. As he races to the deserted ghost town of Centralia, Ryan is chased down by a covert government agency that runs a secret military project involving memory manipulation. Analytical and calculating, Ryan not only has to deal with his past professional skills as a trained killer, but he also feels God’s hand of protection, especially when it involves his daughter and her unfailing faith. Trying repeatedly to determine what is the truth versus lies, the multi-dimensional character recognizes that appearances can be deceiving, and things are not what they seem. Fast-paced whenever Ryan encounters a new situation, he must combine his dreams, memories, and what he has been told to understand who he was and what he has become. The tale of one’s hidden past ends with a plausible beginning of a sequel. Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars Adjunct professor of creative writing and conference teacher, Dellosso has authored eight suspense novels. Having a masters degree in theology, he as well as his wife serve in their local Pennsylvania church. Thanks to Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. for furnishing this complimentary book in exchange for a review based on the reader’s opinions.

In Dellosso’s (Scream) newest thriller, Peter Ryan believes himself to be a university lab researcher, but discovers he is a subject in a highly secretive government experiment to train a new breed of super-soldiers. When things go wrong, military masterminds must reel Ryan in before he exposes the abuses of the program. The story draws on the premise of The Bourne Identity, with a protagonist on a quest for the truth of his own identity. For readers of Christian fiction, the lost-identity concept parallels the main character’s wrestling with God’s identity and presence. A search for Ryan’s missing wife and young daughter runs concurrent with his quest for a seemingly hidden God, making Christian faith integral to the action-packed narrative. Dellosso, a creative writing professor, writes with punch and moves the story along briskly, but he relies on abrupt transitions too often, such as with the main character falling asleep or awakening. There’s so much waking, dreaming, “brain scrubbing,” recalling faint memories, and double-crossing that readers may be confused—though not unintentionally—until the very end.