Where Genres Collide Traci Dowe YA Author

Book Reviews

Heaven’s Wager by Ted Dekker

Traci Kenworth

Heaven’s Wager is a supernatural horror set in modern times about a man who has lost his way in life and is about to be shaken to the very core of his existence to find his way back back to humanity. When the story starts out Kent Anthony has just created a program that will revolutionize the banking world and is about to come into millions of dollars. Unfortunately, he’s compromised a lot of things along the way: including his morals and is about to pay big time.

First, his wife dies on the eve of the speech that would have propelled him to the top of the business world, days later his son dies in a tragic accident. At the same time, individuals at the bank rise up and knock him out of credit for his invention of the program. Reeling, Kent plots revenge and finds it by means of a security code he implanted into the system before things went to hell. He begins to plan the perfect crime.

What he doesn’t plan on is: a mother-in-law who doesn’t give up on praying for his soul, an old flame, and God.

As I read Heaven’s Wager, I have to say, I had a hard time getting through the book as Kent is a very hard character to find any sympathy for, despite the tragedy around him. I understand that Dekker had to make him as morally corrupt as possible, but there has to be something about a protagonist to make us want to read on and there just wasn’t here. I did find redeemable qualities about him at the end but by then, it was too late to identify the character with Kent Anthony at all.

I had hoped to find so much more with this story. The mother-in-law was very likeable and admirable in her strength. Likewise the old flame. But I felt the love affair was too soon after his first wife’s death.