Crazy Dangerous by Andrew KlavanHardcover/Ebook, 352 pages
Published May 1st 2012 by Thomas Nelson Publishers
"You probably want to hear about Jennifer and the demons and how I played chicken with a freight train and—oh yeah—the weird murder and how I found out about it—you're definitely going to want to hear about that. But first, I have to tell you about the stupidest thing I ever did . . ."
Sam Hopkins is bored with his status as a preacher's kid. So when a group of guys notorious for being in trouble offers him friendship, he accepts. Before long, he has several new skills—including hot-wiring cars.
At school, there's an eccentric loner named Jennifer. When Sam defends her from being bullied, she begins to seek him out as her only friend. Her ramblings often seem illogical . . . but then start to contain grains of truth. One leads Sam to discover that one of his new friends has been killed. And then she tells him, "I'm looking for the devil." Sam doesn't know what that means, but he knows it's a matter of life and death that he figure it out.
Everyone else thinks Jennifer is suffering from schizophrenia. But Sam is starting to wonder if there could be something prophetic in her words. Discovering the truth is going to be both crazy and dangerous.
From Chapter Six
But then I saw something I didn't recognize, something I hadn't seen before. Maybe it was new, or maybe I just hadn't noticed it. It was a small statue of an angel. Even in the shadows I could tell what it was because its wings were spread. It was lifting a sword too, so I guessed it was the archangel Michael. He's the head of God's armies and does battle with Satan in the Bible so they pretty much always show him with a sword.
Like I said, I'd never noticed the statue before, so I got up out of the chair and walked over for a better look. It was just a small statue, not much bigger than my hand. I picked it up and took a closer look at it. It was Michael, all right, with his angel sword raised up. And at the base of it, there were some words engraved:
RECTE AGE NIL TIME
The words gave me a strange feeling. I thought they were probably Latin, but I didn't know how to read Latin and had no idea what they meant. All the same, I got this weird notion in my head that the words were directed especially at me. Maybe I just needed advice so badly I was ready to find it anywhere, but still, I had this powerful feeling that the angel statue was answering that chant of mine: What do I do, what do I do? It came to me that if I could find out the meaning of those words, I would know.
I set the statuette down on the shelf and left the room. Headed back down the hall to my room.
My room is not at all like my dad's. It's a lot messier, for one thing. And there aren't as many books. Mostly the walls are decorated with posters, which are mostly from my favorite video games. Like one has “The Evolution of Mario,” showing how Mario went from being all pixilated in the old days to being three-dimensional now. Then there's Batman from the Arkham Asylum game and the Prince of Persia and so on. Then there's my bed and stuff. And then there's my computer, which is a MacBook on a big table that is cluttered with all my books and papers from school.
So I sat down at the computer. I called up Google and typed in the words I'd seen on the angel statue: Recte Age Nil Time.
The translation appeared on the monitor at once. I leaned back in my chair and took a deep breath.
Because now I didn't think those words were the answer to my prayer. Now I knew they were. I knew they were the advice I'd been looking for.
I guess in a funny way it was those words that started all the trouble. It was those words that changed everything.
The translation on the screen was:
DO RIGHT. FEAR NOTHING.
Award winning author, screenwriter and media commentator Andrew Klavan is the author of such internationally bestselling novels as True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Don't Say A Word, filmed starring Michael Douglas. Andrew has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award five times and has won twice. His books have been translated around the world. His latest novel for adults, The Identity Man, has been praised by Nelson Demille as “fast paced, intelligent and thought-provoking; a great read!” Television and radio host Glenn Beck says “Andrew Klavan never disappoints…one of the best illustrations of the power of redemption that I've ever read.” His last novel Empire of Lies was about media bias in the age of terror, and topped Amazon.com's thriller list. Andrew has also published a series of thrillers for young adults, The Homelanders, which follows a patriotic teenager's battle against jihadists. The books have been optioned to be made into movies by Summit Entertainment, the team behind the mega-successful Twilight film series.
Tour Courtesy of YA Bound!
No comments:
Post a Comment