Redemption [Hardcover]

Lee Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2007

Set a few months or a few years from now, novelist Lee Jackson’s portrait of America is a very familiar one. People carry their ID cards wherever they go. Gas is expensive and the value of the dollar has dropped so far that even rural areas like Redemption, Montana, have thriving black markets, barter economies, and high unemployment. But otherwise, life in the small town goes on day by day. And terrorism is a constant worry across the country, even in a town three thousand miles from New York City with a population of only three hundred.
      Ben Trinity hitchhikes into Redemption during a snowstorm with a story about a parole-mandated job on the West Coast that he’s never going to make. His story earns him a job as a handyman at Carlene Ryton’s roadside diner and a place to sleep, and once he clears it with Homeland Security—the top law enforcement agency in the United States—he tries to settle in as best he can. But hiding in plain sight is no easy task for a convict, much less a terrorist, which is what the government says Ben is, and it’s only a matter of time before the locals find out who he is.

      Never tried, let alone convicted—due process has been suspended in the United States—Ben contends that he is innocent, and he may be, but does he have enough strength and conviction left to prove it?

      Lee Jackson’s engaging thriller is both a powerful cautionary tale and a mesmerizing portrait of an unlikely hero. 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set a few years in the future, Jackson's fiction debut zeroes in on a small Montana town squeezed by economic strife and sharply curtailed civil liberties. Ben Trinity, a former English professor, hitchhikes into the hamlet of Redemption hoping to start fresh. A prime suspect in a major terrorist act, Trinity was jailed and tortured by the Homeland Security agency but never tried, and is now part of a government test program involving the release and surveillance of terrorist suspects (there are many such suspects). His presence in this small town where residents have little tolerance for anything straying from the straight and narrow, causes almost instant chaos when his cover is blown. In the aftermath, Trinity must decide whether to continue to take orders from the government, or rouse himself and try to clear his name. The futuristic mood (serious fuel shortages, microchip implantations) is uneven, but Jackson does a fine job with the alarmism and base behavior of mob mentality, and Trinity's ups and downs come through convincingly. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

Ben Trinity, stranded in tiny Redemption, Montana, isn't just another drifter whose luck ran out in a snowstorm: he's a terrorist. Or is he? Though he was imprisoned and tortured for his alleged role in a bombing, he was never tried. With Homeland Security still monitoring his every move, Trinity takes a job in a diner and tries to avoid trouble. But when a suspicious deputy digs up his past, Trinity's friends dwindle to a precious few. Jackson's novel, set in the near future, gives us a chilling glimpse of an America where the war on terror has been won—by the terrorists. And Redemption's residents are too broke and worried to think much about their vanishing civil rights. The plotting and pacing are swift and solid, and the rural setting is an inspired choice, as writers often unnecessarily equate Big Brother with big cities. If it's a bit preachy at the end—there's no need to spell out points that the story makes eloquently—this offers compulsive reading, seeming a lot less like fiction than it really should. Graff, Keir

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312363443
• ISBN-13: 978-0312363444
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,522,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW! Oh so Realistic. . ., June 20, 2011

By 

D. Norem "Dave Norem" (Clarksville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redemption (Hardcover)

WOW! What a powerful book. I average 3 books a week, all fiction, and usually
best selling crime fiction authors like: Michael Connelly, John Sandford, George
Pellicanos, Stephen Hunter, Lee Child, etc., but I don't rave about them... This
book, REDEMPTION, a first novel by author LEE JACKSON kept me spellbound until I
finished it. Even though fiction, it is about what can happen to any of us, even worse - all of us, or worse yet - already happening. An innocent man is persecuted kidnapped, tortured, and destroyed by our own govenment, and then used as a guinea pig, without benefit of any kind of defense, trial, conviction, or even acknowledgement of being human. Oh so too realistic... The story centers on what happens when he is unwittingly placed in a small community in Montana. Unlike what the first reviewer said, the protagonist is flawed--a result of his persecution.

5.0 out of 5 stars Eerily prophetic!, April 23, 2008

By 

Daniel A. Scott "Just honest!" (Philippi, WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Redemption (Hardcover)

This book might be fiction, but it sure seems like Lee Jackson can see into the future of real America. Everyone should read this book, it's scary and probably so close to true events that go on in our country that we don't want to beleive it. Call me radical or crazy, but he hit the nail on the head with this. Our beautiful free America, if it does not change, soon and quickly, is going right down this path. Laugh now, but if we remain in the steady state of decline that we are in at the present, it won't be long before themes Jackson presents in this book start happening. I hope I'm wrong, completely wrong and our economy and "world domination" way of dealing with the rest of the world changes. But, if I'm not, then this is just a small glimpse of life, in future America.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars too perfect a protagonist, July 19, 2010

By 

Zora Calder "Zee Cee" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redemption (Mass Market Paperback)

In a near-future USA, civil rights for accused terrorists have been further eroded, and a regular Joe white guy has been convicted of the crime, tortured, and now has tracking devices implanted in him. He arrives at a small town in Montana, is angelically good to everyone, and various sinister things happen. Okay novel, but the main character is too good to be believed. I get the point, of course, that suspending constitutional rights is a bad, bad, thing, but I'd have preferred the victim to be believably flawed while the novelist made this point. Six months after reading this, I'm posting the review, and I cannot remember how the thing ended, nor do I care enough about the book to look it up.