Online predators threaten kids – novel tells the story

Randall Murphree - Guest Columnist - 7/22/2010 2:00:00 PM

TMI -- too much information -- can kill. Literally. Terri Blackstock, one of our most gifted contemporary novelists, hits another one out of the park with Predator, a new Zondervan title illustrating the dangers inherent with online relationships. Posting too much information on a social networking site can, indeed, endanger one's life.

Krista Carmichael, Predator's main character, is obsessed with finding the man who murdered her 14-year-old sister after gleaning details of the teen's daily life from her GrapeVyne page. The emotionally-charged story line details the despair, anger, bitterness and fear that engulf Krista and her father, a widower, as they grieve their loss. In fact, her dad is so distraught that he begins to suspect and accuse trusted friends of the brutal crime. It's a long road back for both of them.
 
Rounding out the cast of characters are other victims of the same predator. Ironically, Krista finds an unlikely ally in the person of Ryan Adkins who created the GrapeVyne social network in his college dorm room.
 
Ryan had been overwhelmed to see his creation explode into a billion-dollar corporation by the time he reached his mid-20s. When he joins forces with Krista, he endangers his relationship to his board of directors. They fear the company will be judged liable for the deaths because the murderer used GrapeVyne to gather data, but Ryan continues to assist Krista anyway.
 
When Krista and Ryan get too close to the truth, a predator attempts to take their lives as well. It's a riveting story, a typical Blackstock page-turner. Predator should be required reading for every parent and every child who has a page on any online social network – Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. It's better than a textbook because Blackstock's superb story-telling skills propel us through the plot, informing and alarming and warning us on the way.
 
The Mississippi author's 2009 novel, Intervention, tackled the issue of teen drug addiction and how it destroys a family. It was a New York Times best seller and a finalist for a Christy Award for excellence in Christian fiction.
 
As we have come to expect of her, Blackstock dedicates her new novel to the Nazarene, and her author's notes at the end of the book give us a clear look into her heart and why she often tells her readers if we're not reading the Word of God, we should put her novel aside and go open our Bibles. Blackstock's humility and her transparent walk with Christ are probably the very qualities that make her fiction have such impact for families and for the kingdom.

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