Ted Dekker is one of those authors who has layers of meaning in his books--layers that I don't always "get". I found that to be true in this book since I didn't understand the title until late in the book when Dekker reveals it through one of his characters.

I suspect there is another book with these characters that occurs before this book, though if so, I haven't read it.

Danny confesses to a crime he didn't commit to protect Renee and is sent to prison. At the beginning of this book, Danny is being transferred from that prison to a new experimental prison called Basal. At the same time, Renee gets a call threatening Danny's life as well as a package delivered by a woman who implicates a fellow prisoner. This starts Renee down a path where she ends up partnering with Keith Hammond, a former law officer, to try to save Danny.

The puppeteer, whom Renee nicknames Sicko, sends Renee through a series of tasks that culminate with her getting into the prison in the guise of an inspector where all is revealed.

There is a lot of violence and torture in this book. ( )

Love Dekkar, but this one was just okay. Well written, as usual, but lacked an 'a-ha' moment that I always so desperately crave and strive for in my work. ( )

The book was entertaining but not as good as The Priest's Graveyard. Even though the characters were mostly the same they lacked the personality of before. The scheme was frustrating because you knew that whatever path Danny chose it was going to be wrong. I believe this is often the problem with "follow-up" books - they just loose something in the writing. ( )

Sequel to The Priest's Graveyard with Danny in a special prison in California where his past catches up with him. An exciting thriller exploring revenge, punishment, rehabilitation. Didn't see the twist coming! ( )

I picked this up not realizing that it was part of a series. While it stands alone fairly well, if I had read the first one I might have rated this one higher. But I haven't, and until I do, my 3 star rating will stand.
Usually I love Ted Dekker's books, but I really couldn't get engaged with this one, mostly because of the POV switches. Not that they were hard to follow; one chapter of Renee, one of Danny. Easy enough. The scenes in the prison with Danny were awesome, and knowing that another "prison chapter" was next was the only thing that kept me reading, after a point.
Renee, on the other hand, bored me. This is where reading the first book involving these two might have helped. Maybe then I would have some sympathy for her bizarre paranoia. I understood, eventually, why she's like she is, but I still didn't really care. The very first chapter is her POV and the only thing that kept me reading was my strict personal requirement of reading at least 100 pages before I give up on a book. She annoyed me that much. Hope continued to spring eternal with every new chapter that she'd redeem herself, but it never happened. Later, she managed to drift from un-sympathic to just dumb in my opinion. By then I was hooked on the "prison chapters" though, so I kept going. It just seemed that she never stopped and thought about anything logically, and bumbled around like a stupid puppet the whole time. Stupid being the operative word here, considering she really was getting jerked around. But did she have to do it in such a clueless manner?
If it weren't for the obvious research Mr. Dekker did on the prison system in general and the culture therein, I'd give this 2 stars, but again I say, the chapters from Danny's POV in prison were awesome, and the choices he made were very much in line with how his character was drawn. I loved the character of Danny, actually, and the way he handles some of the situations he was placed in.
The ending was decent, I suppose. I enjoyed the last action scene, and the choices Danny made of how to finish it were great. I was pretty sure on who responsible by half way through, although why wasn't at all clear, (the first book might have helped here too). Beyond that all I can say about the ending is that I strongly dislike absolutes with exceptions.
All in all, it was a good story, if it hadn't been for Renee. ( )