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Saint (The Paradise Series #2)

by Ted Dekker (Goodreads Author)

4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 · rating details · 6,106 ratings · 279 reviews

"We call you Saint."

The name ignited a light in Carl's mind. Saint. He'd been covertly recruited for Black Ops and given his life to the most brutal kind of training any man or woman could endure. He was here because he belonged here. To the X Group.

An assassin. The most effective killer in the world. And yet...Carl Strople struggles to retain fleeting memories that betray...more

Hardcover, 353 pages

Published October 10th 2006 by WestBow Press

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The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

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Jun 17, 2012 Tim George rated it 3 of 5 stars

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Almost a Five, October 6, 2006

Ok already. Apparently everyone else thinks everything Dekker does is a 5. But, I don't give out many 5's. It's kind of like when they started giving out perfect scores at the Olympics. What do you do when someone does better than perfect?

Showdown was magnificent and Saint came somewhat short of that. Dekker does a very good job of creating heroes who aren't always heroic. Saint struggles with iden...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Morgan rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Saint, Carl Strople struggles to find his identity as an assassin. He is not certain about who he is, but his number one goal in life is to find the truth. Since he could remember, all he has been taught is how to kill as a part of an organization called the X Group. His training takes place deep inside Hungary and he spends long periods of time pushing beyond his physical limits in order to be the very best sniper known to man. This story takes Dekker's readers from Hungary to the streets of...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Liz B rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal, suspense

So when a student is excited enough about a book to bring it in to loan to me, then I do my very best to read the whole thing. This is sometimes a pleasure and sometimes quite painful (Eragon comes to mind).

Well, I did read all of Saint. It starts out very well--confusing in a good way, surprising, intriguing, very suspenseful--then degenerates into repetitive ideas and phrases. Throw in the obligatory salvation scene (it's Christian fiction) and I found it very tiresome.

Full disclosure: I'm Chr...more

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Apr 10, 2013 D.M. Dutcher rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: bad-novels, christian

This probably wasn't the best book to read as my introduction to Ted Dekker. But it was staring at me at the used bookstore, and nothing indicated it was a second book in a trilogy, so I picked it up. I regret doing so.

Carl is an assassin for a shadowy group. That group does bad things to him in order to keep him under control. He kills some people, and eventually he is sent to kill the President of the USA. Meanwhile, David Abraham (who has a son Samuel, no less,) is warning the president about...more This probably wasn't the best book to read as my introduction to Ted Dekker. But it was staring at me at the used bookstore, and nothing indicated it was a second book in a trilogy, so I picked it up. I regret doing so.

Carl is an assassin for a shadowy group. That group does bad things to him in order to keep him under control. He kills some people, and eventually he is sent to kill the President of the USA. Meanwhile, David Abraham (who has a son Samuel, no less,) is warning the president about this group, as well as a plot to disarm Israel. You pretty much can guess what will happen next.

Well, the first thing is that this is book two in a trilogy, and the book itself says nothing about being part of one. Normally this doesn't matter, as second books bring you up to speed on what has happened before, but this one doesn't. This makes for a confusing mess where we are supposed to care about characters who have no backstory and very little purpose. The revelation of Carl's real name for one had absolutely zero impact, and most other characters were ciphers. Whatever Project Showdown was must have only been described in the first book, as you get little info on it here.

There's also a lot of weirdness. For the amount of manipulation the X guys do to people, they seem very casual about harming or throwing away their agents. Carl seems to have psychic powers, but they really don't explain how or why he has them. Even if supernatural, there needs to be a reason why he can do what he can. The names again-David Abraham, Samuel, Paradise, Co. No subtlety there. The Israel thing is barely touched on, and considering that popular opinion was in favor of the villain's view, why risk changing that with what he did? Carl's true military career is confusing. Referring to a past, entirely different trilogy was an eye-roller too. There are a lot of things which make the book feel more haphazard than it should.

I think I just picked a bad book to read by him, but I didn't really like it. I'll have to try his other ones.(less)

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May 06, 2012 Avery rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. He is the best sniper in the world, at least thats what they tell him. Carl can't remember anything about his past, not even who he was. Ted Dekker's book, Saint, is a catching thriller that leaves you hungry for more. Following Carl, the cruelty of the X-Group, and the mystery behind Englishman will lead you through a story of thrilling action, adventure, and faith as Carl struggles to find his past.
Carl is no ordinary soldier, he's been employed by the X-Group, and organization of the best a...more He is the best sniper in the world, at least thats what they tell him. Carl can't remember anything about his past, not even who he was. Ted Dekker's book, Saint, is a catching thriller that leaves you hungry for more. Following Carl, the cruelty of the X-Group, and the mystery behind Englishman will lead you through a story of thrilling action, adventure, and faith as Carl struggles to find his past.
Carl is no ordinary soldier, he's been employed by the X-Group, and organization of the best assassins in the world, and he is one step away from becoming the best assassin they have. He's trainer's name is Kelly, she is the only person he trusts and shows emoting to. Carl has lost his memory because of the harsh training of the group and he is constantly asking himself who he is. One of the other assassins, Englishman, is not pleased with Carl's progress and is very unhappy with Carl's secret skill. Carl can affect objects with his mind. While is his pit, a chamber that tests their endurance, Carl affected the temperature of the room just by concentrating on the heat. Englishman is concerned with Carl, and hopes that his first mission will be his last.
The X-Group is the best assassination team in the world, asking two million dollars a hit. They always have three assassins, no more, no less. They well take then men to train, three of them will survive while the others are killed for failure. Their training is simple, chemical agents, torture, days in the pit, and practice shootings. It only takes on mistake in any of these and they die.
Carl has an enemy, Englishman, one of the two assassins who have already completed the training. Englishman has a secret, and he intends to use it to kill Carl one day. Carl may be able to affect the path a bullet takes, but Englishman can do so much more.
This is just scratching the surface of Saint, and if you want to know more I strongly recommend this book. This book shows how strong the collision is between good and evil. It tests the mind.the body, and faith.(less)

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Jul 27, 2009 Kyle rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book starts out with this guy, Carl, waking up, no idea who he is or where he's at. He sees that he is in a room chained to a bed with his wife. A man walks in the room and gives Carl a challenge. Carl must assassinate two targets in one hour with only two bullets without killing any one else. He fails, the man kills him, his wife, and their son. This covers the first few chapters of the book, it ends up going crazygonuts. The thing about the plot is that you have to read Showdown before you...more The book starts out with this guy, Carl, waking up, no idea who he is or where he's at. He sees that he is in a room chained to a bed with his wife. A man walks in the room and gives Carl a challenge. Carl must assassinate two targets in one hour with only two bullets without killing any one else. He fails, the man kills him, his wife, and their son. This covers the first few chapters of the book, it ends up going crazygonuts. The thing about the plot is that you have to read Showdown before you read Saint. Yes, this is set in the Books of History universe, or the Dekkerverse as I like to call it.

The story starts out normal enough, but it gets to be extremely weird by the end. Not Eternal Sonata/ makes no sense weird, more like speculative fiction kind of weird. I personally didn't change the overall quality of the book, but I know that some people don't like it. Then again, if you've read Showdown, you can expect the same level of oddness in Saint.

Belief is the main theme of Saint, belief in God to be specific. I'm all for allegories, but not at the expense of the main character. Half the time Carl is an awesome action hero, but towards the end he becomes a whiny punk "that just wants to be a normal boy". I realize that Carl is confused by this point, but it doesn't make sense that an assassin that's specifically trained not to have any emotions suddenly becomes angsty. Plot convenience?

Dekker also introduces a great idea in the middle of the book where some one could plan exactly what some one was going to do on an emotional level. I suck at explaining it, but trust me, it's interesting. Unfortunately, Ted must not have liked the idea as much because it doesn't get mention again until the end of the book, and only then to say that it doesn't actually work. Oh well.

Ted writes in his usual style for Saint. If you haven't read any of his books before, that means a really straightforward third-person narrative. And of course it has the mandatory chapter from the antagonist's perspective. Also, Ted continues to write terrible, cheesy love scenes. The simplicity of the writing is actually beneficial for the action scenes. I can finally understand what awesome things are going on in these scenes (unlike in Snow Crash).

Which leads me to my next point, the action scenes, Saint's biggest achievement. The moments where Carl is a crazy action hero are great! Of course, as I've said before, these moments are countered when Carl is an enormous wimp. It's not so much that he's being a wimp, it's that his entire character is changed, just so Dekker can have his allegory.

Despite the bad things I've said about Saint, I don't regret reading it. The action scenes are insane, it's short enough to read in a weekend, and it continues Showdown, my favorite book ever. If you read Showdown and can borrow a copy from your library or a friend, then go for it. I'd hesitate to buy it, but it's still a fun ride.(less)

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Aug 02, 2011 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

As is becoming routine for me, I jump into the middle of a book series. Haven't read any Ted Dekker before; thought I would give him a read. TD is a popular Christian author. I say "Christian" because his novels are found in the Christian section of most bookstores. Christian themes permeate his writing, though I would guess that some Christians would find his writing sacrilegious. Faith, and zero-point field theory, governs the use of supernatural powers in this second book of the Paradise Tril...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Andrew Gross rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-reading

Ted Dekker's Saint expresses how a writer should write to grab the attention of the reader in this compelling novel.

The theme of this book is to follow where your heart leads you, no mater what the consequences are. I like how the author keeps putting suspense and uncertainty to let you only know what the main character knows at that time. I dislike how the author doesn't go into depth when describing the settings. The voice of the author is all about the character being in the action of the mo...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Glenn Koerner rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Glenn by: Adam Taylor, co-worker

From a purely sci-fi point of view, this story was good. It kept my interest with a multitude plot of twists throughout. From a Christian perspective, I thought the book fell short of its potential.

(view spoiler)...more

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Feb 12, 2011 Mindi Rosser rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you liked the Bourne Identity movies, you will enjoy Saint. The Protagonist experiences similar training protocols, physical abuse, and honed mental strength. A thrilling book from the first page till the last sentence, you will forcibly turn off that reading light after several hours of heart-beating entertainment with Saint.

Here's the official synopsis:

I know a few things about myself. I know that my name is Carl. My wife is Kelly. I love her more than my own life. If she told me to kill yo...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Rollan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 08, 2011 Becky rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was slightly annoyed by this novel...

First, because it is a sequel, and I didn't realize it. The entire time I was thinking, "I should know the back story. Should I stop and read the other book first?" However, I was listening to it on CD, so I really didn't want to stop, nor did I know if the library even had the first book.

Second, it is Christian fiction, and the Christian themes weren't fully developed. I was waiting for a wonderful, philosophical, spiritually re-energizing message. I was...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Derrick rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, thriller

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 03, 2010 Karl Casidsid rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-2011

Saint is a book about secrecy, lies, and a whole lot of action. Carl, a man with a wife named Kelly, and a son named Matthew, who was the top priority of his life. Or is that really whats going on? Carl is being lied to. Hes actually being recruited to be an assasin, to be the best assasin there is. To become the top assasin, he must go through rigorous tests and cut off all emotional ties in order to be the best.

I found this book to be a little confusing. I didnt like certain areas of the book,...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Joel Auchtung rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, fantasy

Weird.... but enjoyable! Definitely not for everyone. But if you have the patience and fortitude for wading through confusing topics like telepathy, technology, and mythology then you will probably enjoy this series as much as I did! Though it obviously falls in the genre of fantasy, Saint is realistic and descriptive. Dekker has a good hand with fiction, a talent for making the story come alive. You will not want to put it down until you have finished it! And when you do put it down, you are ce...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Hussein added it

Mar 15, 2011 Aaron Chesnut rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book Saint was a thriller keeping you hanging at the end of every chapter. Got to keep full focus. If you like to guess what's going to happen in the next chapter then this book is for you, because it will throw you for many loops. The main character Carl is a loving assassin that has no memory of his past but a powerful mind. His mind was said to have been more powerful before he was taken from his previous life. He has trained himself to have total control of his emotions. Until something...more

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Nov 05, 2009 Drew rated it 4 of 5 stars

First let me confess that I read "Sinner" first, then "Saint" now I'm reading "Showdown" exactly backwards chronologically. All still good solid stories, and enjoyable to read, regardless of order.

Saint is the story of Carl Strople, an assassin with an identity crisis. Highly trained and assigned to a high profile kill, something goes wrong and Carl finds that nothing he he believed in was real.

The pace is true to Dekkers' established form, unrelenting. I hated having to put it down. The charact...more

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Sep 23, 2010 Janet rated it 2 of 5 stars

Great insights from Dekker:

Unless you embrace you alien status and step willingly into the role (Ephesians 2:8-10), you will fade into powerless obscurity – so it is with all the faithful.

Accepting your true identity means understanding that you are a stranger to this world. A freak, ostracized by the very people you want to help.

I don’t think you really care about anyone other than yourself. You’ve had to focus almost exclusively on yourself in order to survive. As a result, you don’t care abou...more

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Jun 17, 2012 Micah rated it 5 of 5 stars

You know when you say something like "I hate /this/ genre or /that/ genre" and you read something along those lines and it changes how you see the whole thing?
Here's an example. I'd not say I was ever really a spy fan. The 007 ain't my thing. I got
Fidgety while watching shooter, that one with the cold war and the spies.. Couldn't do it.
Saint was a game changer.
Easily the best book in the trilogy. Has twists and turns and whatnot. It's still dekker, if that's a plus for you, but you can really t...more

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Aug 19, 2011 mahlica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting and suspensful just as I would expect from this author. Mr. Dekker spends his efforts exploring identity, if our identity can be changed, and the difficulty of knowing our true selves.

I really liked how the author, in his other books, created a picture of a possible spiritual reality that challenged the way I think of things. I found that picture and challenge missing in this story. Realizing after I finished reading that this was a #2 in a series, I'm hopefull that going back to the...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow, that is what I have to say after reading this book. It kept me engaged the whole time. It's a sequel to "Showdown" in some ways, but it stands on it's own very well. I literally finished this book within a week, I just couldn't put it down! The plot was well paced and it kept you wondering what was truly going on and who the main character truly was. It was a great in-depth look at a person completely stripped of all identity finding their way back to themselves and what they believe. A tru...more

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Dec 12, 2008 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: q22008

Pretty much amazing

12/12/08

I havent finished this review even though i read the book like a week ago. This book is a very psychological book. It has a vast amount of looking into the thinking of the main charater. Carl became a black ops specialist and part of his training was to remove his memory and also his identity. It was a riveting tale of a man who finds himself again and in the end, it was the epitomy of GOOD VS. EVIL. It showed a lot of spiritual aspects of life as well, but when you ar...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Hannah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I overall enjoyed this book. Although, Being a long-time Ted Dekker reader, and having read most if not all of the books in "the circle", I have a little bias. I love seeing how the books fit together as a whole, making it easier to accept flaws with more grace.
This book does have its flaws. But me being an inexperienced and young reader, I can't say I found them myself. I had to hear it from other reviewers to see it. That being said, it's not the worlds best writing, but it isn't half bad. Bu...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Mandy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: checked-out

2.5/3 stars. When I picked this up off the shelf at the library I didn't realize it was part of a trilogy, and still didn't realize til I was halfway through and my brother mentioned how he thought it was the second in the series. That aside, I enjoyed the book. I thought the balance between science and the supernatural was interesting, as well as the identity confusion that Johnny experiences.

Overall a good read. Just picked up the first book in the series today, so after that's done maybe eve...more

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Jul 11, 2009 Juliet Ekinaka rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was another good book from Dekker, but not nearly as AMAZING and HAUNTING as HOUSE. Yet the story was fascinating and the message was enlightening. Dekker is a great writer and keeps you on your toes. He teaches you that you are able to find faith even in the darkest of places. It's really nice that there are Christian books out there that aren't the typical life struggling, soft, find your faith type... Though don't get me wrong, those are great too, but this puts a more intense, real and...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Phoebe rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 11, 2012 Mary rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Perhaps it was because I read this book out of order of the series that it was a difficult read. I have read Blink and the Black; Red; White trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed those books. However, I cannot say the same about Saint. It was intriguing at the beginning and I kept waiting for the reveal where everything would be explained and then understood. Unfortunately, that never happened and at the end I was as lost as I was on page one. I never quite understood the characters' pasts, motivations...more

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May 11, 2013 Melissa Darnold rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: authors-a-g-series, books-of-history-chronicles, favorites, genre-adventure, genre-christian-fiction, genre-psychological, genre-sci-fi-fantasy, genre-suspense-thriller

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 05/11/13: Yeah, this is my favorite in The Paradise Trilogy. I remember loving it a lot the first time I read it, but not as much as its predecessor. I've really come into what I enjoy when it comes to literature. Ted Dekker balances espionage and sci-fi in a delicious way. I really enjoy it because it's believable when it shouldn't be because supernatural powers don't exist in real life and all of that good stuff. However, there's always a deeper message that Dekker wants to get across and he's...more 05/11/13: Yeah, this is my favorite in The Paradise Trilogy. I remember loving it a lot the first time I read it, but not as much as its predecessor. I've really come into what I enjoy when it comes to literature. Ted Dekker balances espionage and sci-fi in a delicious way. I really enjoy it because it's believable when it shouldn't be because supernatural powers don't exist in real life and all of that good stuff. However, there's always a deeper message that Dekker wants to get across and he's used the supernatural powers to do just that in this novel.

Johnny Drake is used to show truth to the darkness in the world.
Simple as that.

Well, I suppose it's a bit more complicated than that because that was Samuel's mission in Showdown as well, he just did it in a different way than Johnny did. That's hearsay, though. Let's set up the story, shall we? So, we met Johnny Drake in Showdown and now it's been twelve years and really, we're not even sure it's Johnny that's the main character until about halfway through the novel (SPOILERS, SWEETIE), but yeah. Carl Strople is a hired and trained assassin. His mission? To assassinate the President of the United States. One of the great things Dekker does here is he ties in The Circle Saga with this series with the same President, Robert Stenton.

There are lots of new characters--some born of woman, some born of Black--but, Dekker's primary message (as it is with all of his novels) is to demonstrate love in whatever way he can. He demonstrates just that with Samuel and David Abraham; the love between Johnny and Kelly; and the deep foundation of faith that Johnny finds in himself. The "showdown" of sorts near the end was really great. Dekker didn't over-do it with the supernatural stuff, and the fact that it happened on the President's front lawn (literally) was partly comical, but it added to the realism of the moment.

I think I enjoy this book as much as I do because of the assassin aspect of it. I like the training and the hardening Johnny went through. I don't necessarily enjoy the erasure of his identity, but I like the compartmental part of the entire spiel. I think that's part of the reason why I enjoy The Hunger Games, too. But, that's another series altogether. Give this one a read. I think you'll enjoy it.(less)

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Sep 25, 2009 Jason Reeser rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was better than Showdown, and there are a few parts of this that are really well done. The end leaves a bit to be desired. There are too many things that he did not explain well enough, and a few things that he over-indulged in. Especially his pulpit moment. And as far as that goes, it did not fit in well with the rest of the story. But I am sure there is pressure by the Christian publisher to get a good three-point sermon into the story, even if it is a story about an assasin. I suppose my...more

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About Ted Dekker

Ted Dekker is known for novels that combine adrenaline-laced stories with unexpected plot twists, unforgettable characters, and incredible confrontations between good and evil. Ted lives in Austin with his wife LeeAnn and their four children.

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Books by Ted Dekker

White: The Great Pursuit (The Circle, #3)

Black: The Birth of Evil (The Circle, #1)

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Quotes from Saint

“Once born into childlike faith, brimming with belief, typical people begin to lose their faith. Society mocks them. Their friends smirk. They come to change the world, but over time the world changes them. Soon they forget who they were; they forget the faith they once had. Then one day someone tells them the truth, but they don’t want to go back, because they’re comfortable in their new skin. Being a stranger in this world is never easy.” — 93 people liked it

“…It’s not that you don’t have the capacity to accept the truth. You don’t want to accept it, and you hide behind your own logic and intelligence while the truth marches by. Step out and join it, for goodness’’ sake! Shout it out in full step! I believe!” — 86 people liked it

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Saint (The Paradise Series #2)

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