Thirty-two-year-old Jude Allman has cheated death three times. But the outcome is not what one would expect. In the psychological thriller Waking Lazarus, T. L. Hines explores the what-ifs of such a state, superimposed on story events that take place over a few weeks in the very ordinary town of Red Lodge Montana - where kids from the surrounding area are mysteriously disappearing. The result is a page-turner that is both satisfying and chilling.

Hines' confidence with language and storytelling skill were highlights of the book for me. He sets mundane scenes - like vignettes of a five-year-old interacting with his live-out father, a man ordering food in a restaurant, a janitor taking abuse from kids in a middle school - back-to-back with scenes of outright psychological creepiness. He serves up these story segments in scrambled order and in telling the story this way had me questioning my own perception of what was real and looking with suspicion, at least in passing, at most of the male, and some of the female characters. I was intrigued from start to finish.

Besides the challenge of figuring out what Jude Allman is all about and who's abducting those kids, the story addresses several weighty themes. Hines explores the philosophical dilemma of what's real and what isn't, but also probes the more accessible themes of parent-child relationships, coping with being different, the paranormal and whether/how it meshes with the Christian faith.

Speaking of the latter, Hinds handles the Christian message of the book subtly and with a light touch. In addition to the overt allusion to the Bible character Lazarus of the book's title, it comes mostly through secondary character Rachel, Jude's girlfriend. Although her dependence on prayer and hearing the internal voice she thinks of as the voice of God (my paraphrase) seemed somewhat slight and subjective theologically, I appreciated Hines' attempt to spell out Christian experience in understandable non-jargon language. I guess what I'm trying to say is if you're looking for some theological beef — a treatise, sermon or altar call — you'll be disappointed. But as an appetizer the book succeeds.

It's great to see Christian fiction cutting this new swath. As a debut novel, I'd say Waking Lazarus is quite an accomplishment and will no doubt make a big splash when it's released this summer. And of course the book needs a sequel. Because by my calculations Jude has another five lives left - no wait, make that four, definitely four!