The blurb on A Life Intercepted: A Novel caught my eye, “Matthew “The Rocket” Rising had it all. Falsely accused of a heinous crime with irrefutable evidence…all was lost.” Matthew Rising won the Heisman trophy for best college football player twice, led his team to the national championship three times and was the number 1 draft pick in the NFL. In Matthew’s mind all these were nothing compared to his marriage to Audrey.
Matthew was convicted of sexual assault and deviant sex with a minor based on a video of sex acts that did not show his face plus testimony of the three women who woke up with him in their bed. He never made it to training camp, never made any money, and worst, his wife disappeared.
Paroled after 12 years he is forbidden to approach a minor, to work or live within half a mile of a daycare or school, completely broke, homeless and with no job prospects. Matthew went back to his hometown to find his wife. His oldest friend lets him stay in his cabin, which is just far enough from the Catholic convent and high school. He has no intention to violate his parole, just to find Audrey and peace.
Matthew finds Audrey is living at the convent, where she planted a flower garden that memorializes Matthew’s final play in his last college football game. Dee Dalton, 17 years old and a wanna be football quarterback, approaches Matthew to ask for his help. Dee had been a fine young player but his throwing mechanics are messed up and he needs to learn from someone besides his high school coach. Matthew initially says no, since that would violate his parole and land him back in prison, this time for life.
Audrey comes to Matthew and tells him that he owes it to her to coach Dee, that he cheated her of a family and a life and further that no one would ever know. Matthew knows that it is all too likely that his nemesis, the person who framed him for the sexual assault, will in fact be watching him, looking for evidence he broke parole. Nonetheless Matthew agrees to coach Dee as a sacrifice to show Audrey what she means to him.
Of course his nemesis videotapes the coaching sessions. Each individual parole violation means 10 years in prison and Matthew and Dee meet over 70 times. Matthew is arrested but only after demonstrating to the football loving world that both he and Dee are ready to play, Matthew at the NFL and Dee at high school, then college.
Tight Plot with a Unique Setting
We know all through the book that Matthew is innocent although we don’t know the details nor how – or whether – he will somehow win through. Author Charles Martin keeps us in suspense until near the end. He unfolds the plot through Matthew’s memories offset with the events as they occur. We see Matthew willingly sacrifice his life to help Dee, initially for Audrey’s sake then for Dee’s, and through the memories of Matthew’s life with Audrey.
The novel is set behind the scenes of football, not the games themselves but the practices and the events after the games. You do not have to understand or like football to enjoy the book because the game is the setting, not the purpose.
There were a few weak points, mostly in the trial that found Matthew guilty. I thought of a couple points his lawyer could have made, such as whether the DNA evidence against Matthew included semen, whether his fingerprints were on the video camera, the fact it was dark, all of which could have cast some doubt in the jurors’ minds. But the story is not about the trial.
Charles Martin’s purpose isn’t to debate the merits of the case, but to show that it happened, that the evidence was overwhelming, that even Matthew’s lawyer and his wife believed him guilty. This is the set up for the real meat of the novel, how Martin deals with gross injustice.
The resolution with Ginger, Matthew’s supposed victim was wonderful, but it required the woman to completely forego everything she had for something she had never wanted. It was great to read but a bit far fetched. Let’s hope that people are like that.
Characters
Matthew and Dee are well done. Matthew remains loving and determined. He knows exactly the value of the worldly success and the happy marriage he thought he had, and he has a fine perspective on which matters.
Wood and Ray, Matthew’s two friends, steal the show. They are courageous, caring, willing to help Matthew, willing to more-or-less believe him. The character I found the weakest was Audrey. I understand she was incredibly hurt, wounded to near death by her husband’s betrayal, but it was incredible to me that she insisted he coach Dee even knowing it meant life imprisonment if caught. She clearly did not expect the vindictive Ginger to spy on Matthew and videotape his movements, and why should she. She believed Matthew guilty.
A Life Intercepted is a coming of age novel that brings four characters to adulthood, Matthew and Dee of course, and Audrey and Ginger too. Matthew’s coming of age isn’t when he’s in his teens or college, but as he works with Dee and earlier, in some of his prison memories where he loses the hate and grows his way to redemption.
Thoughts on Redemption
A Life Intercepted: A Novel is one of the finest books I’ve read in a long time. I read this concurrently with Memory by Lois Bujold, which gave a unique flavor to the experience. Both novels are about redemption and both have exotic settings, football with A Life Intercepted and the planet Barrayar in Memory.
The primary difference is in the nature of redemption. Memory is all about Miles’ self-redemption after an act he did commit. A Life Intercepted is about the redemption Matthew offers to his wife, his supposed victim, his fans, the young Mac for acts they committed, not what he had done. Reading the two books together helped me see the difference and realized that A Life Intercepted first shows Matthew accepting the injustice, coming to peace internally, then offering that peace to the others who judged and rejected him. It is a Christ-like redemption, not a private personal redemption.
The underlying themes of love, faith, redemption and sacrifice are timeless. Combine those with excellent characters you care about, intense plot and good writing and you have a real winner. Five stars.
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