book report: Terror by Night by Terry Caffey (2009)

I picked up Terror by Night by Terry Caffey in the Kindle store when it was available for free. It was set aside until I had an interlude between big books. This autobiography is hard to put down. Terry tells his story with all it's rawness. Although he is a Christian man, he admits to his suicidal tendencies after surviving the murders of his family and attempted murder on him as well. But there is something more amazing about this story. Terry learned forgiveness and tried it. He forgave the killers of his wife and sons. He forgave his daughter who was an accomplice if not the mastermind of the crime. As he sought God in the Bible in the months after the crime he started to ask himself, what would Jesus do in this situation? He concluded that Jesus would not ask for the death penalty. He also knew that Jesus had forgiven him of so many sins. He also knew that Jesus gave him all the room and time he needed to come to faith and repentance. Terry wanted to treat these murderers the same way Christ treated him. So he told the court that this Texan did not want the Texas judicial system to pursue the death penalty. He also continued to visit with his daughter and encourage her and affirm his love for her, even after he learned of her participation in the fratricide and matricide. The entire story is summarized in a video from his website by CBN, but the viewer won't have the benefit of becoming emotionally entangled in Terry's story without reading it. It is a modern version of the the biblical character Job.