Review: The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

Ted Dekker's newest  book is The Bride Collector which will be available on April 13, 2010. This is the first book that I've read by Ted Dekker and I have to say that he packs a powerful punch in this novel. Here is a description of the book from Hachette Book Group:

FBI Special agent Brad Raines is facing his toughest case yet. A Denver serial killer has killed four beautiful young women, leaving a bridal veil at each crime scene, and he's picking up his pace. Unable to crack the case, Raines appeals for help from a most unusual source: residents of the Center for Wellness and Intelligence, a private psychiatric institution for mentally ill individuals whose are extraordinarily gifted.

It's there that he meets Paradise, a young woman who witnessed her father murder her family and barely escaped his hand. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Paradise may also have an extrasensory gift: the ability to experience the final moments of a person's life when she touches the dead body.

In a desperate attempt to find the killer, Raines enlists Paradise's help. In an effort to win her trust, he befriends this strange young woman and begins to see in her qualities that most 'sane people' sorely lack. Gradually, he starts to question whether sanity resides outside the hospital walls...or inside.

As the Bride Collector picks up the pace-and volume-of his gruesome crucifixions, the case becomes even more personal to Raines when his friend and colleague, a beautiful young forensic psychologist, becomes the Bride Collector's next target.

The FBI believes that the killer plans to murder seven women. Can Paradise help before it's too late?

My Thoughts:

Dekker has written a novel with strong main characters that are well developed throughout the book. Brad Raines, is the FBI agent, who fights to the end to find the Bride Collector and in doing so faces his own demons. Paradise is a likeable character, she is a patient at the psychiatric institution that has suffered through a horrific childhood and has a psychic gift that she learns how to tap into. She has not left the institute for seven years and has felt unloveable and ugly. Her character develops like a butterfly and it's interesting to watch her grow and develop and fight the battles within her own mind. The Bride Collector was an evil character and you could feel the depth of his despair and twisted mind,even though he was a very intelligent person. Dekker shows in his writing that intelligence and mental illness can be a battle that can manifest itself in a positive way or negative way. This story shows the reader that those who suffer from mental illness are intelligent people who often have can have gifts that can be tapped into so that they feel like productive members of society. They are much more than the mentally ill who are just trapped in their own world. 

This is definitely a fast paced novel that will hold your interest if you are a fan of mystery thrillers. There is violence and darkness in this novel so be prepared. There is nothing gentle about this book. It shows how evil can manifest itself in the mind of a killer and how it can be twisted and turned to justify the end results. I found  that the Bride Collector was able to get away with too much without being caught and at times it seemed very unrealistic. It actually started to annoy me near the end as it seemed highly unlikely and far fetched that a killer would not have been caught by someone or have more close calls when he was being sought after. That he was able to dupe so many people and outsmart the FBI so well, seemed a stretch to me. The author may have been making a point that his intelligence allowed him to do this but it really seemed unrealistic to me. I wanted to read this book to broaden my reading scope and read different genres. I enjoy reading a mystery now and then but thrillers are more rare for me to pick up. This wasn't my cup of tea and for me, I realized that I'll stick to reading more of the cozy mysteries and detective style mysteries.

If you are a fan of Ted Dekker's books and mystery thrillers you will definitely want to pick up a copy of this book.

I read The Bride Collector for Ted Dekker's Pre Publication Blog Tour with Hachette Book Group. The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker will be released on April 13, 2010. It can be pre-ordered here in the U.S. You can check out Ted Dekker's Website, here.

Click on the information below in the Countdown/Sweepstakes Widget:

to read more about The Bride Collector, read more about the author, read an excerpt and enter the Sweepstakes to win a copies of Ted Dekker's books.

Disclosure: An Advanced Reading Copy of this book was provided for review from Hachette Books. I am an Amazon associate.