The Bride Collector

I've read a lot of mystery/suspense books so I feel I'm hard to impress in this category but this book held my interest until the very end. The characters are very likable and visiting the "Center for Intelligence" adds a little bit of humor to the otherwise tense situation. I don't want to give away any of the story, but I enjoyed this book. Very entertaining read.

This was my first Ted Dekker novel and I had no idea what to expect. The storyline was very promising but there are a lot of pop thrillers out there that just don't meet up to their potential. It's been quite a while since I've read a thriller that grabbed me like this one. All I can say is high kudos to Ted Dekker for a suspenseful edge of your seat thriller that was well written with twists galore and amazing character development. It is obvious from the getgo that Mr. Dekker is a very good author but make sure when you read this to get far enough to fully immerse yourself in the characters if you are undecided whether to continue for it is the characters that raise this story above other thrillers. The main character is FBI agent Brad Raines and he is after the serial killer dubbed the bride collector. We find out early on who the killer is and it adds a great deal to the book for we get to know how his mind works and the inner thoughts he has. Working on the case brings Brad Raines to a place called the Center for Well-being and Intelligence. The patients here are people with mental illness who also are very intelligent with high iq's. It is the characters at the center who truly bring the story a definite depth, particularly a young woman named Paradise who assists Brad on his search for the killer. The authors indepth knowledge of mental illness also adds to the authenticity of this novel. It is all well researched and is a very big part of the novel. Brad Raines is a reasonably interesting character at the beginning but when he meets up with the patients at the clinic he truly blossoms as his interactions with them bring out his inner self. Paradise is really the true emotional center that holds this novel together. Add to this a very inventive storyline. This one is in no way formulaic. Finally a novel where the unexpected happens and even with knowing who the killer is you will be stunned by a lot of the plot development. This book is lengthy but it deserves to be. The story builds and builds to a stunning climax. I was so satisfied when I finished this novel. It was so suspenseful and at times very violent but it all worked. I was satisfied for having read a great thriller but more importantly satisfied for having followed a story of characters that became very real to me. This is an intelligent, very well written psychological thriller that also tackles fully the issue of mental illness. I highly recommend this novel.

Having never even opened a book written by Ted Dekker before, I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know what I was missing! This book is a taut, well written novel that really leads the reader along the plotline but also reaches into the very nature of good and evil. The main protagonist is FBI special agent Brad Raines who is faced with a serial killer situation. Somebody is kidnapping beautiful young women, draining their bodies of blood, and hanging them on walls of abandoned barns and other places, with nothing but a bridal veil to wear. The reader is introduced early on to the killer, himself, allowing us inside his mind and motivations. Seems he is fulfilling God's plan for him by offering seven brides, culminating in the perfect bride for God. Agent Raines, based on the psychotic nature of the killer, searches for clues in several Mental Health Facilities in the area and is drawn to one particular group of patients which includes a young woman by the name of "Paradise". Through her and her friends' eyes, we actually learn quite a bit about positive ways to treat mental health patients as we work our way through the novel. With Paradise's assistance, and some good old fashioned police work, Agent Raines is able to close in on the killer's identity. I won't go into further detail for fear of spoilers but I can honestly say it was a thrill ride. The pace of the novel is just right, building up the level of suspense as we near the climax and not letting go until the very end. Mr Dekker is not afraid to take the predictableness out of the plot and make this one an original idea. He also isn't afraid to throw in emotional matters of life and faith and relationships, ultimately tying it all together in a very neat package. This will not be the last book I read by Mr Ted Dekker!

Ted Dekker's, "The Bride Collector" is a fantastic read and destined to be on every best seller list this year. I literally could not put the book down as it raced, non stop, from its beginning to the climactic ending. You'll find just about everything within the pages of this book that a good story needs to excel. Mr. Dekker confounds, and excites, the senses with his story of a serial killer that includes something for everyone's liking. It's amazing how the author could include practically everything in less than 450 pages. You'll be treated to a novel story laced throughout with adventure, science, humor, love, intrigue, horror, a little paranormal, and twists and turns throughout. The characters are so well developed, you'll feel that you're there with them, and every chapter is filled to the breaking point with more than the reader can imagine. There were moments that I laughed aloud and others where I was so saddened. If you read no other, you have got to read this book, it's a winner.

Taut and well written, this is a suspenseful psychological novel. A serial killer in Denver captures beautiful women and impales them by gluing them to a wall, one woman in each of seven different sordid locations, each woman dressed in a bridal veil. Of course they are all beautiful and they are all young. The killer leaves no DNA, no fingerprints, no tire tracks, nothing that investigators can use to discover his identity. But we the readers find out who he is early in the novel, a brilliant, supremely confident schizophrenic, gloating at his success and thumbing his nose at the authorities who can't catch him. Special Investigator Brad Raines of the FBI thinks the killer is in love with his victims, creating a supreme sacrifice, an offering to the gods, of sorts, a macabre expression of love. But the deaths fuel the killer to continue his rampage, like a vampire feasting off the blood of his hapless prey. But it takes a psychotic to know one and off the investigators go to an institution for the insane, but an institution limited only to insane persons of high intelligence, (Remember Hannibal Lecter?) The institution is filled with zany characters but the most notable is Paradise, a young woman who had suffered severe emotional trauma and who is reported to be able to touch a murdered person and name the killer by picking up some sort of vibes via osmosis. She hears voices and sees ghosts but nevertheless, you kind of get the feeling the real crazy people and killers are not in the institution, they are outside it and among us. Brad has a premonition. He wants Paradise to view body number five, Melissa. But Paradise won't leave the asylum, she is afraid of the outside world. So the mountain must go to Muhammad. The body is taken to Paradise at the asylum. On the gurney the sheet is pulled back revealing the dead girl's face. And Paradise, trembling, touches the cold cheek. And then... and then.... I'm not going to tell you anything more because I don't want to inject any spoilers; it's almost impossible to discuss the plot without giving something away. Suffice it to say I was scared to go to bed! P.S. I am adding this postscript a couple of days after I posted the original review. The reason is, I've thought a great deal about the character "Paradise Founder." Why she is named Paradise is explained in the book. But her first and last names together are an allusion to a question asked of epic poet John Milton: "Thou hast said much of paradise lost, but what hast thou to say of paradise found?" The killer in the novel mentions Milton's "Paradise Lost" in one of the cryptic messages he leaves at the murder scenes. Paradise Founder is quite an appropriate name. Anyway, this strange little girl upstages hero Brad Raines.