The BoneMan's Daughters

My Amazon.com order came yesterday - the same order that was free from my collecting enough Swag Bucks to get $25 of gift cards for Amazon.com. I started reading the book after work, and finished it last night. Oh, did I mention the book was 100% free........... :-)

The book was really good. His books that I like the best are about real people, and this one was one of those. I liked it better than the Circle Trilogy and those types of books.

The story is about a sadistic killer who kidnaps young girls and kills them by breaking every bone in their body, earning him the nickname "The BoneMan". The hero of the story is Ryan Reynolds, a special Ops military man, who deserted his wife and daughter for his military career. He becomes the main suspect in the BoneMan killings, and then the BoneMan takes Ryan's estranged daughter, and he has to rescue his daughter while the world thinks he is behind it.

I did really enjoy the book, and it is a page turner that grabs you and holds your interest. A lot of excitement and suspense. Now what I didn't like about the book............

There was some Christian content, but you never get the idea that the characters are Christians. This seems to be a trend for too many authors - there is a difference in "Christian" fiction, and just good clean fiction, and in my opinion, if they can't write an outright Christian book, then they should head for the secular market.

In his book "Sinner", Dekker used "hell" three times. Twice someone telling another person to "go to hell", the third time, someone saying "to hell with you". I emailed the author and the publisher, and both defended the use of it, though Dekker said it would be removed from future printings of the book. I brought that up to emphasize my next point:

If Dekker did not take God's name in this book, he went up to the fence and peered over, so to speak. Here are the 2 places that bothered me:



Page 9: A soldier shows Ryan pictures of his wife and daughter from back home and says a kid changes everything, then says "God, I miss her".
Page 152: Ryan is talking about the acts of a terrorist taking innocent lives, and says "God, I could never do that, Not now"
To me, these both are cases of taking God's name in vain, something that should not be in a Christian book, or in any book written by a Christian author.
Another word I have issues with, even though it is in the King James version of the Bible, is the word "piss" on page 318.
I'm not sure what Dekker is up to, whether he is trying to draw more non-Christians to read his books, or what the deal is, but I believe the 3 examples above do not belong in his books.

My best friend said it may not be taking God's name in vain, but is getting close to the line. That may be so, but given the overall tone of the book, I don't think they were muttered as prayers by the characters, which only leaves using God's name in vain.

Now I am not becoming anti-Dekker. He is an excellent author, and I enjoy most of his books. I just wish he would stick a little closer to what constitutes true Christian fiction.

The book is worth reading, so if you are a reader of his books, get a hold of a copy. If you are not, give him a try.
And did I mention the book was free...........