The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

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?

Though I wouldn't necessarily classify this book as Christian fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Other than one use of "hell" as an expletive and one use of "pissed", I caught no other language issues in the book.

Dekker has some interesting characters in the book, from the tough FBI agent to the colorful and odd characters at a psychiatric institution, who end up being more help than he realized they would be.

There is a lot of suspense and action in the book, and it is not for the faint of heart, as there is a lot of violence also. I read the book in one evening, and was pulled into the story, which has a very surprising twist to it.

If you prefer solid Christian fiction, this book might not be for you, but most Dekker fans will enjoy his latest and great novel.

About the author:

Ted Dekker is a New York Times best-selling author best known for suspense and thriller novels, though he has also made a name for himself among fantasy fans. Early in his career he wrote a number of books with spiritual themes that would best be categorized as religious fiction. His later works are a mix of mainstream novels such as Adam, Thr3e, Skin, Obsessed and BoneMan’s Daughters; and fantasy thrillers that metaphorically explore faith. Best known among these are his Circle Series (Black, Red, White, Green), The Lost Books (Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos, Lunatic, Elyon), and The Paradise Books (Showdown, Saint, Sinner, House (with Frank Peretti), and Skin.

The Bride Collector will be available from Center Street in April.

Thanks to Center street for the review copy.