The Bride Collector - Ted Dekker - DTB

I think that Ted Dekker is a master of suspense.  Every time I read one of his books, I'm speechless at the end.  It's just..."wow."  I have had The Bride Collector in my possession for quite some time now.  After reading Boneman's Daughters, I kinda had the feeling that this was going to be along the same lines.  I was right.  Just to clarify, in Boneman's Daughters, a serial killer is looking for the perfect daughter.  When a girl makes a mistake, he breaks a bone.  He keeps breaking them until they die.

In The Bride Collector, Quinton is choosing the brides for Christ. Finding the most beautiful, he abducts them.  Once he prepares them with makeup, he glues them to a wall, drills holes in the bottom of their feet to drain their blood and places a veil over their heads.  Brad is the FBI agent sent to find him.  Desperate for answers, he ends up at a place where highly intelligent mentally ill people live.  They become invaluable to the investigation, and eventually, to him.

This book is a thriller.  It addresses the subject of mental illness in a very thought provoking way.  Overall, it reads like Ted Dekker.  The last one that I had read was written with Erin Healy, Kiss, and just seemed to be missing something.  Since this was a solo effort, I wanted to give it a shot.  I wasn't disappointed, but it's not a happily ever after kind of book.  It's more of a good conquers evil kind of book.

I probably won't be keeping this one.  I still favor Dekker's earlier works more than I do the serial killer ones.  There are mentions of the Paradise series.  The girl named Paradise mentions the Roush and has a vision from the others.  I like how there are little details in there that people that have read the others can pick up on, but it blends in so well that if you haven't read the Paradise series it will not make you feel like you're missing something.

Great suspense thriller.  The man is a master, no doubt about it.