Review: The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Center Street (April 13, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1599951967
Source: Publisher

A serial killer has struck Denver and has already taken four victims. He’s called the Bride Collector by the FBI because of the bridal veil he leaves behind at the crime scene. FBI Special Agent Brad Raines has his work cut out for him, especially when one of the victims remind him of a former girlfriend who committed suicide.

After profiling the serial killer, the FBI determines that he is an extremely intelligent individual, but with severe mental illness. Raines gets help on the case from “patients” of the Center for Wellness and Intelligence, a private psychiatric institution for mentally ill individuals whose are extremely gifted intellectually. There he meets Paradise, a young woman diagnosed as schizophrenic. Paradise witnessed her father kill her family, barely escaping death herself. It appears as she has special abilities which allows the FBI to see aspects of the victim never seemed before.

But when the Bride Collector picks up his pace and begins killing more frequently and becomes a bit more personal, Brad begins to wonder if they’ll ever be able to put an end to his vicious, sadistic killing.

Once again, Dekker does another outstanding job with The Bride Collector! He steps inside the killer and portrays him remarkably. The reader is able to feel what the killer feels, see what the killer sees. The descriptions of the killings are so vivid they are terrifying, one of the many things I enjoy about Dekker’s writing. Dekker’s characters are also very complex and compelling. Finally, as he does in most of his novels, Dekker does insert a small bit of faith this story.

I read The Bride Collector on a red-eye flight. I should have been sleeping but couldn’t bear to put this book down! I highly recommend this to fans for crime fiction and thrillers.

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