About the Book
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?
My Thoughts
This is the second book by Ted Dekker I have read and I certainly was not disappointed. I took it with me on our mini-vactaion and even though I was tired at night I stayed up to read it because it just got in my head and wouldn’t let go.
This story is extremely fast paced and thriller doesn’t really begin to touch what this story represents. The Bride Collector is a serial killer and the FBI is struggling to find who is responsible for the 3 victims that have been found. They need to step up their game because there is no sign that this killer is going to stop anytime soon. Each victim is posed with loving care…that is, if you don’t mind a gruesome element, and each has a bridal veil over her face. Looking like a true bride, they have perfect makeup and nails but it’s hard to concentrate on this when you are faced with the truth…someone is killing women and he may be impossible to catch. He is looking for his perfect bride, and until he finds her this is the game he will play. They will continue to find bodies and clues but will they be able to put them together to catch him?
If you are looking for an edge of your seat thriller, this is the book for you. An author that is quickly climbing the ladder of favorites, I can’t wait to read more!
