The Bride Collector

February 1, 2010
Readers who relish being trapped in a character's mind, in particular the mind of an insane serial killer, should enjoy this overlong thriller by bestseller Dekker (Boneman's Daughters
). Those not so keen on such musings, even within the mind of a good guy like FBI special agent Brad Raines, who spends pages contemplating the nature of love and grief, will be less enthralled. The Denver killer, Quinton Gauld, driven by some mumbo jumbo about beautiful women being the brides of Christ and his giving them to God, likes to super-glue his victims to the wall, then drain their blood into buckets. The most interesting characters are the institutionalized crazy people whose aid Raines enlists, a diverse and funny group. Few surprises and a stock serial killer, not to mention too much internal dialogue, add up to a routine read. 5-city author tour.

April 1, 2010
"New York Times" best-selling author Dekker ("Thr3e; Boneman's Daughters") returns with another piece of dark fiction in which a serial killer takes center stage. At each of the Denver crime scenes where four beautiful women are found murdered, the killer has left his chilling calling card, a bridal veil. FBI special agent Brad Raines seeks help from an unusual source, the Center for Well-Being and Intelligence, a mental institution that houses patients who are eerily intelligent and psychically gifted. Raines soon meets Paradise, a schizophrenic young woman with the ability to see the last moments of a person's life upon touching his or her dead body. Dekker is well known for incorporating spiritual elements (without sermonizing) into his suspense thrillers, and his latest is no exception. VERDICT Best suited for avid thriller, suspense, and crime fiction fans, it will also satisfy adventurous readers of Christian fiction.Carolann Lee Curry, Mercer Univ. Medical Lib., Macon, GA

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