Post Published on August 4, 2011.
Last Updated on July 12, 2021 by davemackey.
The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker tells the story of an FBI agent (Brad Raines) who is in rabid pursuit of a serial killer known only as The Bride Collector. In the process Brad forms an unlikely alliance with several patients of a residential mental health facility – who in their own awkward ways assist him in discovering the identity of and stopping The Bride Collector before he can kill more victims.
There are some Ted Dekker books I feel are masterful stories (Adam, Thr3e). There are some which I read but didn’t care for (Skin, House, Showdown, Saint, Sinner). There are those that seem like just another rehashing of already told tales (Boneman’s Daughters). Now it appears I must add a fourth category: the stories that are not masterful in-and-of themselves, that feel partially like a rehashing – but yet distinguish themselves for their message.
Over time Dekker’s books seem to move more mainstream and to remain less and less in the Christian thriller niche. The Bride Collector certainly feels this way, and yet it is with great conviction that Dekker portrays a message of high importance to his readers. What message? That those who are mentally ill are not so different from the rest of us. That the monsters of this world are as likely to be sane and rational as insane and that there is still bountiful humanity and intelligence in those who are maimed in some way in the mind.
I’d encourage anyone who wants a thought provoking and entertaining read about the nature of mental illness, the humanity of its suffers, and the insanity of every man to consider The Bride Collector.
P.S. I read this book on my Amazon Kindle!
Thank you for the link!