Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Bride Collector

The Bride Collector   by, Ted Dekker
I have to thank Libby of Libby's Library News for putting this book up as a giveaway and Hachette Audio for offering it to her!

When the audio arrived, I thought "Why don't we (DH and I) just listen to the first disc and see what we think. We can listen to the rest of it later (12 disc set)."

Well, that was Friday and this is Sunday and disc 12 has finished. What does that tell you? Yes, we did like it...a lot!

This is how Hachette described 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.


There is more to the description than this but I am choosing stop here because that last sentence is a salient part of the book. Where is the line between sanity and insanity? Is the line clear? Blurred?

I think the book does well in delving into those questions as it takes you through a hunt with the help some wonderful characters!

I could not see this book abridged without significant loss.

John Glover does a superb narrating job!

Audio or paper version, I think mystery/suspense lovers will enjoy this book!