I've never read a Ted Dekker book, yet I'd been told great things about him & his work. When I got the chance to review this, I figured that this would be a great chance to experience the author. I just wish that this had lived up to all of the hype.

The book follows the character of FBI agent Brad Raines, a man who is no stranger to loss. With his own dark past looming over him, he attempts to uncover the identity of a killer known only as the Bride Collector. The Bride Collector has tracked down several extraordinarily beautiful women, then murdered them & left them in a macabre pose. Searching for answers, Raines travels to a local mental institution where he meets the enigmatic Paradise- a woman who has the unique talent of drawing out the last memories of the dead.

(Might be considered spoilers by some)

Where do I begin? First off, there's far too many coincidences in this book. The killer just so happens to be able to not only ID the FBI agents working the case, but he also manages to find out where they live- & manages to do all of this without gaining any attention to himself. That I'd be willing to overlook. BUT there's something else that bugged me more. It irked me that just about everyone not only accepted that Paradise- a patient in a mental institution- was able to read dead bodies, but that they brought one of the bodies to the institute for her to read. Really? Seriously now... even if Raines was the type to believe in the supernatural, it would be near impossible for them to move the body to a mental institution for an inmate to touch- just on the say so that she was able to read the dead. Now if there'd been some sort of buildup where Raines & his FBI partners had researched Paradise, discovered that the stories all checked out & then mentioned how they had to sneak the body away, then I'd be less skeptical. I was also skeptical about the romance that I was supposed to believe was developing between Paradise & Raines. There just wasn't any chemistry between the two of them & as such, it all felt a little forced to me.

I can't help but think that if Dekker had fleshed out the romance & tried to eliminate some of the plot holes, the story would have been far better. Too much of the story is spent on the main characters re-hashing their own personal angsts over & over again.

Now I will say that Dekker does know how to write in order to entertain. As far as entertainment value went, as long as I was willing to ignore the HUGE gaping plot holes & farfetched ideas, I was able to finish the book. This wasn't the worst thing I've read in the thriller genre, but I've read far better by other authors. This might make for an ok beach read, but if you really want a tightly written & semi-plausible storyline, you aren't going to find it in this book. But if you just want something to while away a few hours, this might satisfy you. Offhand, I can't muster enough enthusiasm over this book to give it anything more than 2 stars. I found it entertaining enough to read & finish, but in the end this is just a mediocre book.

(ARC provided by amazon vine)