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BoneMan's Daughters

Ted Dekker (Goodreads Author)

3.76 · Rating details · 12,158 ratings · 1,101 reviews

Would you kill an innocent man to save your daughter?

They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who's abducted six young women. He's the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die.

Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hop ...more

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Hardcover, 401 pages

Published April 14th 2009 by Center Street (first published April 1st 2009)

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· 12,158 ratings · 1,101 reviews

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Nov 22, 2012 Janie Johnson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ted-dekker, 2013-challenge

All I can say is WOW! I knew when I decided to read this book, that I would be hooked, that the story would be intense and unforgettable. And reading it proved those theories to be correct.

I did not want the book to end, but at the same time I wanted justice to be served. I felt as though I could not turn the pages fast enough. A psychological thriller that definitely keeps the heart pumping with some pretty vivid scenes not to be easily forgotten.

Even though I am a Mom and not a Dad, I could f ...more

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May 30, 2010 Jcwarre rated it it was ok

There were two things that frustrated me about this book- nay three things which tortured me through all 400 pages. The first was a weak story line, which, although at first was intriguing with the Navy Intel officer protagonist, fell short with cliche attempts at suspense and suffocated the reader with soap-operatic drama of disfunctional family dynamics. The second was a constant sense of wanting more... more suspense, more mystery, and of course more thrills from an antagonist who Dekker neve ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Natalie Vellacott rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: No-one

Shelves: fiction

Christian Fiction??

This is my first Dekker novel and unfortunately I have two more to read as it was buy two and get a third free. I'm appalled that so many Christians have given this 4 and 5 stars and shelved it as Christian fiction. There is nothing Christian about it at all. The author is supposedly a Christian and the child of missionaries?! If this is the case, I cannot understand why he would be writing this type of book. It is evil, creepy and gruesome.

The main character, the bone man, b Christian Fiction??

This is my first Dekker novel and unfortunately I have two more to read as it was buy two and get a third free. I'm appalled that so many Christians have given this 4 and 5 stars and shelved it as Christian fiction. There is nothing Christian about it at all. The author is supposedly a Christian and the child of missionaries?! If this is the case, I cannot understand why he would be writing this type of book. It is evil, creepy and gruesome.

The main character, the bone man, breaks bones for a living and gives himself the title of Satan. He seems to be trying to re-enact the original crucifixion of Jesus but needs to find a perfect female child specimen in order to do so. He abducts daughters and kills them. Until he finds Bethany, a 16 year old, model who fits his ideal. Then, the rest of the book is about his dealings with his victim and her estranged father's attempts to save her. I couldn't read the last few chapters as they were too horrendous with various murders and torture etc so I skim read to see what happened.

I didn't find myself liking any of the characters, even the heroes of the story, so I cared little what happened to them. The plot was far fetched and many escapes happening at key moments made it unbelievable. There were many loose ends that needed tying up.

The characters all blasphemed and there is mild bad language. Why would a Christian author write blasphemy into his fictional book?? My thoughts on this topic are well documented elsewhere.

I've read another review by someone that says it gave her nightmares. I'm not surprised although the writing wasn't good enough for me to get so wrapped up in the story that it would have that type of effect on me. Should a Christian author be writing anything that results in people having nightmares?

What is the purpose of the book? I couldn't see any spiritual purpose whatsoever. The battle between good and evil wasn't even there because none of the characters are Christians although every so often one or other of them wonders if there is a God and loosely prays.

Sorry that this is a rant but I'm really shocked that this has come from the pen of a Christian author. From my perspective, it is exactly like the film Seven or The Bone Collector neither of which I would be watching now that I'm a Christian. If Dekker's other novels are this bad I will throw them out.

Rant over! ...more

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Oct 27, 2010 Tammy rated it did not like it

Shelves: psycho-killers, e-reader, aborted, thriller

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 30 minutes after putting this book down, half-way through, I'm still annoyed. Badly written books don't bother me as much as well-written books that have preposterous plots, sloppy characters, and predictable or illogical plot devices. IMO, this book suffered from all of these flaws.

I enjoyed the chapters that took place in Iraq. The quality of the writing was readily evident and I felt the horror of the situation. I'll admit the end game of the torture seemed illogical to me, but what do I know 30 minutes after putting this book down, half-way through, I'm still annoyed. Badly written books don't bother me as much as well-written books that have preposterous plots, sloppy characters, and predictable or illogical plot devices. IMO, this book suffered from all of these flaws.

I enjoyed the chapters that took place in Iraq. The quality of the writing was readily evident and I felt the horror of the situation. I'll admit the end game of the torture seemed illogical to me, but what do I know about interrogations, intelligence, or torture?

However, the book took a nose-dive when the action returned to Texas. The serial killer is a caricature (who actually "puts the lotion on the skin"), the arrogant DA struts like a peacock, the bitchy mom is too whorish and self-centered, the daughter too "angsty," the Intelligence agent is shockingly stupid at times (no Jason Bourne that one). The most subtly drawn character was left behind in Iraq.

The other problem is the entire legal framework for the Boneman case. Convicted murderers are not exonerated because a judge on appeal had second thoughts about a single piece of evidence. Hell, even an inmate in Texas whose DNA doesn't match a rape kit, i.e. was conclusively excluded as a suspect through DNA testing, can struggle for years to be released from prison. And don't even get me started on the silliness surrounding an ex parte restraining order signed by a DA, who is personally involved, that somehow legally bars a man from having any contact with his teenage daughter, for months apparently. Being an attorney in Texas, this I know. Was Mr. Dekker under a deadline, was his editor locked up somewhere in the mountains Misery style, or did he simply not give a squat? Who knows? Maybe the guy in Iraq?

After the "frame-up" that anyone can see coming from a mile away (and the busted voice recorder, convenient trip to San Antonio that deprives the main character of any alibi, blah, blah, blah), I called "uncle" and hit delete on my e-reader.

I gave the book 2 stars rather than 1 star because maybe the ending redeemed the sorry excuse for a plot. I couldn't stick it out. It was like someone was breaking my bones with a sledge-hammer. ...more

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May 03, 2009 Tina rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, christian, for-giveaway, suspense

Original post at One More Page

He is called BoneMan and he is a father in search for a perfect daughter. He takes innocent teen girls and tries to make them love him and when they fail to be the daughter he wants, he breaks their bones without breaking their skin. On the other side of the world, Ryan Evans thinks of himself as a failure of a father -- after an especially harrowing abduction in the Middle East, Ryan comes home only to find that his wife and daughter had written him out of their li Original post at One More Page

He is called BoneMan and he is a father in search for a perfect daughter. He takes innocent teen girls and tries to make them love him and when they fail to be the daughter he wants, he breaks their bones without breaking their skin. On the other side of the world, Ryan Evans thinks of himself as a failure of a father -- after an especially harrowing abduction in the Middle East, Ryan comes home only to find that his wife and daughter had written him out of their lives. Then the BoneMan abducts his daughter, Bethany, and Ryan goes after him. Instead of helping him, though, the FBI finds evidence that points to Ryan as the BoneMan, and he becomes a hunted man. Desperate, Ryan Evans set out to go through hell just to save his daughter.

I've been a fan of Ted Dekker since I read Thr3e , which I think is also one of the first books I reviewed on my old blog. I liked the fact that he wrote Christian suspense and back then, I was having a hard time looking for books with the same themes. I meant to read more of his books but he writes and comes out with new books faster than I can get my hands on them and read them. I've had BoneMan's Daughters for a while now but I never got around to reading it. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because I was concentrating more on YA and chick lit instead of suspense. I did kind of look forward to reading this, thinking that it would be nice to go back to Dekker's world.

True to form, BoneMan's Daughters has everything that Dekker offers in his other books. Not that it's repetitive, but it's exactly what you'd expect in a Dekker book. There's the psycho serial killer whose point of view we get a glimpse of every now and then, the father who would do everything to save his daughter, and the police who are willing to help but don't really know what to do. In a way, it's almost like reading a CSI episode -- I can easily imagine Mac Taylor/Gary Sinise as Ryan Evans. Dekker is also still very descriptive, but not too much that it gets gross -- just a tad disturbing, enough to make you look over your shoulder or wonder at the things that bump at night, or develop an aversion to Noxzema, in the case of BoneMan's Daughters . It's still very well-written and you know in the end that the good guys will still prevail.

That being said, however, I felt that this wasn't really at par with the other Dekker novels I've read. I thought some parts were a bit repetitive and I wanted to skim some parts that felt a little unimportant to me. The ending wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be, either -- and I felt that there wasn't much change in the characters as there should be. The Christian concept wasn't fully explored, too, IMHO, and you'd need to read the author's afterword to know why he wrote the novel (that story, I loved). As good as the details were done in the emotional and brutal scenes, the overall story kind of lacked. In the end, I was just happy I finished reading it, not because it was such a good story.

I'm kind of sad that this latest Dekker read is kind of disappointing compared to his other books that I really liked. I will still read his other books, of course, and I'm hoping one of them will be as good (or even better) as Thr3e or the Circle series.
...more

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Dec 07, 2009 Alisha B rated it it was ok

It is possible that I am disappointed in it because of the genre confusion. It is, as it turns out, more of a crime/detective novel… something like Coben, but not nearly as good. There is nothing like wetting your whistle for a tall glass of icy sweet tea, only to guzzle down lukewarm pickle juice instead. So the fact I was geared up for some Clive and got Coben-knock-off didn’t help. But… that wasn’t all.

As I read along, there were ways that Dekker wrote than just annoyed me. Choices in words a ...more

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Jul 12, 2015 Bethany-Kris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, horror, thriller, favorite-author, freak-me-out, read-in-2015, off-the-grid, kidnapping, suspense, nonfiction

Because ... apparently I'm in the mood to scare myself sleepless for a week.
Why not? ...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Stevedutch rated it did not like it · review of another edition

This book is far removed from being even average 'serial killer' fayre and it is a mystery as to what the author's motives were in writing it - over and above, of course, making a few bob. It begins interestingly enough with a naval intelligence officer on a routine mission in, supposedly, Iraq, being kidnapped by terrorists. He then has to watch innocent children having every bone in their bodies broken in revenge for the deaths of the innocent Iraqi children caught up in the conflict. It's all This book is far removed from being even average 'serial killer' fayre and it is a mystery as to what the author's motives were in writing it - over and above, of course, making a few bob. It begins interestingly enough with a naval intelligence officer on a routine mission in, supposedly, Iraq, being kidnapped by terrorists. He then has to watch innocent children having every bone in their bodies broken in revenge for the deaths of the innocent Iraqi children caught up in the conflict. It's all downhill from that point on.

Much is made of the cool calculating, highly trained Commander Evan's experience and skills and we are given a brief biography in which we learn that his service to his country has left him distanced from a wife and daughter making lives from themslves back home: lives that include, in the mother's case, sleeping with the local DA and, in the daughter's, beginning a modelling career. His traumatic experience causes him to reassess his life and Evans returns home with the intention of being reunited with his family and making up for all of the lost time. However, both his wife and daughter have other ideas and the gradual realization that he may have lost them, together with his recent experience in the Iraqi desert cause Evans to suffer an emotional breakdown.

Coincidentally, a serial killer christened the 'Boneman' by the press, who has been released due to a technicality concerning evidence presented at his trial, resumes his killing spree in Austin, Texas, home of Ryan's estranged family! I won't spell it out but you can probably guess what happens next! Okay, realistically, Evan's breakdown is understandable and we can accept that. What is not acceptable - it is fiction and supposed to be entertainment after all - is that this supposed cool, highly trained and skilled military man turns out to be a complete bumbling incompetent in the face of real and present danger.

Ultimately, the interweaving of the lives of each of the characters is carried out so mechanically and the characters drawn with such a lack of skill that the reader is without anyone with whom to empathize and this reader, at least, was hoping for the killer to succeed in polishing them all off in order to put them and me out of our misery!

When, mercifully, I came to the end I could barely restrain the urge to physically destroy the book but reasoned that, at least, the local charity shop might benefit from this utter garbage. ...more

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Mar 03, 2010 Kathrynn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Fans of Intense Thrillers

Shelves: fiction-thriller, reviewed, theme-uniform, 2010, theme-hero_hard_to_like, owned, theme-fbi, theme-serial_killer

Picked this up on a whim because I was in the mood for an intense thriller. I got that in spades in "BoneMan's Daughters." There is quite a bit of backstory building, but all of it became important, like piecing a puzzle together. Most of the story is set in and around Austin, Texas (2009/10); although, the beginning is in Iraq. How what happened in Iraq fell into place with what happened in the Austin, Texas area was great story weaving, imo.

The main character is Captain Ryan Evans, a Naval In ...more

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Dec 07, 2009 Becky rated it it was ok

I had never read a Ted Dekker book before - I picked this one up off of the "hot list" stack at the library. Sorry to say it, but I most likely won't be picking up another.

The book has what should be a very captivating beginning - torpedoes being launched at Humvees, a solider being captured by a terrorist. But it just wasn't all that interesting in the way it was written. Scenes went by too quickly - you felt that the author was in a hurry to get to something else but had to explain the backgro ...more

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Jun 14, 2009 Wendy rated it it was ok

This book just really seemed to go all over the place, with no real direction.

** Major spoilers **

I see that he was trying to show a hardened military-type guy who had 'broken' and was no longer able to keep up that persona. But all the crying was really annoying. The 'Kahlid' Boneman thing seemed sort-of tacked on, not realistic at all.

Bethany was a spoiled brat, and all Ryan talked about was spoiling her more..giving her anything she wanted.

The serial killer was bland. I also didn't underst ...more

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Apr 13, 2020 Robjr73 rated it liked it · review of another edition

I might lean towards 3.5 stars on this. This book is exactly what it claims to be by reading the back cover. Creepy serial killer, flawed hero, surprise twist at the end...

You’ve probably read books similar to this. This one is slightly better than ok. My issues with it were that all of the characters are unlikable for one. I usually like to be rooting for at least one of the characters but I didn’t like any of them. Also (and without giving away spoilers) I didn’t like the way the author handle ...more

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Jun 18, 2009 Carmaletta Hilton rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was classified mystery, but after reading it, I think it should definitely be in Christian Fiction. I felt as that the story had very little merit on its own. If you took out the excessive religious posturing and the anti-war propoganda, the story itself of BoneMan wouldn't have legs to stand on. The story was very weak.

I've heard really good things about Ted Dekker, but this book just fell flat on all points. Our hero isn't really a hero. He's a father that wanted nothing to do with h This book was classified mystery, but after reading it, I think it should definitely be in Christian Fiction. I felt as that the story had very little merit on its own. If you took out the excessive religious posturing and the anti-war propoganda, the story itself of BoneMan wouldn't have legs to stand on. The story was very weak.

I've heard really good things about Ted Dekker, but this book just fell flat on all points. Our hero isn't really a hero. He's a father that wanted nothing to do with his family until he was taken in the desert. He lives by the belief that one is automatically forgiven when an apology is given. When that turned out not to be true, he sulked and he cried a lot.

Bethany's turnaround in the end just came out of nowhere. Until that very moment, she hated him, now it's "I love you, I love you, I love you." The realism in her story was lost. She was abandoned by her father and left to be raised by a selfish woman filled with hatred for her father. Yes, she's going to hate him because that's what she was taught to do. That doesn't just disappear, especially when she's not aware at that time that her mother is dead. Also, the music that she listened to was a big jumbled mess. One chapter she's singing along to a song about making love all night, the next she's listening to Christian rock? And, a reader should not have to Google every single band that's brought up. I still don't know who Brianna is because when I put the lyrics in Google, I couldn't find that song, and when I put Brianna in, I mostly came up with a pre-teen girl that I don't buy Bethany would listen to.

I felt cheated by the escape scene and most of the torture scenes. I like books that show, not tell, and with everything, I was told and not shown. The torture and the escape would have had more bite if Dekker had actually shown it. Experiencing all of this with Ryan would have made it easier for me to accept and understand the massive amount of crying that he did. With being told what happened, I found myself often rolling my eyes and muttering, "Again? You're crying again, really?"

BoneMan was just filled with problems. First of all, a little consistency would have been nice. Is it BoneMan? Is it The BoneMan? Pick one. Second, his motives as a serial killer clashed with the religious platform of the book. We were put into BoneMan's head. We were shown what he thinks and why he's done the things that he's done. The only reference to religion was his insistence that he was Satan. He never actually gave us a reason why this was all some kind of big religious thing as opposed to just being your run of the mill serial killer. The religious reasons were speculated on by Hortense, but other than that... Nope. He just hated his mother and he wanted a daughter. That leads us to another problem, though. He only found out that Bethany was really his daughter a month before he took her, so WHY did he want a daughter? Why did he want a daughter so badly that he killed those other girls before he even knew that he'd actually had a daughter before? And how did he even know, from the picture and the words on the back of it, that Bethany was his daughter? BoneMan was a horribly weak villain. And the repetition! There were two things, nay three. I got really tired of reading that.

This book was just one big ball of jumbled mess. There was rarely any flow. The antagonists were over the top in their malevolence, and a lot of the story just didn't make any sense. I felt like I was reading a book by someone who didn't care anymore, like I was reading someone who was now writing for the paycheck, or because he had to, instead of because he wanted to. I felt like he had no emotional connection with the story and he was just putting words to paper. If I pick up another Dekker book, it would definitely be one of his older ones. It would be interesting to see how his writing and passion for the art has changed over the years. ...more

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Jan 15, 2013 April Thrush rated it did not like it

I use to be a huge fan of Ted Dekker and collected many of his books, but this author started to get increasingly worse in his writings. I was buying his books as soon as they came out, and likewise I got my hands on this one once it came out. This book was the final straw for me, and after reading this book, I no longer read from Dekker and got rid of all his books I had collected.

This book in particular I remember giving me nightmares, and I trembled in fear after reading about the antagonist ...more

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Mar 30, 2009 Smoore rated it it was amazing

I have long been a Dekker devotee. Ever since I got the Circle Trilogy for Christmas back in '04, I have had a lasting obsession with the works of this man. I have read all but a few of his books—many more than once—and have seen his writing mature from Blessed Child back in 2000 through the massive Books of History Chronicles until now. BoneMan's Daughters is by far the most developed, intricate, gripping story I have ever read.

A good book is one that when you set it down, you cannot tell if y ...more

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Feb 10, 2019 Sav Couey rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 02, 2009 Cheryl rated it really liked it

Intelligence officer Ryan Evans has never been much of a husband to Celine or a father to his daughter, Bethany. In fact to avoid having to deal with Celine, Ryan volunteers for dangerous missions in far away counties. His latest mission has him gathering data in the Middle East. Ryan had called it a day and was travelling back to camp when the Humvee that he was riding in was attacked. Ryan gets knocked out. When Ryan awakes, he is in a room with a man by the name of Kahlid, who interrogates hi ...more

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Jan 05, 2011 Mati rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: detective, 2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was pain to read. I was waiting for something to happen but the plot line was set from the beginning the serial killer who was as psycho as the main hero and his family and people around. There were lot of emotions, which were pushed beyond bearable horizont of hysterical emotions.
Lets get to the business. There was a little nutty serial killer who has father and daughter issue and nasty hobby to pick teenage girls in order to make perfect daughters from them, which they failed and hi ...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it liked it

Shelves: serial-killer

Ted Dekker has apparently made a name for himself in the suspense thriller genre, but "BoneMan's Daughters" is the first one I have ever read. Dekker started his writing career by writing Christian horror fiction (an honest-to-goodness genre, I swear) and, while his more recent novels as exemplified by this one have toned down somewhat on the proselytizing, there are still very strong Christian and faith-based themes running throughout. "BoneMan's Daughters" is about a man named Ryan Evans, a Ma ...more

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Sep 22, 2009 Cici rated it it was ok

Shelves: horror

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I kinda had a love/hate relationship with this book.
I thought the beginning was really disturbing but it got my attention.
The story idea was good but the characters kept irratating me.
Boneman was a pretty good role for a sicko serial killer.
Bethany was kinda spoiled brat that hates her dad because he "abandoned" her and was in war for two years, but he provides for them, does she not even relieze how many fathers don't even care enough to see or send any money to their children??? But, she becam ...more

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Mar 08, 2014 Karen rated it it was ok

My rating is 2-1/2. I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Several times I had to force myself to pick it up. I found the beginning of the book different than what I expected but at the same time I also enjoyed the war aspect. The BoneMan's point of view was an interesting addition to the story too. Overall, I found the dialogue repetitive and the story moved slowly for me. I also felt no connection with any of the characters, except for Ryan.

The story also "jumped" ahead a few times ...more

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Feb 14, 2014 Clark Hallman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, thriller

BoneMan’s Daughters by Ted Dekker is a crime thriller that is hard to put down. Commander Ryan Evans, who was captured by the enemy in Afghanistan and psychologically tortured before he escaped, returns home to reconcile with his wife and daughter. Unfortunately he finds himself caught in a desperate struggle to protect his family from “The BoneMan,” a serial killer who murders women by breaking their bones without breaking their skin until they die. However, Ryan Evans may not be the heroic man ...more

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Aug 04, 2017 Rebecca Hill rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Perfect Father... or the Perfect Terror Ryans life is semi-perfect. Husband, father, Naval officer, and adventures, it is what every person dreams of. But under the idyllic look, the cracks appear. His wife has never been faithful, his daughter loathes him, and when he is captured in the desert of Iraq, the remnants of his family fall apart.Told he is not wanted, and a divorce pending, Ryan is adrift. But when his daughter is kidnapped by the serial killer known as the BoneMan, his entire wo ...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Dindy rated it did not like it

Shelves: mystery, audio

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Boneman's Daughters by Ted Dekker is without a doubt the most awful book I have read in a long time. It was so awful that I listened to all of it just to see how bad it would get. (I read the audio version.)

SPOILER ALERT: THIS REVIEW WILL BE FULL OF SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT THEM, DON'T READ FURTHER!

Military Intelligence Officer Ryan Evans is captured near Fallujah and tortured in an unusual way-- Iraqui children are brought into his interrogation room and their bones are broken in an attempt Boneman's Daughters by Ted Dekker is without a doubt the most awful book I have read in a long time. It was so awful that I listened to all of it just to see how bad it would get. (I read the audio version.)

SPOILER ALERT: THIS REVIEW WILL BE FULL OF SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT THEM, DON'T READ FURTHER!

Military Intelligence Officer Ryan Evans is captured near Fallujah and tortured in an unusual way-- Iraqui children are brought into his interrogation room and their bones are broken in an attempt to force him to give the location of his wife and daughter to the Iraquis so they can be killed instead. It is supposed to be an exercise in making Ryan understand how the Iraquis feel about their children being killed by American bombings.

After Ryan manages to escape, he is sent back home to Texas. Suffering from PTSD, he tries to rekindle a broken relationship with his wife and adopted daughter. When his daughter is kidnapped by a serial killer known as Boneman, Ryan is forced to go to extraordinary lengths to try to save her.

Okay, first, I didn't like ANY of the characters in this book. Ryan alternated between smug confidence in his own intelligence and incredible naivete. His wife is an unbelievably narcissistic, hostile woman who manipulates, whines and acts like a preteen in her interactions with daughter Bethany. Bethany isn't bad as a teen-ager, and is probably the most likable person in the book.

Both Bethany and her mother have a deep hatred of Ryan that I am completely unable to understand. They keep referring to how Ryan abandoned them. Hello! He didn't abandon you! He is in the military and is repeatedly deployed. That's part of being in the military. When Ryan comes back home, he finds that his wife has a new boyfriend, the arrogant District Attorney, and that she wants a divorce. Okay, that's fine, but then through some astounding leaps of fancy, the District Attorney and Ryan's wife decide that Ryan is the Boneman, and they manage to convince the FBI investigating team of that fact.

As it happens, Ryan doesn't find out about Bethany's kidnapping for several days because he was slapped with a restraining order after forcing his way into the DA's office and beating him up. When he does finally find out about it, he goes to his wife's house and is arrested and taken in for questioning. Somehow, despite the obvious conflict of interest, and despite the fact that it is an FBI case, the District Attorney is allowed to interrogate Ryan. At one point Ryan's wife comes into the interrogation room and screams at him, demanding to know what he has done with their daughter. Ryan still hasn't managed to catch on to the fact that his wife hates him and that all of these people think he's guilty. He has a phone message from the Boneman and doesn't comprehend why these people don't understand why he is the only person who can rescue Bethany.

Ryan is put in jail, but he escapes and he goes off to try to meet Boneman and rescue his daughter. It turns out that Boneman wants to test Ryan's worthiness so he tells Ryan to kidnap the District Attorney. Ryan does so and transports the DA to a hiding place where Boneman has helpfully drawn diagrams of how to break bones without breaking the skin. Boneman directs Ryan to break the DA's bones, but, alas, Ryan only manages to break one bone before he collapses in a sobbing heap. He actually collapses in a sobbing heap lots of times in this book. He also has blackouts and lots of moments of uncontrollable rage because he has PTSD because of what he went through in Iraq.

Before he went to kidnap the DA, Ryan contacted the counselor who was assigned to him by the military, who also happens to be a Catholic priest. For some reason Ryan tells the priest that he wants him to go to the authorities and tell them where he is taking the DA, but he doesn't want him to do so until sunrise. The priest actually agrees to do this. When the authorities swoop into the hiding place at sunrise, they find the DA tied to a bed with a broken arm and Ryan collapsed on the floor.

Back to jail Ryan goes, but not for long. He convinces the FBI Agent in charge to let him go and set a trap for Boneman, however Boneman kidnaps him. Boneman tries to get Bethany to break her father's bones, but Bethany can't do it, so Boneman tells Ryan to leave. Ryan starts to leave but then goes back to rescue Bethany. The two of them overpower Boneman and tie him up. They leave together, walking off into the sunset, all troubles between them forgotten.

This book is full of outlandish scenarios, and leaves lots of loose ends. Why was Ryan's wife convinced that Ryan was the one who broke her finger the night Bethany was kidnapped, for instance? What happens at the end of the book? Bethany's mother has been killed by Boneman and her dad has serious psychological issues. Are they just going to pick up their lives and go on as if nothing ever happened? Why did Ryan's wife hate him so much to begin with? Her antipathy toward him was far out of proportion than just plain feeling neglected because he was deployed a lot.

The book also showed a lack of knowledge about military procedures. When Ryan was held captive in Iraq and then during his week's of recovery, no one bothered to inform his wife and daughter. One of his counselors tried to call his wife to discuss his homecoming, but was speedily dismissed by his wife. However, how were Ryan's wife and daughter so completely disconnected from the military machine? Did they not avail themselves of military health care? Did no one in the military make any attempts to notify his family when he was captured? The author tried to make the claim that the wife no longer participated in the military lifestyle, however there are still military protocols that are followed, and I find it very hard to believe that they all fell by the wayside just because his wife didn't like them.

If you want to read a badly written book that gives a totally unrealistic depiction of an investigation into a serial killer's kidnapping of the daughter of an Army Intelligence Officer, this book will be right up your alley. If you want to read a well written thriller by people that actually attempt to portray a realistic example of investigatory techniques, read something by James Lee Burke. It will be much more worth your time. ...more

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Jul 08, 2017 Cindy rated it it was ok

Shelves: summer-bingo, bookopoly-challenge, popsugar-challenge

This was just okay for me - I think I was expecting more from this. It didn't quite hit the mark either as a mystery or as a thriller. The first part of the novel - where the hero Ryan, an intelligence officer, is taken prisoner in desert and mentally tortured by watching children brutally killed - seems to have little to do with the rest of the book (besides breaking Ryan). He escapes and returns home only to find his wife in love with the Austin DA and his teenage daughter estranged. The DA ha ...more

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Aug 24, 2018 Kalyn Barrick rated it liked it

This story was by no means bad but I didn’t connect well with the characters. There were some interesting twists and it was definitely dark and intriguing. I enjoyed it but it isn’t at the top of my Dekker list.

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Sep 11, 2017 Laura rated it it was amazing

You ever have one of those books you just know that you figured it out, and then bam, it's totally opposite of your thinking? I really, really loved this book. The best I have read of Dekker's. ...more

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Apr 19, 2017 Frieda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Good Book .. worth the read

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Apr 04, 2020 Lindsay Lawson rated it it was ok

2.5 stars. I picked this book up from my church's library because it looked like an interesting read, but it fell a little flat for me. I finished it quickly because I was hoping that it would pick back up but there are so many gaps in the plot. At times it felt so repetitive and almost like a high schooler wrote it. It could have been such a thrilling exciting read but I feel like Dekker got bored and gave up. ...more

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May 01, 2009 Jessica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2009, first-reads

Wow!! Amazing book that begged me to keep turning the pages. This is the type of book that grabs you with a firm hold and is impossible to put down.

There is no doubt when reading this book that it was written by a man. While reading chapter one, this seemed like it would be a downfall (based on my personal taste); it seemed like a book I would not be able to relate to. As I reached chapter two, I found myself much more encapsulated than I thought I would be, realizing that the story's beginnings Wow!! Amazing book that begged me to keep turning the pages. This is the type of book that grabs you with a firm hold and is impossible to put down.

There is no doubt when reading this book that it was written by a man. While reading chapter one, this seemed like it would be a downfall (based on my personal taste); it seemed like a book I would not be able to relate to. As I reached chapter two, I found myself much more encapsulated than I thought I would be, realizing that the story's beginnings with the tale of an Army convoy being taken down by enemy fire would set the stage for what to me, was a riveting, insightful, and dare I say, life-altering book.

This entire book was a very powerful metaphor daring the reader to take a closer look at the impact of war. The main character, Captain Ryan Evans had chosen his successful Navy career over his family for many years until one fateful day in the desert when he was taken hostage. His gruelling days as a prisoner gave him a new perspective about what life is all about. He made a promise to himself to seek out redemption with his family at home, particularly, his 16-year old daughter, Bethany.

Throughout the novel, Evans discovers that Bethany is truly his entire life and sets out to save her from a serial killer who has taken her. The situation flashes him back to when he was a hostage providing him with clear insight into the damage that war does to families when taking innocent victims. This new view of life changed him forever, and drove him to be a better person, a better father.

The book is chock full of irony since Evan's long military career was spent analyzing all of the intricacies of war, but from a very broad viewpoint. When he was forced to truly see the casualties, the pain of the innocent families who are impacted, his life changed. And so did mine. I will never again see war as the best means to an end. This book has truly opened my eyes to the evil that exists when innocent families are put in the crossfire of nations trying to acheive political peace.
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About Ted Dekker

Ted Dekker

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Ted Dekker is known for novels that combine adrenaline-laced stories with unexpected plot twists, unforgettable characters, and incredible confrontations between good and evil. Ted lives in Austin with his wife LeeAnn and their four children.

Books by Ted Dekker

Black: The Birth of Evil (The Circle, #1)

White: The Great Pursuit (The Circle, #3)

Green: The Beginning and the End (The Circle, #0)

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The best-selling thriller writer borrows from the darkest recesses of his imagination in The Priest's Graveyard, a new novel about a man and a...

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“Evil was predictable, always painfully expected.” — 41 likes

“no one wanted to look at the common evils of society. Very few were willing to put aside their own pursuit of happiness long enough to consider the effects of greed and jealousy around them. From what she'd seen, humans were essentially troubled. For every one behind bars, another ten deserved to be behind bars, but that would put one in ten Americans behind bars.” — 27 likes

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