Ted Dekker's BoneMan's Daughters ~ Reviewed

BoneMan's Daughters (Hardcover)
by Ted Dekker (Author)
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Center Street (April 14, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599951959

Book Description:

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 hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives.

Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan’s estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryan goes after BoneMan on his own.

But the FBI sees it differently. New evidence points to the suspicion that Ryan is BoneMan. Now the hunter is the hunted, and in the end, only one father will stand.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Boneman's Daughters, go HERE

Review:

If you are having trouble staying awake at night, I have a cure. Read Ted Dekker’s latest thriller “Bone Man’s Daughter and you will not sleep for a week. The cover warns you that this book is “A new reason to keep the lights on and the doors locked” and it is more than a cute quote to sell the book. They are serious! My wife gave me this book because she knows I love to read Ted and actually have read everything he has written. I must confess that I almost didn’t read this one though. I mean I started to read it and there is one chapter that was so disturbing that I actually threw the book on the floor and told her I was done with it. I actually walked by it for two days before I decided to pick it up and finish what I started.

I have read most of Stephen King and I am a big Brandilyn Collins fan so it is not like I am thin skinned about my reading. This book has a dimension of violence, especially in the beginning, that is both intimate and personal and I warn you it is not for those who are timid.

Ted lives up to his reputation for creating adrenaline laced-plots with an incredible confrontation between good and evil and then also transcends the enmity between evil and innocence. What he does in this book is very different than anything he has written before, in my humble opinion. He has connected us with the helplessness and horror of the victim and in such a way that it festers fear in the very heart, as well as rage at the unanswered pleadings of those about to die. It makes it more than personal and this can be extremely disturbing.

For those with thicker skins, who see this type of mental manipulations as entertaining, I will promise you that this will be a fantasy ride worth climbing into. A virtual “Space Mountain” of a book, with twists and turns galore.

For those of you expecting a simple; action packed, thriller from the mind of Ted: I say beware! You are about to enter into the dark side where your heart will be removed, wrung out and replaced upside down and backwards, if at all and where you will certainly awake with a start at the things that go “BUMP” in the night. At least for awhile. Muuhahahaha….

Reviewed by: Fred St.Laurent


Bonus Review:

A serial killer who could be a few different men is dormant for two long years. It may be because the man who's been convicted has been placed behind bars, or maybe because he is yet uncaptured and fighting terrorism in a desert across the world. Or maybe the man is waiting and stalking his next victim.

Bizarre twists and turns keep the reader wondering, doubting and riveted. Plenty of horror and bursts of adrenaline will keep any Honken Chicken Club members buried under blankets for weeks, and may tilt even the most stoic of readers off-center. Heed the warning if you are squeamish.

Very classic Dekker. Good vs. evil where good is broken and imperfect and evil is broken and unredeemable. A spiritual allegory plays out clearly, especially in the last seven or eight chapters. The characters are an interesting blend of stereotype with unexpected elements that make them feel real. Though the FBI is involved this is a very tense suspense more so than a police procedural. If you are a Dekker fan, you won't find threads connecting Boneman to other stories unless I missed something. PG-13 overall, including a smattering of curse words, R in intensity and subject matter.

Reviewed by: Kelly Klepfer