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FBI Brad Raines is tracking a serial killer. This killer drains his victims of blood by drilling holes in their heels, and then hangs them on pegs, and leaves them wearing only underwear and a bridal veil. His notes are cryptic. The chase becomes personal when Raines's assistant becomes one of the victims. As part of the investigation, Raines checks out local mental health facilities, which brings him to the Center for Wellbeing and Intelligence. The Center is a private institution dealing with people who are highly intelligent and mentally ill - not an unusual combination, apparently. In one of the more unbelievable moments, Brad decides to use a small group of residents to help him work this case. He then becomes emotionally involved with one of the women in this small group. The point-of-view shifts from Raines to the killer and back again, with some side excursions into the mind of Paradise, the young woman at the Center. While this gives Dekker an opportunity to give the reader lots of information, it also gives him leeway to give the reader lots of information the reader may not want. Way too much time is spent on the internal thought processes of Paradise and her feelings for/about Raines; this really doesn't do much to further the plot and slows the pace down tremendously. While THE BRIDE COLLECTOR held my attention, there are some flaws. Dekker has a few data dumps, usually in conjunction with some low-grade discussion of the social ramifications of mental illness. Some of his plot devices push the envelope in terms of believability, but that's not really unusual in serial killer books. The ending is very deus ex machina, although Dekker does cloak it in just enough plausible circumstances to make it almost possible. Fans of the serial killer stuff will probably enjoy this, although it could use some judicious editing.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, December 2009
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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