Christian Psychological Thrillers....YEAH ITS A THING! The Bookbabe reviews The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

I was first introduced to Ted Dekker a few years ago; at the time I was seeing his books everywhere specifically The Circle Series. And I had also had a chance to watch Thr3e - a movie based on another of his psychological thrillers (I would recommend everyone see the movie it was really good). Some time ago I picked up the mass market paper back of The Bride Collector. The story had it all and I had every intention to reading it last summer while I was on a mystery kick. But it ended up on the TBR for June of this year. And honestly it was the fastest book I have read in a while. In the Bride Collector we are introduced to Federal Agent Brad Raines; he is a man with a singular focus - to catch the killer known as the Bride Collector before he can kill seven victims. Each of the women the killer selects fits the profile of the perfect bride and each are stepping stones to the woman who he believes to perfect. The Killer is clearly psychotic and is a religious nut.
He uses a warped sense of God's love to justify the killing of each of the women; because they are the most loved they need to die. God is calling these women home - he wants his brides and only the killer can give God what he wants. We begin to see that the killer is focused on revenge when he goes after a woman Brad is involved in. It is the one act in the story that lets us know the true motives of the killer. Little does Brad know but he is walking into the killers trap and he has to get help from an unlikely source (who is connected to the killer) in order to not only bring him down but to identify him.
I enjoyed the pace of this book. I could not wait to see what else Dekker had in store. The most moving part of this book for me was the way in which Dekker approached mental health and the treatment of those afflicted with mental illnesses. In the book we are introduced to The Center for Wellness and Intelligence which is an institution that caters specifically to those with mental illnesses that are highly intelligent. I found this interesting because a week or so before reading the book I had read an article linking intelligence to mental illness. I believe that Dekker was hip to something other people seemed to have been ignoring when this book was published in 2010. I would love to see Dekker tackle another serial killer; and I may get my chance as I own several of his books.
I gave The Bride Collector five out of five stars on Goodreads.