Review: Boneman's Daughter by Ted Dekker

Boneman's Daughters By Ted Dekker / Center Street Military intelligence officer Ryan Evans is hot on the trail of Boneman, a Texas serial killer who murders his victims by breaking their bones. Evans witnessed this torture technique when he was serving in Fallujah. Now he's a suspect and his daughter is Boneman's latest target! Can he clear himself and save his daughter? 432 pages, hardcover from Center Street.

REVIEW
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brief Summary:
Boneman’s Daughter is about a relentless serial killer, who abducts daughters and tries to make them his own. If they fail his hellish trails, they will meet the most cruel and unusual of deaths. He breaks their bones resulting in a slow descent into death through pain and internal bleeding. What’s amazing is his victim’s flesh is never harmed but kept pure and free from cuts and lacerations.

The story starts off with Ryan Evans, a military intelligence officer stationed in the desert. He returns home in the later chapters to bridge the huge gap of unfamiliarity with his wife and daughter. He hopes after all the years of his absence that they will still accept him; this is due to his neglect of communication and visitation with them for months and even years at a time. When he arrives, the rift between him and his family is ever-widening as he finds out that his wife can no longer tolerate him and is off gallivanting with another man. His daughter, angered by his neglect towards her, refuses to even speak with him, let alone be around him. His world seemed to be spiraling upside down, with divorce and rejection plummeting him into darkness. But just as if things couldn’t get worse, he wakes one day to find the malicious fiend, Boneman, has abducted his daughter. He, then embarks on a journey of redemption and love to save her, despite the false accusations pinned on him as being the abductor…

My Thoughts:
This is actually my first time reading an adult thriller and I really enjoyed it. The concept of a killer breaking the bones of his victims is pretty grotesque in itself. Even though the book is violent, it surprisingly isn’t very gory to me, so it shouldn’t make too many people queasy. I have nothing negative to say about the story or the characters; both were deep and defined beautifully. I thought it was so funny how the FBI and government seemed so clueless, all were rambling on trying to pin the deaths on anyone that seemed suspicious. The character of Ryan Evens is pretty interesting. Due to his line of work, he has trained hard to control his emotions and remain at a perfect ease through deadly situations, but when his daughter is the victim, the man has difficult moments trying to find reasonable ways out of some gruesome propositions from the Boneman. I also like the authors approach with the story. You won’t be reading just in the view of Ryan, the father, but you will also be delving into Boneman’s unusual whims as well, some of the things he does is kind of creepy, hah. The story is nicely paced and I believe the first few chapters will really grip you, making you want to read more and more until all the answers unfold.

If this book were judged on a movie content rating, I would make it PG-13 with V, for violence and L for language, although it is minimal and I can’t think of which words were used right now. I’m not fond of cussing in books and with Dekker, being a Christian author; I think he shouldn’t have to feel pressured to add the L content in his adult book.

Other than all that, Boneman’s Daughter is an interesting read, which will leave you longing to read till the very end. With fun twists and surprise moments, I’m sure this will be a grand thriller for any who are interested…

Rating: *****

Review by Fawn Carter, age 16
Blog: http:gahome2mom.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gahome2mom