BONEMAN’S DAUGHTERS
Ted Dekker
Center Street
Thriller
ISBN: 9781599951959
Ted Dekker has written over 20 novels and garnered a loyal fan base throughout the years. A bestselling author, he is perhaps not as widely known as some of his peers, in part because he has achieved a reputation as a writer of inspirational thrillers. This, to say the least, is an oversimplification of his work, and those who turn away from it for that reason only are cheating themselves. Dekker’s novels are inspirational --- isn’t any book in which good triumphs over evil? --- but his portraits of the darker side of humanity are as chilling (maybe even more so) as those you’ll find in any genre.
BONEMAN’S DAUGHTERS may be the book that brings Dekker to the attention of the wider, so-called “mainstream” audience his work deserves. Chilling from beginning to end, it is by turns pulse-pounding, disturbing, enlightening and shocking, sometimes all within the same paragraph. Its main character is Ryan Evans, a decent but conflicted man who has let his desires confuse his priorities and duties. Evans is a U.S. intelligence officer whose career track has taken him away from his wife Celine and teenaged daughter Bethany. Celine is a serial adulterer --- whether by her own failings or through Evans’s absences is left somewhat vague --- while 16-year-old Bethany is on the cusp of a modeling career that will bring her fortune, attention and fame: everything she wants, and nothing she really needs, such as adult supervision.
Matters come to a head when Evans, on assignment in Iraq, is captured while on patrol and subjected to a series of horrific experiences. After escaping with his life, Evans realizes he has been guilty of neglecting his wife and daughter. Still reeling from the trauma he sustained resulting from the acts he was forced to witness as a prisoner, Evans returns home to Texas, only to find that his wife has taken a lover --- a local district attorney, no less --- and that his daughter wants nothing to do with him. His impulsive, desperate reaction results in a restraining order being imposed, preventing Evans from approaching either of them. He retreats into himself, effectively isolating himself from everyone, until the unthinkable happens: BoneMan returns.
BoneMan is a fiend who has been on a killing spree in Texas for several years. His modus operandi was to kidnap a teenage girl, hold her for several days, and then murder her by breaking every bone in her body. A suspect was arrested, tried and convicted, and there were no more killings for two years. But when the suspected killer is freed on an appeal, an abduction of a teenage girl occurs almost immediately. Now the authorities have a new theory: they believe that Ryan Evans is BoneMan. The murders stopped when Evans was in Iraq, and his debriefing following his capture indicates some eerie similarities between his captivity and BoneMan’s activities.
It is not the accusation that troubles Evans so much as the fact that the young woman who has been abducted is Bethany. Worse, BoneMan is taunting Evans directly, challenging him to save his daughter by performing the one act he cannot do: the murder of an innocent. Evans is possessed with a canny intelligence, as well as a deep and abiding faith. With time running out, however, he must face issues that are excruciatingly painful for him yet must be confronted if he is to save her life, let alone their relationship.
Dekker tackles uncomfortable scenarios head-on; even seasoned thriller readers may cringe at some of his set-ups (I read a good deal of the book’s last half with my eyes half-closed). But redemption, in any form, does not come easily or prettily --- read some contemporaneous accounts of the Crucifixion that haven’t been prettied up for Sunday services, and it will give you a whole new viewpoint on life --- and Evans’s torment as he walks the long road back is certainly consistent with that. From beginning to end, BONEMAN‘S DAUGHTERS is an addictive, compelling novel from an author whose optimum popularity and best work are perhaps yet to be seen.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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