The Bride Collector

Synopsis:

FBI Special agent Brad Raines is facing his toughest case yet. A Denver serial killer has killed four beautiful young women, leaving a bridal veil at each crime scene, and he's picking up his pace. Unable to crack the case, Raines appeals for help from a most unusual source: residents of the Center for Wellness and Intelligence, a private psychiatric institution for mentally ill individuals whose are extraordinarily gifted.

It's there that he meets Paradise, a young woman who witnessed her father murder her family and barely escaped his hand. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Paradise may also have an extrasensory gift: the ability to experience the final moments of a person's life when she touches the dead body.

In a desperate attempt to find the killer, Raines enlists Paradise's help. In an effort to win her trust, he befriends this strange young woman and begins to see in her qualities that most 'sane people' sorely lack. Gradually, he starts to question whether sanity resides outside the hospital walls...or inside.

As the Bride Collector picks up the pace-and volume-of his gruesome crucifixions, the case becomes even more personal to Raines when his friend and colleague, a beautiful young forensic psychologist, becomes the Bride Collector's next target.

The FBI believes that the killer plans to murder seven women. Can Paradise help before it's too late?

My Opinion:

Women of the Denver area are being targeted by a killer the FBI are calling The Bride Collector. The killer leaves his victims naked except for panties and a veil. The body is glued to the wall and the blood is drained from the victims.

FBI Special Agent Brad Raines is at a dead-end in his investigation. Nikki Holden, a forensic psychologist, working with Brad is of the opinion that the killer thinks of himself as the groom and that his preparations of the body are done out of love. When the killer leaves a note in the heel of his victim Brad and Nikki are at a loss to figure out the message that the killer is trying to convey.

Determining that the killer is both mentally ill and a genius the FBI turns to the Center for Wellness and Intelligence. The center is a private home for gifted, mentally ill residents. When Brad and Nikki visit the center, they meet residents Roudy, Andrea, Enrique and Paradise. People have their own set of personal problems but each is highly intelligent. Although the mannerisms of the group could be considered at times comical their mental problems are very real. The group works hard to decipher the meaning behind the message left by The Bride Collector and manage to reach a solution that is a big help to the FBI.

Brad suffers from a mental problem of his own in that he cannot forget his first love who killed herself because she didn’t think she was beautiful enough. The killer leaves a note that indicates he has taken a personal interest in Brad that makes Brad fear for anyone close to him.

Paradise seems to have the ability to see the final moments before a person’s death by touching the body. Brad works to gain Paradise’s trust and soon he is fascinated by Paradise who refers to herself as a skank because she feels she is ugly.

This is a fast-paced book and not your usual serial killer story. The Bride Collector ended too soon for me.