Rating: 3 1/2 stars

A serial killer called The BoneMan has been behind bars for two years after killing seven girls who failed to be the perfect daughter. Now the killer is being released from jail on a technicality; they had the wrong man. Intelligence officer, Ryan Evans, has been in the Iraqi desert for two years and after being held captive and forced to witness innocent children getting their bones crushed one at a time; he manages to escape fairly unharmed, save deep psychological scars.

Evans is sent home to the wife and daughter he'd abandoned two years earlier for the military, determined to be the perfect father and husband. Heartily rejected by his family and legally restrained from coming near them, Evans continues to mentally unravel. Suddenly, all eyes are on Ryan Evans as once again, bones begin to break and his daughter, Bethany, becomes the latest victim. Could Evans be the real BoneMan?

After reading Ted Dekker's Kiss I had high hopes for BoneMan's Daughters. I love Dekker's page-turning style and ability to keep the mystery alive by adding the perfect twist just when you think you have it figured out. I wasn't disappointed this time, but there were moments when I had my doubts. At one point it seemed either too much effort was being made in throwing the reader off the trail by giving too many similarities or he was giving it away; both possibilities were annoying. I thought the BoneMan's MO of methodically breaking every bone in the body without breaking the skin, was creative and quite chilling. However, the man himself came off as stiff and sort of clumsy. Hooked on Noxzema lotion, BoneMan takes every opportunity to apply it liberally -- at one point BoneMan is scoping out his prey from behind a boulder and suddenly takes that moment to undress and reapply the lotion before continuing his task. All I could think of through most of this books was "it puts the lotion on, it does this whenever it's told".

I also took issue with Ryan Evans being too smart. Now I know he is an intelligence officer whose job it is to crack codes, look for patterns and read between the lines, but I thought if he wasn't BoneMan, then it was a little too convenient that he knew exactly what BoneMan's riddles meant and was able to send him one of his own over the radio. I've yet to see a serial killer who keeps his prey in a basement-like structure and listens to the radio, but apparently BoneMan does. When BoneMan tells Evans to bring him "the father of lies" or his daughter will die, Evans knows exactly who he was talking about; I, on the other hand, had no clue. Good thing for Bethany her life didn't depend on me figuring it out; I would have brought BoneMan Bobby Jindal.
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Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Center Street (April 14, 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-1599951959