My review of The Priest's Graveyard by Ted Dekker!

About the book:

Two abandoned souls are on the hunt for one powerful man. Soon, their paths will cross and lead to one twisted fate.

Danny Hansen is a Bosnian immigrant who came to America with hopes of escaping haunted memories of a tragic war that took his mother's life. Now he's a priest who lives by a law of love and compassion. It is powerful men and hypocrites who abide by legal law but eschew the law of love that most incense Danny. As an avenging angel, he believes it is his duty to show them the error of their ways, at any cost. 

Renee Gilmore is the frail and helpless victim of one such powerful man. Having escaped his clutches, she now lives only to satisfy justice by destroying him, regardless of whom she must become in that pursuit.

But when Danny and Renee's paths become inexorably entangled things go very, very badly and neither of them may make it out of this hunt alive.

Judge not, or you too will be judged.

My review:

Call me twisted, but I love the way Dekker's mind works. Whenever I read his thrillers I always vacillate between being freaked out and being impressed by his subtle theology. In the end I am always edified by his insight into the human condition, which is the most important thing for me when I read a book. The takeaway value of Dekker's thrillers is priceless...for me, anyway. I get something out of each story and it's not merely thrills and excitement. I think about spiritual things, which is something I don't get out of anyone else's suspense/thrillers. Like I said, call me twisted, but I love them! 

His novels are always page-turners for me, too. And the depth of the love themes is mind-blowing to me, but only because I see it. I'm sure many people miss the message because they aren't looking for it, but I see how he shines light in the darkness every time. It's funny because I never feel grossed out or disgusting after I read one of his novels. My pulse gets pounding and my adrenaline goes up because I am truly worried for the people in the book (which is nuts because they aren't real, or so I keep telling myself) and somehow Dekker manages to make me smile at the end of each and every book of his that I read. 

Dekker "gets" how complex the human heart is and he does a fantastic job with redemption themes. This story shows how it's impossible for man to live by the law and how grace is the only answer...and he shows this through serial killers. Crazy, but true. They may be killing for what seems to be noble reasons, but in the end they are still killing. Yet at the same time he makes them fully human. He shows how trauma twists the way people view things. All brilliantly portrayed and executed...literally. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that I loved this book!

The Priest's Graveyard was published by Center Street and released in April 2011.