Book Review: The Priest's Graveyard by Ted Dekker

The Priest's Graveyard

The last thing Renee Gilmore remembers is being rescued by a pair of unknown arms after her drug-dealer boyfriend attempts to murder her. She wakes up in a beautiful glass house surrounded by doctors and the man that saved her life, Lamont Myers. Lamont offers her protection, if she abides by his rules. Among these; she must not leave the house, making her the bird in his gilded cage.Danny Hansen is a Bosnian immigrant who came to America to escape the bloodshed of his country and the memories of his own involvement. Danny is a priest who lives by a strict moral code, one which values the loving of others above all else. It is those that pretend to abide by religious and legal law but intentionally harm others that insence Danny. And he believes it is duty to show them the error of their ways. Those few that admit and renounce their behavior are forgiven and set free, but never without a severe reminder of their wrongdoings. Those that refuse to admit to their behavior are killed.
A year after Renee is rescued by Lamont he is murdered and she vows to seek revenge. At the same time, Danny has continued to carve a swath of judgement and punishment.
In their individual pursuits, Danny and Renee's paths become entangled and before long it is clear that neither of them may make it out of this hunt alive.

My Thoughts

I started to read this book because it is the June book for the Virtual Book Club on Facebook. I read the first two chapters to be ready for the first night of discussions, but soon after the meeting I realized I just had to read the rest of the book. So I took that night and the next day to finish it. I could not put it down.

I will have to back up and state that I typically read and review YA novels. This is not YA by any means. However, it is a great book. I was completely sucked into this world. What I liked best about the book was how I was continually being challenged on my own personal thoughts and beliefs while reading the book. I found myself judging the characters and pondering the questions posed to them and themselves while reading.

I loved the suspense and edge of your seat events that happened. I am a fan of serial killer type books. One could argue whether this is a serial killer book or not, but I do love to read these. This is a level above the rest because it is not cheesy and actually through it all causes the reader to actually think about what we would do in certain situations.

I was interested in finding out how he was going to bring these two characters together and it worked out perfectly. Not what I expected, but even better. The ending caught me off guard. I was not expecting the ending, but it was better than expected. It actually gave me pause to go back and rethink everything I was thinking during the reading.

I look forward to a book club with the novel not only on FB, but also in person(I run a book club and this would be a great one to discuss).

I have only read one other book by Ted Dekker, but after reading this book, I need to go back and read some of his other works.

This is a perfect summer read. Check it out