The Priests Graveyard by Ted Dekker

April 19th 2011 by Center Street 

Hardcover, 416 Pages

Review Copy

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.

Review

One minute your a young girl traveling across the country to make a better life, the next your a strung out heroin addict dying in an alley, the next your being saved by a man who you think is an angel but actually is a demon who punishes you with his sick tricks and then your working with a vigilante priest who kills the scum of the earth. It could only be in a Ted Dekker novel that we find the lives of Renee and Danny. A woman dragged through every possible horror you can imagine and a man who has witnessed enough heartache to become a callused being who takes on the role of God. When these two meet they discover they have one very important thing in common: killing a man named Jonathan, which is only the beginning for these ill-fated characters. Renee and Danny share a story of shifting perspectives so the reader gets the full effect of the downward spiral each character is facing. Once they team up and begin their killing spree, secrets, twists and even romance play a part in bringing about events that will change them forever.

For me, reading this brought a twist of emotions, I was fascinated, grossed out and angry all at the same time. I loved the characters and I hated them. I hated what they were doing, but I hated who they were killing, it was such a rollercoaster. Renee the victim turned warrior although important to the plot line seemed more created to be very bendable and able to transition a little too easy with the flow of the story. I found her almost divided into two characters, the first being the naive street girl who traded one addiction for the other, clad in her pink pj’s and then the tough- no ones gonna get me woman. It was easier for me to see her as the business suit wearing woman on the prowl to avenge her lover, rather than the latter, I mean obviously who wants to see a woman portrayed as a weak pj wearing sex slave?

I wondered many times as her character developed where her bravery came from and how she broke out of the naive shell she had been trapped in for months...years...weeks?? Her codependency was so relevant in the first part, even with Danny once they met, so the immediate shift to psycho killer was abrupt for me as the reader. Renee seems to find this inner strength to move on and repress all her bad memories of the things Lamont did to her, even though the readers are not shown all the gruesome details, we know Renee is carrying some major baggage. Shes obsessed with cleanliness, organization, not eating meat and she cleanses herself multiple times a day, in the way that Lamont taught her.

(I couldn’t help but think of that freaky guy from Silence of Lambs yelling “It Puts the Lotion on the Skin”) whenever she would start talking about the daily one, two, three cleanse. When I finally found out what it was I was surprised, I really didn't see that line of thought.

I think that was the most intriguing aspect of the book, the game of show and tell and some of the scenes are pretty nasty, but a lot the reader conjures up in their own minds. We don’t see actual rape scenes but we know rape is happening, we don’t see Lamont abusing Renee (besides the whole prisoner thing) but we know he's doing something to her behind closed doors, the severity of it isn’t reveled until later but even then we are left with enough information to put the pieces together. Danny was much more readable to me as a character, he came off with an almost Dexter like feel and I understood his anger coming from such a horrid background and while I knew what he was doing was wrong I couldn’t help but sympathize with his motivations. Despite the sympathy though, Danny and Renee had as much a right to take justice into their own hands as the person they were killing had the right to (insert atrocity here) and at first I wasn't happy with the characters outcomes, it was like after reading this I had become the vigilante reader, however pondering over what happened, I think the message I can pull out of this darkness and death is that grace can cover a multitude of sin and that even after forgiveness there is still consequences.

I’m not surprised by the content in The Priests Graveyard, Dekker has always been one to stretch the limits in acceptable inspirational fiction. While in an interview he stated that being “pigeon holed” as a Christian author was never what he wanted, the fact is most of his fans associate him as a Christian author, that being said  while many Christian readers will hate and love this, I wouldn't classify this novel as a Christian book, far from it for that matter. I think this has definite appeal to the general market which will most likely embrace this dark, twisted tale and bring about a whole slew of new fans for the very talented author. 

Rating

The Priests Graveyard is recommended to adult readers and for fans of suspense and thrillers. Contains: Graphic violence- including murder, torture and blood and guts, sexuality (nothing graphic), rape, drug use, domestic abuse, child abuse, alcohol use and religious wars.

4.5/5- Suspense/Thriller

Thanks to Center Street for review Copy