About three seconds after I posted my Subway Novel Project intro, my brother reminded me that we’d had a discussion about just such a novel: BoneMan’s Daughter by Ted Dekker.

What prompted our earlier discussion: He had seen an ad for the book in the subway, with this tagline:

Would you kill an innocent man for a chance to save your daughter?

As he pointed out on his own blog, this question barely warrants a response. Any parent would do this without thinking twice. I know I would.

Mind you, I can talk tough because the situation implied by that tagline would never happen. But in the extremely unlikely case that it did happen, there would be no debate whatsoever. “What, kill this guy and you’ll let my daughter go? Okay.” *bang* “That was easy!”

As ridiculous as that tagline is, I was even more intrigued by this Amazon description of the book:

A Texas serial killer called BoneMan is on the loose, choosing young girls as his prey, His signature: myriad broken bones that torture and kill – but never puncture.

Military intelligence officer Ryan Evans is married to his work; so much so that his wife and daughter have written him out of their lives. Sent to Fallujah and captured by insurgents, he is asked to kill children not unlike his own. The method: a meticulous, excruciating death by broken bones that his captor has forced him to learn.

Returning home after the ordeal, a new crisis awaits. A serial killer is on the loose, and his method of killing is the same. Ryan becomes a prime suspect, which isn’t even the worst of his problems: Ryan’s daughter is BoneMan’s latest desire.

I smell a masterpiece!

Also promising: Mr. Dekker’s bio says he’s written 22 books. I don’t think anyone should write a novel when they’re 18, but let’s assume that he’s been writing novels since he became an adult. He’s now 47 years old, meaning he averages 1.3 novels per year.

I have a theory that an author’s ability to write quality fiction is indirectly proportional to the amount of books they put out. To a point, anyway; just because someone writes one novel every 20 years doesn’t make them a genius. But if you’re churning out books at a Steven King-ian rate, chances are those books aren’t very good. Why? Because writing a novel is excruciating.

So BoneMan’s Daughter it is! I shall purchase a copy posthaste. But any of you folks have an idea for a future installment, speak up.