Nine Lives and Counting

Chapman (Where Mercy Is Shown, Mercy Is Given), who’s better known as Dog the Bounty Hunter, offers a plainspoken testimony to the faith that helped him transform from hard-living biker to TV celebrity. Raised by a Sunday school teacher mother and a physically abusive father, Chapman dropped out of school in the seventh grade and later joined a motorcycle gang. A debaucherous life of drinking, smoking, fighting, and petty theft followed, culminating in a five-year prison sentence for accessory to murder when his friend killed a man during a botched drug deal. Along the way, Chapman never lost his faith in God—he even spread the gospel to his fellow inmates. After being paroled, he found his life’s purpose as a bounty hunter who caught high-profile criminals and promised them a better life through Jesus. Eventually, he parlayed that success into the 2004–2012 reality TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter. Chapman speaks with welcome candor about the death of his fifth wife, Beth, from cancer, the strains of life in front of the camera, and his fraught relationships with several of his 12 adult children. Unfortunately, a final chapter that invites readers to accept Jesus forsakes the introspection that gives the rest of the book its appeal for the language of a sales pitch: “If I’m right and God is who He says He is, then you could lose everything by not believing. Why not give this a shot?” Still, Chapman’s Christian fans will be inspired by his impassioned ode to faith and redemption. (Apr.)