THE NIGHT STALKER
James Swain
Ballantine Books
Thriller
ISBN: 9780345475527
I keep my collection of James Swain novels on my reference shelf. His readers --- and that collective group seems to grow by the day --- are not only entertained but also informed by each volume that is published. Swain’s Tony Valentine books focused on the gambling industry from both sides of the gaming table; his more recent Jack Carpenter works, of which THE NIGHT STALKER is his second and latest, explore the nightmare concept of child abduction and recovery.
Jack Carpenter is a former South Florida cop turned private investigator who is quite simply the best at what he does: reuniting abducted children with their parents. In THE NIGHT STALKER, he receives an unexpected call from Abb Grimes, whose grandson, Sampson, has been kidnapped. Abb is not just any citizen; he is a convicted serial killer who has run out of appeals and is facing his date with the executioner in just a few days. The abduction was accompanied with a warning to Abb: stop talking with the FBI. Abb wants his grandson found and reunited with his family before his own execution takes place.
Jack’s investigation, however, uncovers surprises almost from its onset. Jack learns that Sampson’s mother is Heather Rinker, his daughter’s childhood friend. Heather has taken several wrong turns in her life but is trying to get things back on track. She is also attempting to reconcile with Abb’s son, Jed, who is Sampson’s father. Jed, though, is a deeply disturbed individual, in no small part due to the legacy that he has inherited as the result of his father’s notoriety. Jack is initially most surprised by the resistance of local law enforcement to his investigation, particularly on the part of Ron Cheeks, who exhibits an almost palpably hostile attitude toward Jack. Ron, as well as an FBI agent assigned to Sampson’s case, is convinced that Jed is responsible for Sampson’s kidnapping.
When Abb’s attorney is found brutally murdered, in a fashion similar to the killings for which Abb was convicted, it appears that Jed has done more than inherit his father’s legacy: he seems to be actively carrying it out. All of Jack’s instincts and experiences, however, tell him that Jed, though given to bizarre behavior, is not the guilty party, and races to uncover the truth behind not only Sampson’s abduction but also a mystery that holds more than one innocent life in a precarious balance.
Swain paints the backstory of his work with meticulous research, which he uses to create a breathtaking narrative that jumps seamlessly from one scene to the next. Utilizing a combination of informed profiling, behavioral patterns and case histories, Swain gives Jack a real-world and caring persona to whom the reader can instantly relate. For example, there is a scene near the beginning of the book that involves the abduction of a child from an elementary school. In a few sentences, Swain sets up an apparently unsolvable puzzle that Jack resolves quickly, methodically and (most importantly) plausibly over the course of a few breathtaking pages.
As with the whole of THE NIGHT STALKER, the clock keeps ticking, but time is always about to run out. And once you start reading it, you won’t stop.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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