Customer Reviews

A Killing Night

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Some novels bowl you over from the moment you start reading them. The impact generated by others is more the result of a slow but steady accretion of little things done extremely well. Jonathon King's latest book, A KILLING NIGHT, belongs in the latter category. No one thing in its pages will "knock your socks off." After you've finished it, however, you'll find yourself impressed by the subtly powerful work of an author who keeps getting better with each successive outing. And when that author won an Edgar for his first novel, that's saying something!

Max Freeman, ex-Philadelphia street cop turned Florida-based PI, has left his remote cabin in the Everglades and is trying his hand at a partial return to "civilization." Living now in a beachfront condo owned by his friend and employer, attorney Billy Manchester, Max is adjusting to his new environment and doing good work. Then one day his cell phone rings. On the line is his former girlfriend, Detective Sherry Richards. But this is more than a mere social call. Richards wants Max's help with a case she is investigating. Five young women, all of whom worked as bartenders in various establishments in the Miami area, have gone missing. No problem for a guy with Max's skills and training, right? Wrong! It seems that Sherry's main suspect is himself an ex-Philadelphia patrol officer named Colin O'Shea who, one night years ago, saved Freeman's life in a dark alley back on their old beat.

Now Max is torn between his loyalty and obligation to a former "brother-in-blue" with a rather sordid history and his affection and respect for his erstwhile lover. Matters become even more complicated when Freeman begins to have serious doubts about O'Shea's guilt as well as about Richard's virtual obsession with the case. Meanwhile, the real criminal (maybe!) sets his sights on his next victim.

A KILLING NIGHT is a textured story told with a grace and nuance that belies the gruesome nature of the crimes with which it is concerned and the rather desperate circumstances of the main characters involved. While, as fans of the Max Freeman novels might suspect, the book is set on the sun-draped beaches and steamy swamps of South Florida, it also features Max on a trek back to the gray skies and slush covered streets of South `Philly where he's forced to do even more painful soul-searching. Maybe you can't go home again but, wherever you do go, home has a way of catching up with you.

At base, A KILLING NIGHT is a story about punishment and redemption. Along the way, it also raises some important questions about violence against women and the factors that cause and perpetuate it. Yet, without preaching, King also lets it be known where, ultimately, he believes the responsibility for one's actions lies ... with each individual. What you end up with here is a well-written and absorbing novel which accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish without the "cheap thrills" and "special effects" that have become (regrettably) a staple in the genre. (An expanded review of this novel appears in the APRIL/MAY '05 issue of MYSTERY NEWS)

A Killing Night is the fourth Max Freeman novel by Jonathon King. Max leaves the Everglades to assist his lawyer friend, Billy Manchester, when crew members of a cruise ship have been threatened. However, his primary interest is in the disappearance of female bartenders because a fellow ex-cop from Philadephia is the main suspect. A Killing Night is not as strong a story as the Edgar-winning first novel, The Blue Edge of Midnight, or Shadow Men, the third one. Perhaps it is because King's descriptions of the Everglades in the earlier books suck the reader into the story so that you can feel the heat and humidity. King doesn't do as well with the city environments as he does with the wilderness. I'll still read King, and A Killing Night was good, just not up to his best work.

Voice performer David Colacci gives a suitably suspenseful reading of this forth Max Freeman adventure by Edgar Award-winning author Jonathan King. Colacci is at his best during a portion dedicated to searching through a murky, eerie swamp.

As the story opens Max is as conflicted as ever but has moved out of his Everglades shack into a house on the beach. He's involved in trying to protect a cadre of injured cruise ship employees when he receives a plea from his former lover, Detective Sherry Richards, to help solve the murders of several young women in South Florida.

If Sherry has her way it seems the long fingers of the law will be pointed at Colin O'Shea, an ex Philadelphia police officer and good friend to Max. More conflict for our hero. Max returns to Philadelphia to delve into O'Shea's present and past.

For Max, "The City of Brotherly Love" is a misnomer. Good listening for Max Freeman fans.

- Gail Cooke

I absolutely love the Max Freeman character! Jon King has done a wonderful job in this novel broadening the character and delving into his past. I recommend this book to people who have read the first in the series, you will enjoy it as much as you did the first!

Jonathon King, with his new novel A KILLING NIGHT, just may rightfully claim the title as the successor to John D. MacDonald. Although MacDonald was a successful novelist in a number of genres, he was best known for his Travis McGee series. The McGee novels were, at their most basic level, detective stories, but they serve as a subtle yet sharp chronicle of south Florida in the mid-twentieth century. A KILLING NIGHT is only King's fourth novel, yet he consistently demonstrates a talent that runs strong, deep, and true.

King's protagonist is Max Freeman, a former Philadelphia police officer who comes unhinged after shooting an unarmed juvenile. Freeman, retired to an abandoned fishing shack deep in the Everglades, ventures out only on rare occasions and usually at the behest of his friend, attorney Billy Manchester. A KILLING NIGHT finds Freeman actually spending more time within society, slowly and reluctantly dwelling among people in an oceanfront cottage owned by Manchester.

Freeman cannot escape the past, however, and it collides with his present circumstances when he is asked to investigate an ex-cop named Colin O'Shea. O'Shea and Freeman have a brief but intense history: O'Shea was on the Philadelphia police force with Freeman and saved Freeman's life during a bust gone bad. But O'Shea is now suspected of being involved in the disappearance of two barmaids in Broward County, and he was investigated for a similar disappearance back in Philadelphia. Freeman is reluctant to roll a fellow ex-officer, particularly when there is no indication that a crime has actually been committed.

Meanwhile, Freeman is in the crosshairs on another front when Manchester retains him as an assistant in a lawsuit involving a group of injured cruise ship attendants. The attendants are being intimidated and harassed, and Freeman's involvement in the case puts him, along with Manchester and his fiancée, in danger. Freeman narrates most of the story, with some third-person interludes to give the reader a bit more information that Freeman has concerning what's occurring. This accordingly gives the reader a heads-up when Freeman makes an occasional, if understandable, misstep.

Manchester has grown into an extremely strong secondary character, to the extent that one cannot help but wish to see him used more frequently. South Florida is a strong and potent backdrop for A KILLING NIGHT, with King serving as a documentarian of the cultural and social mores of the area in the same manner --- and with, dare I say, the same quality --- that MacDonald did four decades ago.

The quality of King's work has increased exponentially with each successive novel, and his craftsmanship is gradually becoming the standard to which many of his peers must aspire. If you are unfamiliar with this man's work, now is the time to get acquainted.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Since finding the Max Freeman series I have been reading them at a breakneck pace. King writes with an insider's knowledge of south Florida. This installment takes him away from his isolated shack on the river and ultimately back to Philadephia to investigate a former fellow officer. All this at the behest of former girlfriend, Sherry Richards. Richards suspects the former Philly officer, Colin O'Shea of killing female bartenders - a crime similar to one he was suspected of back in Philadelphia. The brass and the DA aren't on board with Richards' suspicions so she enlists the help of Freeman. The story lacks the "can't put this down" aspects of previous installments but King's prose is still worth the trip. A solid entry in the series, but not as good as some.

Something in A KILLING NIGHT bothered me. No, it wasn't Jonathon King's writing. I can't put my finger on "it" that made me feel a little displeased with the story line. Perhaps it was Richards' complete obsession with violence against women or her emotional distance from Max and Billy. Or maybe "it" was the triteness of the plotline?

Ex-cop Colin O'Shea had saved Max Freeman's life in a Philadelphia dark alley and quit the force in disgrace among allegations of sexual improprieties of a mentally challenged young woman. She disappears and is thought dead. The I A D investigation "made" Freeman's ex-wife. The same O'Shea is Detective Richards' prime suspect in the mysterious disappearance and deaths of several Broward County bartenders. These girls are gone as in from the face of the Earth gone.

Max doesn't buy his former girlfriend's theory that O'Shea is guilty and agrees to speak to him. Max travels back to Philadelphia. Some of his ghosts disappear. And he becomes more convinced of his brother-in-blue's innocence. But Max's investigation puts both Billy and Billy's Cruise line case in danger.

Though I liked that Max was living in a beachfront bungalow (Manchester's) and Billy's love life dramatically changed, something was just off in this fourth installment of a great series. King still delivers fast paced twists and turns in A KILLING NIGHT.

Pulled in two directions with two separate cases, Max Freeman is torn and needs help from an unlikely source. More of Max's past has come back to haunt him - both his recent past and Philly past. More of Billy Manchester is developed and so the saga continues to slowly give the reader more background and more depth of character.

This is a good story and very entertaining with some complexity in the plotline and for that it had me racing through the book towards the conclusion. This is probably my second favorite book in the Max Freeman series with The Blue Edge of Midnight being still the best.

Max Freeman returns in this fourth installment of the series and is enjoyable as ever. Gradually coming out of his self-imposed exile deep in the Florida Everglades, he is currently staying at a small bungalow his friend, lawyer, and now quite often his employer, owns. By staying there he is more readily accessible to Billy who has him close by for another project.

That close proximity also makes him near to Detective Sherry Richards when she calls him to discuss a case she is working on. Their love relationship ended a few months ago as an unintended consequence of her actions ("Shadow Men") but she needs him. She wants his help in investigating a former police officer he knew long ago in Philadelphia, Colin O'Shea. Detective Richards believes he is the man responsible for missing female bartenders in the Miami area. She has virtually no evidence in these cases and is obsessed with O'Shea as her suspect because of certain similarities to a case on Philadelphia that he was involved with and a case that Max knows nothing about.

Max can't believe that the same man who very well may have saved his life one violent night, could have done what Richards is convinced he did. To help Richards, it means that Max is going to have to go back to Philadelphia and deal with a part of his life best forgotten. This journey into his past, both literally as well as figuratively, will sidetrack him from doing his best in regards to Billy's case. That will have consequences for all and Max knows this, but can't leave well enough alone.

This latest in the series allows Max Freeman to deal with some issues that have been around from the very first book in the series "The Blue Edge Of Midnight." Questions of character development are finally answered primarily through the use of small flashbacks throughout the novel. While that works and works well, what does not work as well are the stylistic changes that make this novel read differently than earlier in the series.

The work takes some getting used to from that standpoint as it reads almost as if a different writer wrote the novel. Many readers familiar with series may not notice or care, but for those that do, it does take some time to get used to. Time well spent as the story is worth the read. Regardless of style considerations, this novel works well on all other levels and provides another very enjoyable read in the series.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2005

Every time I finish one of the Max Freeman books I feel a little sad because I know I will have to wait about a year until the next one comes out. I have noticed that since the series started, King has become better in terms of his writing style and of building up the tension towards the culmination. He has also been able to keep us engaged and interested in the main character through relating the current events with Max's past. In this case, the only deviation from the pattern of the previous novels is that the Everglades do not really have a role in the story, and I found this to be a little disappointing.

Even though Max still has possession of his shack in the Everglades, he has decided to move to Miami and live there for a while. The reason is that he is working most of his time for his friend Billy, a successful lawyer, and needs to be closer to the action. As I mentioned, this slight change of setting was a bit of a shocker for me, but Max is having fun, living by the beach in the Flamingo Villas. Regarding the sentimental aspects, Max's relationship with Sherry Richards has cooled down almost completely, which I bet is something most of us were not expecting to see.

But before Jonathon King goes into an explanation of the current state of affairs in Max's life, he introduces us to the guy that will be the center of the investigation in this installment. The book begins full speed with a glimpse of the thought process of a stalker. He is outside a bar monitoring the behavior of a young woman that works as a bartender. And after we get a little information, the author shocks us repeatedly, since we find out that the stalker is the girl's boyfriend and that he is a cop!

When Sherry contacts Max requesting help on a case involving missing women that work as bartenders, we have a pretty good idea of what is going on. The suspect is Colin O'Shea, a cop that used to work patrol with Max in Philly and who once saved his life. This is a perfect excuse for King to once again plunge into Max's past and continue to complete the picture we have of this fascinating character. It is also a chance to know a little more about how Max will handle the conflict of having on one side a woman with which he was in love and on the other a friend to whom he owes his life.

The building up of the excitement shows how much King has improved in his writing, and the journey we go through before reaching the end is highly enjoyable. The author makes good use of a combination of omnipresent recounts and Max's own narrations, which provides a nice variety to the book. Also, adding a second case, involving an explosion in a cruise ship and the ensuing lawsuit by the crew, with one of the members being represented by Billy, helps move the story along. As an added bonus, we get to meet Megan, Max's ex-wife! It is only at the end that the quality of the story drops a little, when I think the author rushes the events too much. Nevertheless, this is a novel that will provide you with a pleasant experience.