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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Put on Your Thinking Cap, December 19, 2001
This review is from: Night Crimes (Paperback)
If you're looking for a good mystery loaded with action and riveting suspense, you just found it. NIGHT CRIMES by Judith Woolcock Colombo offers a mind-boggling tale of two mysteries in one. There's a killer lurking the streets of the night. A man who feels he has a gift to give to the homeless people of New York-the gift of death. But he only gives his gift to those who ask for it. To the police this creature of the night becomes known as The Death Angel. What's more of a mystery then who The Death Angel's identity is why is he leaving his victims for Sergeant Tony Bello to find? At the same time, Sergeant Bello's wife Lara has her own mystery developing. Lara, artist from Brooklyn and teacher, is being stalked by a man in a blue baseball cap. Problem is, no one believes her. Not even her husband. At first, Lara decides it's just her imagination working overtime-that is until he begins following her oldest son David and leaving warning notes for the both of them to find. Worse, the stalker seems to know every move she and her son are going to make before they even make it! Judith Woolcock Colombo has composed a murder mystery that will keep you guessing until the end. The characters that make up NIGHT CRIMES are well developed. We learn their habits, their fears, their dreams, as well as their traits. Mrs. Colombo has done her homework into the worlds of police and artists as well, weaving each into the story to create an aura of spine chilling suspense.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Timeless Tales review, February 13, 2003
This review is from: Night Crimes (Paperback)
By TT reviewer Chuck Gregory Someone is stalking Lara Bello. She feels a presence, but hasn't actually seen anyone. Her husband Tony, head of the bicycle unit at his police precinct, thinks she is being a bit paranoid. She is becoming distracted, dismissing her art class early, her thoughts wandering. A stranger appears briefly in the classroom and leaves a card in her purse that says, "I am watching you." Later, her son David is followed, too. Meanwhile, Tony's unit finds a series of bodies of homeless people. They have drunk barbiturates mixed with wine or liquor, and they appear to be very happy. Word on the street is that the Death Angel helps those who are unhappy, by assisting them in their final exit from life. David draws comic books and every week he spends the afternoon at Miss Browne's bookstore. Miss Browne tells him some of her grandfather's stories, and these end up in his comics. She is a wonderful lady and she has a great collection of rare books. The Bello family has a lot in store for them in this book. There may be some relationship between these seemingly independent events. Or, there may not-and I certainly won't tell you, because Judith Colombo has done it much better than I could. I will tell you that when I read this book, I stayed up most of the night, and that I raced through the whole thing almost nonstop. And though I made several correct guesses as the story progressed, I wasn't even close on the major puzzles. But the evidence was definitely there, even though I didn't put it all together. The solutions are masterfully woven into the story, but often one question answered reveals many more that had not yet been asked. Judith Colombo has taught at the college level, although her subjects are English, Analytical Thinking, and Research Skills rather than Art, which is her protagonist's area. Her husband, like Tony in "Night Crimes", is a sergeant of detectives. Their life experiences are undoubtedly part of the research for this book, and so it is not surprising that it has an extremely factual 'feel'. I have worked with homeless people, and mental health consumers, and I can especially vouch for the accuracy of those portrayals. Make sure you have plenty of time before starting this one, because you won't want to put it down.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The ultimate thriller, April 3, 2002
This review is from: Night Crimes (Paperback)
When it's hard to tell the difference between the psychotic killers and the cops, and when one psycho stalks another, you know you have a plot to leave even the best detective befuddled. But in Night Crimes, you are the best detective there is. Judith Woolcock Colombo has crafted a thriller that somehow leads us to discover the mysteries slowly until we realise that we know (and have known) whodunnit - even though we didn't know at the time that we knew. Set in New York City, and including a chase in upstate New York, Lara finds herself stalker by a psychotic killer. Or are there more? The Jamaican-born artist and her husband, Italian-American Tony Bello, have to sort out the mess before Lara gets killed. The mystery grows increasingly difficult to unravel as people close to the family one by one get involved in the story. The reader also gets a long, hard look into the mind of the phychotic killer (killers?). One of them talks extensively to the reader: "I have never intended to harm anyone. I am not cruel. I befriend the hopeless and get to know them before I make my offer. Even after I have put them to rest, I still see to their well-being." The characters are semi-autobiographical, living in a similar brownstone house to the author, with the same ethnic backgrounds and some of the same occupations. As many authors do, Woolcock Colombo built a story on the environment she knows well ... and on a great pile of imagination. Night Crimes plays the suspense card over and over to the maximum. Woolcock Colombo is masterful at weaving several tales together and letting the reader savor the taste of discovery right to the very end. I give this novel ten out of ten. ...
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