Customer Reviews

The Night Monster: A Novel of Suspense

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I LOVE this book. I have read several books through the Amazon Vine program, and I always try to pick authors I am not familiar with. Some have been good, some not so much, THIS is a great suspense novel.

I am not one who believes that the opening line of a story is critical, that said, this one is pretty darn good. Title, The Night Monster, opening line, "Cops weren't supposed to get frightened." How great is that, it just conjures up a picture of a police officer encountering something in the line of duty so beyond his comprehension and experience, he is afraid, or as the case develops, terrified by a life altering event.

As a brief summary, the story is presented in the first person by Jack Carpenter, a former detective. Jack works on finding missing people. To characterize Jack as tenacious is really selling him short. He is willing to do anyting to find and save a missing person. The zeal lead to his early departure from the police force.

Jack's story shows us the bare emotional journey that a parent seaching for a missing child can go through. We can feel the pain and anguish. Jack is not a superhuman, he is not robocop, just a driven guy who wants to make a difference.

This is a super page turner, you will not be able to put it down. I recommend this without hesitation or reservation.

Eighteen years ago when Jack Carpenter was only a kid cop he answered a domestic violence call and didn't ask for back up. He thought he was up for the job. He was not. And it was not a domestic violence case, it was an abduction. A young woman was being taking by a three hundred pound giant of a man who tossed jack aside as if he weighed nothing at all.

Since then he's been thrown off the force because of a police brutality charge and now he is a private investigator who specializes in finding missing children. He gets a call from his basketball playing daughter, who tells him she thinks someone is stalking the team. He responds, confronts the stalker, a filthy mouse of a man named Mouse. The stalker has a pal, the same giant who'd gotten the better of Jack so long ago and again he gets the better of him, abducting Sara Long, one of his daughter's teammates.

He is determined to get the girl back and with his faithful Australian Shepherd Buster he sets out on the trail of the kidnappers in this thriller that is so packed full with action that it's almost too hard to take in. Just when you think Swain is about to let up, something else happens. I just can't believe how good James Swain is. This book is doggone good. So is Buster, who provides a bit of comedic relief among all the tension. If the words, "I couldn't put it down" ever applied to a book, they apply to this one.

Yes, you will be up all night finishing this book if you plan on starting it any time after 8pm. So be forewarned.

From the opening chapter, with the search for a missing elementary school child, the story burns from one moment to the next. Admittedly, the main character's set up is a cliche - the ex-cop turned private eye with a laser-focus on his expertise (in this case, finding missing kids). But as John Gardner once wrote, All American fiction boils down to one of two plot lines - man rides into town or man rides out of town - it's what the author does with that story that counts. And boy does James Swain deliver.

Once you read that first bit of chapter 3 as the main character, Jack Carpenter, is searching for a missing boy, you know this is not your typical hard-boiled ex-cop story: "Water has a magical effect on autistic children. It calls to them like a siren's song. I found this out...."

This is not your standard cliched ex-cop whose life is on a downward slope; he's got good parts of his life (his relationship with his daughter) and some not so good (his relationship with his estranged wife). Throughout the story, Jack tries to reclaim his life. Sometimes it works and sometimes, well the typical "Hollywood story-telling" does not appear, making his frustrations and experiences much more real (like when Jack tries to buy his old house).

The story is fantastically paced, the writing is well done, and the unique twists will definitely catch you a bit off guard. Just an excellent, suspenseful mystery, and extremely well worth your time.

I'd not read any of James Swain's books before this; now I'll be reading them all.

This book is a great read. It is descriptive to the point of putting you at the scene of the crime. It also creates a tense environment that gets one caught up in all the twists and turns of the story. The story seems a little far fetched, but being possible is not the foremost basis upon which to judge a mystery. All in all it was a very good read, one which I would recommend to anyone who likes mystery novels.

"The Night Monster" is the first James Swain book I have read. I do enjoy mystery/suspense/thrillers though and was looking forward to reading the novel.

Jack Carpenter was the detective who was in charge of the Broward County Sheriff's Department Missing Person Bureau when it was first formed. After heading that department for sixteen years Jack was fired for beating up a suspect. Two years later he is still searching for missing people, only now he does it as a private citizen. There is one particular missing woman that Jack can't get out of his mind because he had a chance to rescue her as she was being abducted. Instead, he made a mistake and the woman has never been heard from again. Carpenter's daughter is a basketball player for the University of Florida Lady Seminoles and she asks him to check out a man who seems to be stalking the team. Jack realizes that one of these stalkers is the same man who was involved in the abduction all those years ago. What follows is a series of near misses in capturing these two men and rescuing the young woman they have just kidnapped.

This book was definitely of the page turner variety as it got closer to the resolution of the mystery. I particularly liked the relationship between Jack and his daughter even though I would have liked for that to have been more detailed. I really liked for Jack to have his dog, Buster, as his helper and sidekick. That made the story very interesting even though it did mean a lot of attention had to be paid to the welfare of the dog. I have to admit that I found myself wondering if he ever fed the poor dog anything other than table scraps and pizza crust.

There were several things I didn't care for very much in the story. It was a really foolish mistake on the part of his lead character while serving as a uniformed patrol officer which led to the first kidnapping. So is that why Swain chose to depict all uniformed officers as unintelligent and poorly trained? There were two instances of missing children which were inserted rather haphazardly into the story. In the first instance of the autistic boy, was there not one single member of the official Missing Persons Bureau who could be sent to cope with that situation? Was Jack Carpenter the only person the department head believed could handle the case? That rescue situation was just a trifle hard for me to swallow and was the cause of my first groan of disbelief while reading this book. In the case of the missing thirteen year old girl, would the police department actually allow such a high profile case to be investigated by an outsider? And he could solve it in a matter of minutes after arriving on the scene? These instances stood out as unbelievable to me, especially with this character and his persona non grata status with the department. I understand that the author was showing the relationship Carpenter had with the current head of the Missing Persons Bureau but it really did seem to be quite a stretch in believability. I doubt very seriously that Swain will make any friends among uniformed officers with this book, they are all shown in a very poor light. Another problem I had was with the situation Carpenter and the FBI agent found in the town of Chatham. Now that was so strange that if fairly made my head spin and I didn't believe the situation could actually happen.

As I said before, this book became a real page turner for me as it neared it's conclusion. I enjoyed it, but not so much that I didn't notice some difficulties.

I absolutely loved this book! James Swain is one of my favorite authors and his new hero, Jack Carpenter has won my heart along with his dog Buster. I read this book in one day. Could not put it down as well as his previous two books with Carpenter. I hope there will be many more to follow. Thanks Mr. Swain!!

I'd read a couple of James Swain's Tony Valentine novels, but sadly I'd missed the first two Jack Carpenter books. I started with this one and was completely blown away. I'll be going back and reading the first two. I can't believe they'd somehow snuck on by me.

Jack Carpenter used to be a cop, but got too rough with a slime ball suspect and got kicked off the force. However, the cops still love him, he has friends on the force who call on him whenever they have a missing child. That's his speciality, finding missing children and he has his work cut out for him in this book.

Okay, I could give a brief synopsis of the story, but heck all you really have to know is that this is a non-stop, fast-paced, action-driven thriller with a dog to die for and some bad guys that are creepy as all get out. And I mean creepy. Now through in an even creepier town, peopled with a passel full of very unfriendly one-armed, one-footed people who really, really don't like strangers. Now make Jack a stranger and you have a story that will have you burning the midnight oil. But I gotta warn ya, there is no stopping once you start this book. Swain hooks you right in and he doesn't let up till the final word.

I bought this book because I was so intrigued with his poker books, (Sucker's Bet, Grift Sense, Loaded Dice, etc.). He writes like someone who knows Vegas and the rules they live by. A lot of what he wrote I could connect with and, of course, wish he would stick with those books, but I understand he wants to grow so he comes out the The Night Monster which much to my surprise, I enjoyed. I like authors who can write about different subjects. I admire genius in men or women and I think it takes a lot to switch gears in your writing material. Hoo rah for you Mr. Swain. I'll always be a customer.

James Swain, author of the extraordinary Grift Sense series, has struck again with another breathtaking page turner. The Night Monster, the latest adventure of child recovery expert Jack Carpenter, is a thrill-a-minute mystery that you will not be able to put down. Many of the other reviewers have provided details about the book, but I'd rather not divulge any of the books secrets. I will note that there is a special surprise for fans of Tony Valentine. But don't waste any more time reading my review -- just get this book. You won't be disappointed.

I have noticed over the last 18 months or so that, within gatherings of mystery and thriller novel fans, the name "James Swain" recurs with some increasing frequency. Swain began his career with a series of six titles featuring the wonderfully named Tony Valentine, a casino security expert with an encyclopedic knowledge of the world of gambling, security and cheats. The Valentine books remain wonderful to read and re-read, even if you possess not the slightest interest in gambling. Swain has more recently introduced Jack Carpenter, a private investigator operating out of South Florida, who specializes in the recovery of child abduction victims. THE NIGHT MONSTER is Swain's fourth Carpenter novel and 10th overall. It is also his best book to date, an imaginative and compelling work that demands a one-sit reading.

THE NIGHT MONSTER provides a bit of Carpenter's backstory, consisting of an explanation as to how and why he became involved in the recovery of missing children. One of his first calls as a rookie cop concerned the abduction of a young woman. Despite encountering the kidnapper, Carpenter was unable to prevent the crime. The culprit escaped and the victim was never found. The experience affected him to the extent that, after becoming a detective, he began running the Broward County Sheriff's Office Missing Persons Unit and continued to do so right up to the point where he was fired from the force.

Now regarded as an expert in such matters by both the public and private sectors, Carpenter suddenly finds himself confronting his oldest and worst nightmare when another young woman, Sara Long --- a college basketball player who is a teammate of Carpenter's daughter --- is kidnapped despite Carpenter's best efforts. Although the Broward County Sheriff's Office almost immediately arrests a likely suspect, Carpenter knows they have the wrong man. This time around, however, he has two very determined allies. One is Sara's father, a wealthy if extremely abrasive individual who is willing to throw every resource at his disposal for the goal of recovering his daughter alive and unharmed. The other is Ken Linderman, an FBI special agent whose own daughter was kidnapped under similar, though not identical, circumstances years before and is willing to assist Carpenter off the books in order to obtain some clue as to the final fate of his daughter.

These two men (and an unexpected assist from a source that will delight long-time Swain fans) provide Carpenter with the first rough clues that lead back through time, demonstrating a series of abductions throughout South Florida that ultimately take them to a rural town where a nightmarish scenario awaits them. This provides most if not all of the answers the three of them seek, and discloses how multiple abductions over the course of two decades could take place throughout South Florida under the noses of law enforcement.

Swain's plotting and characterization here are unforgettable. Carpenter is driven and obsessed but never loses his core humanity, and the vignettes played out between himself and his dog, Buster, are realistic and alternate between humorous and heartwarming. However, it is the over-the-shoulder look into how missing persons, particularly children, are found, combined with Swain's addicting narrative, that make THE NIGHT MONSTER a must-read.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub