The Night Stalker: A Novel of Suspense (Hardcover)

by James Swain (Author)
Key Phrases: smart buy, drug enforcers, meat manager, Jed Grimes, Teen Angel, Father Kelly (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
What crime fiction fan can resist a guy who isn't afraid to knock a few slime-bag heads when no one is watching? In Swain's fine second suspense novel to feature South Florida PI Jack Carpenter (after Midnight Rambler), imprisoned serial killer Abb Grimes hires the tough, unrelenting ex-cop to find his kidnapped grandson, Sampson Grimes. The chief suspect is the child's father, Jed Grimes, but Jack thinks Jed is innocent, even though the evidence suggests otherwise. There's plenty of action and intelligent sleuthing, but it's Jack's uncompromising character and Swain's equally uncompromising writing that will keep readers turning pages and eager for the next installment: I'd visited many prisons, and the smell was always the same: a choking mixture of piss, shit, fear, and desperation, wiped down by harsh antiseptics. The winner of France's Prix Calibre 38, Swain is also the author of Deadman's Bluff and six other books in his Tony Valentine gambling series. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"What crime fiction fan can resist a guy who isn't afraid to knock a few slime-bag heads when no one is watching? In Swain's fine second suspense novel to feature South Florida PI Jack Carpenter (after Midnight Rambler), imprisoned serial killer Abb Grimes hires the tough, unrelenting ex-cop to find his kidnapped grandson, Sampson Grimes. The chief suspect is the child's father, Jed Grimes, but Jack thinks Jed is innocent, even though the evidence suggests otherwise. There's plenty of action and intelligent sleuthing, but it's Jack's uncompromising character and Swain's equally uncompromising writing that will keep readers turning pages and eager for the next installment: “I'd visited many prisons, and the smell was always the same: a choking mixture of piss, shit, fear, and desperation, wiped down by harsh antiseptics.” The winner of France's Prix Calibre 38, Swain is also the author of Deadman's Bluff and six other books in his Tony Valentine gambling series." - Publishers Weekly


Praise for James Swain’s Midnight Rambler

“Midnight Rambler kept me up all night long. . . . The only problem with Swain’s riveting thrillers is they end.”
–Tess Gerritsen, author of The Keepsake

“A sturdy thriller . . . [Swain] uses language with such blunt force he could be hammering in nails.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Immensely satisfying . . . [Hero Jack Carpenter evokes] memories of Will Graham, the FBI profiler in Thomas Harris’ brilliant Red Dragon.”
–The Providence Journal

“Easily one of the best thrillers of the year, Swain’s tense, gritty tale is virtually impossible to put down.”
–Lansing State Journal

“Moves like a bullet train on overdrive.”
–Michael Connelly


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345475526
• ISBN-13: 978-0345475527
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #129,068 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jack Carpenter (and Buster) Do It Again, October 7, 2008

By	TMStyles (California) - See all my reviews

"The Night Stalker" is James Swain's second Jack Carpenter novel following "Midnight Rambler". As usual Swain is efficiently concise in his prose and his plotlines. He writes of the sordid underbelly in South Florida and often his characters and his descriptions of the areas are sufficient to alter the travel plans of any curious tourist.

Jack Carpenter, former cop and current PI, is still a master at finding lost persons, especially missing children. Following the Swain formula used both in his Tony Valentine novels and now his Jack Carpenter novels, Jack quickly solves a missing child case to establish his "creds" in the first 30 pages and then proceeds to solve the big case that, of course, contains several twists, turns, unexpected developments, and maybe a crooked cop or two. Along the way, we learn a lot about child stealers and the techniques and strategies used to solve their crimes.

In "The Night Stalker", Jack is asked by Abb Grimes, a man he helped to convict as a serial killer and who is scheduled to die in four days, to find his abducted grandson, Sampson Grimes. Abb's son, Jed Grimes, is suspected of abducting Sampson as well as perhaps beginning another reign of murder and terror in South Broward County.

Jack becomes convinced that Jed is innocent but is unable to persuade the local police nor the FBI who seem intent on apprehending or perhaps killing Jed on sight. With the reluctant help of his former colleague, Candice Burrell, and his trusty dog and partner, Buster, a cranky Australian Shepherd, Jack begins the arduous task of proving Jed's innocence, finding the real killer, and alienating the FBI and local police in the process. Toss in missing evidence, a rogue cop, and several hair raising escapes from trouble and you arrive at an unexpected (to some readers) ending. A good, relaxed read that you will forget about a day or two later.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Night Stalker : Novel by James Spain , March 3, 2009

By	Sitkadj - See all my reviews

Really good follow=up to author's Midnight Rambler . Most readers probably
tune into the news that baby and children kidnapping is really happening
in our USA . I enjoyed Swain's gambling books but this new lead detective
is a fresh face with real issues . I read most mystery authors and today
feel that this series by Swain is now the best . -- Waiting for his
next one with these characters and BUSTER !

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Keeps You On The Edge, January 18, 2009

By	Sacramento Book Review "SacramentoBookReview.com" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

With a fast and raw offering in /The Night Stalker/, Swain shows his best-seller writing talent, and chronicles quite the story while doing so. Jack Carpenter, the protagonist, receives a request from a serial-killer, that is currently on death row, whose case he once worked on. Grimes, the killer, asks Carpenter to look for his grandson, who he believes was kidnapped by the boy's father. Carpenter, working independently from the police, stumbles through an underground of twisted "people," and another grizzly murder occurs, causing the tension surrounding the missing boy to come to a peak.

/The Night Stalker/ is utterly engaging, to the point where you can no longer remember that you are reading a book. While Carpenter's character may not be the most sophisticatedly developed one, the action centering around him is most definitely edgy, and in more than one fashion. It's edgy, like on the cutting edge of the genre, and it's edgy like it keeps you on the edge of your seat.