Review:A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS, Linwood Barclay

• this edition published by Harper Collins Publishers 2018
• ISBN 978-0-06-284564-1
• 520 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Booktopia)

Paul Davis forgets things. Why he walked into a room. Who he spoke to, and what they said. What he promised his wife he'd do. Sometimes it's too much, and the panic takes hold.

But he wasn't always like this.

Eight months ago, Paul was attacked - left for dead after seeing something he shouldn't have - and has been piecing his life back together ever since.

During the days, therapy helps. But at night, he hears noises that no one else can. That nobody believes. Sometimes he thinks someone is in the house. Other times, the sounds are far stranger.

Either he's losing his mind - or someone wants him to think he is. Or maybe something even darker is waiting downstairs...

My Take

Before "the incident" Paul had thought his marriage had gone a bit flat, and that his wife might even be thinking of leaving him. But since he was attacked Charlotte has been very supportive. It is now 8 months on and he he seeing a therapist, battling PTSD, and depression, and is yet to return to work.

He has become anxious to understand what led his colleague to commit murder, which was what led him to attack Paul with a shovel. Central to the whole thing is a typewriter which Paul thinks is the one which his colleague owned. The typewriter is sitting in Paul's study and at night it appears to deliver messages from his colleague's victims.

A truly creepy and very readable novel.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
NO TIME FOR GOODBYE
TOO CLOSE TO HOME
4.5, FEAR THE WORST
4.6, NEVER LOOK AWAY
5.0, TRUST YOUR EYES
4.7, NEVER SAW IT COMING
4.4, BROKEN PROMISE

Review: THE NEVER GAME, Jeffery Deaver

• this large print edition published by Gale 2019
• ISBN 978-1-4328-6339-5
• 598 pages
• source: my local library
• #1 in the Colter Shaw series

Synopsis (author website)

The first novel in a thrilling new series.

Colter Shaw is an itinerate “reward-seeker,” traveling the country to help police solve crimes and private citizens locate missing persons. When he learns of a reward for a missing college student in Silicon Valley, he takes the job. The investigation quickly thrusts him into the dark heart of Silicon Valley and the cutthroat billion-dollar video gaming industry–and then a second kidnapping happens…and this victim turns up dead.

The clues soon point to one video game, The Never Game, in which the player has to survive after being left abandoned. Is a madman bringing that game to life? If so, Shaw has to stop him before he strikes again…and before he figures out that Shaw is on his trail.

My take:

A young woman goes missing and her father puts up a reward for her recovery. Soon after Shaw finds her, her boy friend is shot dead, and then another person goes missing. This time the kidnapped person does not survive.

The investigation takes Shaw into the heart of the video gaming industry and into Silicon Valley, where he learns what the NBT (next big thing) is.

A thread that runs through the story is what happened to Shaw's father 15 years earlier. Frustratingly this thread is left open to be continued in the next book in the series, to be published in 2020. A lot of the book is taken up with reminiscences about Ashton Shaw and allusions to his philosophy.

In the book, confusingly, the video game behind the kidnappings is called The Whispering Man, and The Never Game has a slightly different connotation. 

My rating: 4.1

I've also read
4.2, EDGE
4.8, NINTH AND NOWHERE

Review: THE WOODS, Harlan Coben

• this edition published by Thorndike 2007
• ISBN 978-0-7862-9488-6
• 588 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Good Reads)

Twenty years ago at summer camp, Paul Copeland's sister died in the woods, the alleged victim of a serial killer. Her body was never found. Now, Paul is the prosecutor for Essex County, New Jersey, immersed in one of the biggest cases of his career-a case that will change everything he believes about the past...and the truth.

My Take

Paul Copeland is a single father raising a young daughter, and also the county prosecutor of Essex, New Jersey.

He is in the middle of a rape case when the father of one of the rapists decides to do whatever he can to keep his son out of jail. He gives a sleazy investigative firm carte blanche to do whatever they can to investigate Copeland and to deflect him from the prosecution.

They focus on the disappearance of Copeland's sister twenty years earlier and soon the ghosts begin to rise. A homicide victim turns out to be a man who died twenty years before and Copeland is left wondering if his sister is also still alive. If she is, who knew about it?

Although this is a mesmerising tale, it takes a long time to get anywhere and like most Coben novels that I have read it spans a huge amount of time and enormous array of characters.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.4, CAUGHT
4.3, DON'T LET GO
4.3, NO SECOND CHANCE
4.5, RUN AWAY

Review: THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM, Marie Benedict

• this book published by Gale 2019
• 400 pages
• ISBN 978-1-4328-5790-5
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

She possessed a stunning beauty. She also possessed a stunning mind. Could the world handle both?

Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.

But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis...if anyone would listen to her.

A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication, The Only Woman in the Room is a masterpiece.

My Take

For the regular viewers of my blog - this is not crime fiction. It is fictionalised biography.

There are really two stories here: the story of Hedy Keisler, a beautiful young actress who at 19 became the wife of Austrian munitions magnate Freidrich Mandl, followed by her escape to the USA and her rebirth as Hedy Lamarr.

Freidrich Mandl was playing a dangerous game, trying to retain control of his munitions factories and contracts as Hitler moved slowly to merge Austria with Germany. Freidrich was much older than Hedy and became obsessed with controlling her as she hosted lavish parties designed to bind people to him.

When she finally escaped she emigrated to America, becoming a star of the film industry, more for her beauty than her acting ability, although she certainly had that.

But there was another side of Hedy: an acute scientific mind that had been forced to take a back seat by the roles that she played. In the long run the US miltary turned down her invention because she was a woman, but later it became part of modern electronics.

I felt that the first half of the story gave the author more to play with, while she really wanted to bring our modern debt to the "scientific mind" to our attention.

My rating: 4.1

About the author
Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus in History and Art History, and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. While practicing as a lawyer, Marie dreamed of a fantastical job unearthing the hidden historical stories of women -- and finally found it when she tried her hand at writing. She embarked on a new, narratively connected series of historical novels with THE OTHER EINSTEIN, which tells the tale of Albert Einstein's first wife, a physicist herself, and the role she might have played in his theories. Writing as Heather Terrell, Marie also published the historical novels The Chrysalis, The Map Thief, and Brigid of Kildare.

review: RUN AWAY, Harlan Coben

• this edition (large print) published by Grand Central Publishing 2019
• ISBN 978-1-5387-3273-1
• 530 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (author website)

A perfect family is shattered in RUN AWAY, the new thriller from the master of domestic suspense, Harlan Coben.

You’ve lost your daughter.

She’s addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to be found.

Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she’s not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble.

You don’t stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home.

She runs.

And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.

My Take

I was pleasantly surprised with the direction the plot of this novel took.

Simon Greene's search for his daughter in the drug dens of Manhattan leads to his wife Ingrid being shot and one of those they met in drug den being shot too.
As Ingrid lies in a coma in a Manhattan hospital Simon continues to search for his daughter Paige.  He is joined by ex FBI investigator Elena Ramirez who is searching for a missing man.
Between them they uncover a trail of dead men who seem to have some connection with each other, but neither can explain how Paige is linked to the trail.

Simon thought he and his wife Ingrid had no secrets from each other, but he was wrong. The reason Paige runs away stems from Ingrid's past, before Paige was born.

Very readable story.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.4, CAUGHT
4.3, DON'T LET GO
4.3, NO SECOND CHANCE 

Review: NO SECOND CHANCE, Harlan Coben - audio book

• this audio book produced by Penguin Audio
• Original novel published 2003
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

No Second Chance is yet another of Harlan Coben's terrifying explorations of the worst of fears--Marc Seidman wakes in hospital after narrowly surviving a shooting in which his wife died and their baby daughter went missing.

The handover of a ransom from his rich in-laws goes wrong and Seidman realises that he is not only without wife and daughter--and the sister who may have been an accomplice--but he is also the principal suspect. The reader knows even more than Seidman just how much jeopardy he is in--Coben does a brilliantly disturbing job of introducing us to a pair of psychotics who are in charge of the ransom plot and who plan to take Seidman and his in-laws for another ride into insecurity and hell.

Marc turns to the one person he thinks can help him--the ex-girlfriend who still has a place in his heart and used to be a senior Federal agent. The problem is that Rachel comes with baggage, and enemies, all of her own..

My Take


This plot felt a bit as if Coben had two strands in mind: one where a child is abducted during a home invasion, and the other an adoption scam where illegal immigrants give birth to babies who are found "good homes".

The final truth of the connection between the two strands was horrifying.

One of the problems with this story was that I didn't particularly like Marc Seidman the main character. I found him self-opinionated, always sure he was right, and blind to alternatives.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read
4.4, CAUGHT
4.3, DON'T LET GO

Review: DON'T LET GO, Harlan Coben

• this edition published 2017 by Penguin Random House
• ISBN 978-1-78-089423-2
• 347 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis

With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful new thriller.

Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks—and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For fifteen years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother's death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he's been looking for.

When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions—about the woman he loved, about the childhood friends he thought he knew, about the abandoned military base near where he grew up, and mostly about Leo and Diana—whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.

My Take

Nap Dumas still lives in the town where he was born and where his twin brother died 15 years ago. He has never believed that his brother and his girlfriend, the daughter of the town's police chief, walked into the path of the train.

Finding out the truth is one of the reasons why he became a detective himself. But now his own girlfriend of 15 years ago has resurfaced and another policeman has been killed. Why has Maura come back and why are members of the high school Conspiracy Club being killed off?

A thriller that keeps you reading to find the truth.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read
4.4, CAUGHT

Review: WHERE THE DEAD LAY, David Levien

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 1006 KB
• Print Length: 418 pages
• Publisher: Transworld Digital (November 24, 2009)
• Publication Date: November 24, 2009
• Sold by: PRH UK
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0031RS2MC
• #2 in the Frank Behr series 

Synopsis (Amazon)

THE VICTIM was a fighter, but strength wasn't enough to save him from a gruesome end.

THE MISSING are two well-paid private investigators who vanish on a confidential job.

THE FAMILY is formidable, crazy, deadly, and will stop at nothing to make a mark.

THE INVESTIGATOR is Frank Behr: tough, reclusive, angry, and close to becoming . . .

THE HUNTED . . . can Behr track down the killers before they add him to their hit list?

My Take

The action takes place about 18 months after the first title in the series: CITY OF THE SUN. Frank Behr is working as an independent investigator and has taken up Ju Jitsu. He arrives in the early morning for his class and finds the instructor, with whom he has become very friendly, dead in the foyer of the building, murdered. He makes a pledge that he will find the person(s) responsible.

At the same time Frank is asked to take on an investigation into two missing private investigators. The people making the request want him to keep the case quiet, and give him minimal information. He does find out however that it is related to an investigation into a bent cop.

Frank has heard other detectives talk about the inter-relatedness of cases they take on, but he has never really believed it until now when connections begin to pop up between two cases that are seemingly unrelated.

And Frank now has some personal problems to resolve with his lover Susan.

A good well constructed novel that just keeps you reading to the end.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.5, CITY OF THE SUN

Review: CITY OF THE SUN, David Levien

• this edition published by Corgi Books 2008
• ISBN 978-0-552-15968-5
• 491 pages
• #1 in the Frank Behr series
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Penguin Random House)

Private detective Frank Behr has been perfectly content living a solitary life, working on a few simple cases, and attempting to move on from his painful past. But when Paul and Carol Gabriel ask him to help them find their missing son, he can hardly refuse. Going against everything he fears—Behr’s been around too long to hope for a happy ending—he enters into an uneasy partnership with Paul on a quest for the truth that will become both dangerous and haunting. Richly textured and crackling with suspense on every page, City of the Sun masterfully takes readers on an investigation like no other.

Twelve-year-old Jamie Gabriel gets on his bike before dawn to deliver newspapers in his suburban neighbourhood. Somewhere en route, he vanishes without a trace. Fourteen months later, still with no sign of Jamie and having lost all faith in the police, his parents Paul and Carol are on the verge of abandoning hope. Then they meet private investigator Frank Behr, a tough, reclusive ex-cop. Abandoned by his former colleagues, separated from his wife and haunted by his own terrible past, Behr doesn't make it a practice to take on hopeless cases, but the desperate couple's plea for help awakens a personal pain he can't ignore . . .

My Take

Jamie Gabriel has been missing for 14 months when his parents Paul and Carol meet private investigator Frank Behr. As far as they can tell the police in Indianapolis gave up nearly a year ago on what seems to be a dead-end case. Behr takes on their case against his better judgement, and then he allows Paul to become his partner in the investigation, again against his better judgement.

This is the first novel in the Frank Behr series and we spend a lot of the book in getting to know him.
An ex-cop, Frank tries to focus on what the police haven't looked at. Where in his paper round did Jamie stop delivering the papers? What happened to his bike? Have other boys his age also gone missing? What do the cases have in common? These separate threads begin to yield results.

An intriguing novel that turns into a thriller at the end.
A good read.

My rating: 4.5

About the author
David Levien, author of Thirteen Million Dollar Pop, Where the Dead Lay, City of the Sun, and Signature Kill, has been nominated for the Edgar, Hammett, and Shamus awards. He is also a screenwriter and director, including co-director of Solitary Man (2009) starring Michael Douglas. He lives in Connecticut.

Review: LAST WORDS, Michael Koryta

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
  
• File Size: 1348 KB
• Print Length: 449 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (August 27, 2015)
• Publication Date: August 27, 2015
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00T39BL98

Synopsis (Amazon)

Private investigator Mark Novak is still mourning the death of his wife, and it's affecting his work. With his future on the line, Mark is sent to check out a case in the Midwest town of Garrison, home to a famous but perilous cave system. A girl has died in the caves, and the man who brought her out is still believed by many to be her killer. He begs Novak to uncover what really happened.

But Garrison is the kind of place where cold cases stay cold. Mark tries to delve into the town's secrets, but in the end, he will have to match his wits against the man who knows the caverns better than anyone. A man who seems to have lost his mind. A man who seems to know Mark Novak all too well.

My take

On the day that Mark Novak's wife Lauren was killed they parted harshly, she investigating something that he didn't think was her responsibility. He finds it hard to forget how they parted and at his investigative work for the company Innocence Inc (which does pro bono legal work challenging death row and freeing the wrongly convicted) Mark makes poor decisions, such that the board questions his commitment. As they discuss his future Mark is sent to Garrison to investigate a death in the caves. The main setting is a largely unexplored cave system in Southern Indiana. Ostensibly Mark is sent there to redeem himself.

However he feels very little interest in the case as he feels that there is really no case for Innocence Inc. to pick up.

However there are some very strange characters in this novel, and despite himself Mark becomes involved.

This was a novel that it took me a while to get into, perhaps because I didn't really like the character of Mark himself, and partly because there are some really dark passages in the novel.

At the end of the novel, there is so obviously an opening for a sequel.

My rating:  4.3

About the author

Michael Koryta (pronounced Ko-ree-ta) is the New York Times-bestselling author of 11 suspense novels. His work has been praised by Stephen King, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Dennis Lehane, Daniel Woodrell, Ron Rash, and Scott Smith among many others, and has been translated into more than 20 languages. His books have won or been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edgar® Award, Shamus Award, Barry Award, Quill Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the Golden Dagger. They’ve been selected as “best books of the year” by publications as diverse as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com, O the Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, People, Reader’s Digest, iBooks, and Kirkus Reviews.LAST WORDS is the beginning of a new series.

Review: A KILLING NIGHT, Jonathon King

• this edition published in 2005 by Orion
• #4 in the Max Freeman series
• ISBN 0-75286-936-1
• 289 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Max Freeman is at a crossroads. No longer content to live solely in his remote shack in the Everglades, he is looking to move beyond his self-imposed isolation. So when his onetime girlfriend, Detective Sherry Richards, asks for his help as a private investigator in nailing an ex-cop she suspects of killing several young women in South Florida, Max is ready to help her see justice done.

But there's a problem. Sherry's suspect is a former police officer from Philadelphia who served with Max; a brother-in-blue who once saved Max's life. Matters are made worse when Max's own aggressive investigation leads him to believe that Sherry's crusade to protect these women is about to roll over a possibly innocent man.

Caught between his loyalty to Sherry and his debt to his fellow ex-cop, Max's search for the truth will take him back to the streets of Philadelphia, where he will dig into his fellow officer's troubled past . . . only to come face-to-face with his own. And while Max continues his quest, a controlling, cunning killer inexorably closes in on what could be his next victim. . . . 

My take

Three female bartenders in South Florida have gone missing and the finger of suspicion points at Colin O'Shea, a childhood friend of Max Freeman's, also a former cop that he worked with in Philadelphia. But Colin swears he is innocent and Max believes him.

So Max finds himself trying to work out if there is a serial killer on the loose, and at the same time he is trying to prove that it isn't Colin.

Max is also working for Billy Manchester, a black attorney that he also grew up with in Philadelphia. Billy is working on a case of cruise liner employees who are being threatened by stand over thugs,

I found the story a bit slow in the beginning. The author seemed to need to fill me in on some details that I already knew even though I have only read #1 in the series. This story has many strands and both Max and the serial killer speak in the first person, which initially takes a bit of careful reading,

My rating: 4.4

4.4, THE BLUE EDGE OF MIDNIGHT

Review: NINTH AND NOWHERE, Jeffery Deaver

• format: kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 4956 KB
• Print Length: 52 pages
• Publisher: Amazon Original Stories (January 29, 2019)
• Publication Date: January 29, 2019
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07JYPTLJW

Synopsis (Amazon)

Seven strangers. Two hours. One tragic moment of violence that changes everything.

In this electrifying short story by New York Times bestselling author of The Never Game Jeffery Deaver, the destinies of seven strangers intersect in ways no one sees coming. It looks like just another gray March morning in the tough urban district nicknamed Nowhere when seven lives converge: a young man intent on buying a gun; the gangbanger who cuts him a deal; a by-the-book police officer on a last patrol; an advertising executive keeping secrets from her husband; a veteran haunted by a combat death; a single dad in a bitter custody battle; and a sharp-looking businessman en route to a new job he desperately needs. Any one of them could have a dark motive. Any one of them could be walking into a trap. When the fog lifts, it will all be much clearer—that a single, shattering act of violence has marked each of them forever.

My Take

I liked the way each of the 7 main characters was introduced in this novella. Inevitably as the author described each of the characters I made a judgement about them, but, as it turned out I was very wrong.

Tension builds as the reader realises each character is heading towards Ninth Ave in Nowhere and you know that something is going to happen.

An excellent read. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.8

Review: SHARP OBJECTS, Gillian Flynn

• this edition published by W&N 2018
• originally published in 2006
• ISBN 978-1-4746-0161-0
• 328 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town.

Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.

My Take

I remember the stir in crime fiction circles when this novel was first published, but somehow never got around to reading it.

And what a page turner it is!

Camille Preaker's editor of the Chicago paper she works for thinks she will benefit from returning to her home town of Wind Gap, 11 hours south of Chicago, to cover the story of the murder of two young girls. After all he can save money in accommodation as she can stay with her mother whom she hasn't talked to for 8 years. He thinks also that because she comes from the town that it will be easier for her to pick up rumours and insider information, A real recipe for disaster.

Camille feels neither safe nor welcome in her mother's house. She knows for example that her mother does not like her and there lies between them the memory of her younger sister Marian, who died a decade before. She is also haunted by her own memories of being a rebellious and hard to control teenager.

A good read.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
4.8, GONE GIRL
4.2, THE GROWN UP
4.5, DARK PLACES

Review: THE BOOK CLUB, Mary Alice Monroe

• this edition published in 2012 by Harlequin Australia
• ISBN 978-1921-79579-4
• 350 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Publisher)

On the surface, it's a monthly book club. But for five women, it is so much more. For Eve, whose husband's sudden death cheats her of every security she had planned on, the club is a place of sanctuary. For Annie, a brilliant attorney intent on starting a family late in life, it is the chance to finally let down her guard and dream of other possibilities. For Doris, it is her support group as she acknowledges her dying marriage and finds the ultimate freedom in her husband's betrayal. For Gabriella, the 'perfect' wife, mother and friend who offers support to everyone but is afraid to ask for it herself, it is a sense of community. And for Midge, an artist who has always lived her life against the grain, it is a haven of acceptance.

They are five women from different walks of life, embracing the challenge of change. As they share their hopes and fears and triumphs, they will hold fast to the true magic of the book club – friendship.

My take

Another departure from my usual crime fiction fare.

Five women have belonged to this book club for years and the events of this story show how it is about much more than just reading books. Each of the women go through life changing events and the monthly book club provides a point of stability when all around is rocky.

The primary voice is Eve whose husband dies suddenly while he is away on a regular trip. Her life is shattered and all her security is destroyed. For some months she feels unable to meet with the Book Club but eventually finds her way back to them as a group.

The action takes place over nearly 18 months and each of the women goes through a crisis where the support of the others becomes pivotal.

A good read.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Mary Alice Monroe is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of thirteen novels. Her books received numerous awards, including the Award for Writing from the South Carolina Center for the Book and the International Fiction Award for Green Fiction. An active conservationist, she lives in the lowcountry of South Carolina where she is at work on her next novel. Visit her at www.maryalicemonroe.com and on Facebook.

Review: THE BLUE EDGE OF MIDNIGHT, Jonathon King

• this edition published in 2003 by Orion Books
• ISBN 0-75284-967-0
• 280 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Max Freeman's old life ended on a night that will haunt him for ever. The night he killed a twelve year old child in self defence in a Philadelphia shootout. The night he stopped being a cop. Now he lives an existence of solitary confinement on the edge of the Florida Everglades, where he answers to no one but the demons that eat away at his conscience.

And then he finds the corpse of a child beside an ancient river, and Freeman's past explodes into the present. He is thrust into the centre of the search for a serial killer, distrusted as an outsider by the longtime residents of the Glades and considered a suspect by the police. Freeman must walk a tightrope of distrust on both sides of the law. When another child goes missing, all eyes turn to Freeman, and the ex cop, driven by his old habits and the memories of that long ago Philadelphia midnight, knows that he has no choice but to hunt down the murderer himself.

My Take

THE BLUE EDGE OF MIDNIGHT won the Edgar Award for best first novel in 2003.

One of the interesting features of the novel, given that it is published at the beginning of the 21st century, is the use of a GPS tracking device, left as a clue to detectives near the site of each child's body. For me that was a distraction because I am not sure that it worked as the author thought it might. Nor was I sure that the murderer would be able to afford to do that. Surely GPS devices in 2003 were very expensive?

The murderer appears to be trying to pin the series of murders that he is committing of children on to Max Freeman. And therein lies one of the puzzles. Apart from accidentally killing a child himself, what has Max Freeman done to become a target for a serial killer? And then secondly, why is he killing children? The answers are there, and make sense in the end.

A very dark novel painting an interesting picture of life in the Everglades, newly opened up to tourists by the road built from Tampa to Miami.

My rating: 4.4

About the author
Edgar-award winning author Jonathon King is the creator of the Max Freeman crime series set in the Everglades and on the hard streets of urban South Florida. In his previous career as a journalist, he was a police and court reporter for 24 years with the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale and the Philadelphia Daily News.