Sunday, November 1, 2009

By Reviewed by David and Nancy Beckwith

"The Night Monster"

by James Swain

Ballantine Books

$26 hardcover

'Cops aren't supposed to get frightened. The badge and the uniform and the gun strapped to a cop's side are intended to ward off the normal fears that most people experience when confronted by unspeakable horror and evil.

"But it doesn't always work out that way. Cops get scared, just like everyone else. Sometimes they get so scared they run for their lives. Other times they get shaken to the core and never forget the things they've seen. It happened to me, two years into the job."

So begins "The Night Monster."

We recently had the opportunity to meet James Swain at the Vero Beach Book Center, where he was presenting this, his latest novel. He began his talk with the words above, which set the tenor of the thriller from the perspective of its main character, Jack Carpenter.

Although this book and its predecessor, "The Night Stalker," are novels, they are based on true stories of abductions. In his presentation at the book center, Swain revealed his motivation for the series and provided a profile of a serial predator.

Swain's own mother was abducted as a child. In her case, the abduction followed a domestic dispute related to a divorce between her parents. Fortunately for the child, she was returned home about two years after she was abducted. Therein lies the difference between a predator and a serial predator.

The serial predator seeks out a victim for a purpose and will keep the victim alive and captive until that person is found, escapes or no longer meets the original purpose for the abduction. A recent example of a serial predator involves the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard, mercifully rescued after 18 years in captivity. Another example of a serial predator, according to author Swain, is Bernard Madoff, identified as having the same profile of attributes as a serial predator.

The statistics on child abductions in the United States are staggering. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, a child goes missing every 40 seconds in the United States, which translates into more than 2,100 per day and in excess of 800,000 missing children each year. An estimated 500,000 other children go missing without ever being reported. These stolen lives are a cruel theft and an unbearable ordeal for the victims and their families.

The main character in Swain's series of books is a private investigator, Jack Carpenter, former head of the Broward County Missing Persons Unit. While Jack's personal life is less than ideal, he is dedicated to the pursuit of finding missing children. In "The Night Monster," he is obsessed with the kidnapping of a college coed he failed to stop as a young policeman almost two decades earlier. The victim and the abductor have never been seen since. Confirming Jack's belief that until you find the body the victim may still be alive, a cold case becomes a reality with a tip from Jack's daughter, Jessie, that a creep posing as the media has been following her college basketball team around with his camera.

When Jack investigates this tip, he finds his daughter's instincts to be accurate. The "creep" has falsified press identification and is stalking one of Jessie's teammates for his partner. The "partner" happens to be the same hulking perpetrator involved in the kidnapping of the college coed 18 years earlier -- and who, again, overpowers Jack physically in his latest abduction.

Devastated by a repeat of history, Jack investigates the perpetrators and the similarities between the two cases and others. His findings show a pattern of serial predatory abductions. With the help of his trusty dog, Buster, Jack pursues the leads and his instincts. As this thrilling book unfolds, he finds further support from the wealthy father of the latest victim, also friends and connections at the Broward County Sheriff's office, plus the FBI and, of course, his daughter Jessie. Along the way he is confronted by other cases to resolve, personal challenges and a shuttered mental institution. The trail at last leads to a small, sinister town in Central Florida called Chatham, whose residents share a ghastly secret.

We have honestly never read a more engaging book. It has a compelling, suspenseful plot that holds the reader on every page. Swain's knowledge and research help him portray a serial predator accurately and, too, the horror and the wrath experienced by the families.

The strength of his main character, Jack Carpenter, is what gives the reader confidence that Jack will ultimately succeed. His dogged pursuit is marked with logic, common sense, honesty and determination.

James Swain lives in Florida, is a bestselling author of nine novels before this one and recipient of the prestigious Prix Calibre 38 for Best American Crime Fiction. "The Night Monster" begins with Jack Carpenter subduing an alligator and evolves into his meeting a far more menacing creature. At Vero Beach, Swain told us his books always have happy endings -- some bittersweet, but happy. This is a must for him to achieve, he says, because from page one to the very end, the reader will experience just about every human emotion possible within the context of the novel.

As one literary critic has observed, "The only problem with Swain's riveting thrillers is that they end." We concur completely with that assessment.