deenaf's Full Review: James Swain - The Night Monster: A Novel of Suspen...
Many years ago, I read a series of books by James Swain. Then I forgot about him. Next thing I know, I see a newly released hardcover bearing his name so I picked it up. His newest book is called “The Night Monster”.
THE STORY
“The Night Monster” is the story of a former police detective named Jack Carpenter. He was heading up a division in the department that devoted its time to finding missing children. He has an early retirement (was forced out) and heads up his solo practice of finding missing children. Jack is haunted by an unsolved abduction that occurred on his watch decades ago and he has never forgiven himself. This drives him to this day.
Present day, and quite coincidentally, Jack’s daughter plays on a Florida basketball team in which a key player is abducted after a game. The police are focused on a primary suspect but Jack believes the abduction is related to the one unsolved decades ago. Since Jack has kept some key contacts over the years, he is able to go in and out of the police’s business and the FBI’s business with little trouble. He even elicits help from an Indian Chief who runs a casino on an Indian Reservation and makes good use of their in house cameras (and we see a cameo of Tony Valentine, a character of Swain’s from his Grift series of books).
Also coincidentally the Florida bureau chief of the FBI’s daughter ALSO went missing years ago and Jack seems to think that this too might be connected. He is able to work on the missing basketball player AND the FBI Director’s daughter simultaneously.
Jack’s source of chase is a pair of guys, Mouse and Lonny, who were both committed at some point to a mental hospital. They seriously are mental cases with unresolved psychological issues. They are out of the mental hospital, not because they were cured, but another reason, which lends itself to the story.
Lastly, Jack Carpenter is the hero who ties it all together but not without difficulty and confusion. Their trail ends in a town that is so beyond creepy that it is hard to stay focused on the serial kidnappers!
MY THOUGHTS
If I were to judge a book by its cover, I should be scared as heck from this one. The title alone brings out creepiness and fear by shear process. The Night Monster should be scary and edge of your seat, but this book never achieves that. As a matter of fact, there are actually two monsters leading the mystery, neither one working alone. I do believe the title refers to one of the abductors, who is grossly big, monstrously big, and deeply terrifying but I never felt that way while reading the book.
There is not a scary moment to be found in this book and the ending ruined the whole story for me. There was no tension, no tenseness, no gripping whodunit question…. The criminals are set forth from early on and this becomes nothing more than a cat and mouse game. Sure, girls were killed but that was in the past. There is no present gore and no suspense whatsoever.
This is not to say that The Night Monster is a bad book. It’s an easy read and an easy story to follow but it never grabs hold and your heart rate never races. And you won’t get nightmares... unless fear of abduction haunts you. Then by all means, stay away from this book because these girls are quite easily abducted, as well as videoed and followed.
As I said in my plot paragraphs, Swain pays homage to a previous character in a different book series. Those books were great (Grift Sense, Funny Money, to name a few) and dare I say, better than The Night Monster.
Jack Carpenter is an alright guy in this book. I like the way his character is loyal, dependable, but not perfect and his flaws are shown through his relationship to his wife (they are separated) and his relationship to his college-aged daughter. He has a bit of cockiness and a determination that is admirable. I liked reading him…but I still didn’t feel that the story was weighty enough and frankly, at the end, the story gets somewhat convoluted and mixed up with an unrelated village secret.
I’d still recommend this book as a mystery but it is clearly not a thrilling thriller.
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