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| The Night Stalker: A Novel of Suspense | 
| Author: James Swain
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $15.01 (60%)
New (27) from $9.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 3511
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 5.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0345475526
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345475527
ASIN: 0345475526
Publication Date: September 30, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Hard-edged, evocative, brilliantly paced, James Swain’s novels of crime and punishment in South Florida delve into a shadowy realm where criminals, victims, and cops share the same truths, the same lies, and sometimes even the same nightmares.
Abb Grimes is famous. Just ask the ghoulish tourists who flock to his former home to take photographs. Years ago, Grimes killed eighteen women, some never found. As the head of the Broward County Missing Persons Unit, Jack Carpenter was intimately involved in the Grimes case. Now, days away from execution, the notorious serial killer reaches out to ex-cop Carpenter with a surprising request.
Abb Grimes’ grandson was lured from his home. The cops are convinced the boy’s father–Abb’s troubled son, Jed–is behind the boy’s disappearance, but Jack’s not so sure. With a personal connection to the kidnapped child, Carpenter takes the case, and that’s when the situation goes from terrifying to fatal. There’s another gruesome murder, and once again the evidence points straight to Jed. Have the unspeakable sins of his father taken root within this troubled young man?
Carpenter races against time and a police department that wants his help but rejects his aggressive style as he searches through an underworld of predators, assembling the jagged pieces of a depraved puzzle, desperate to put an end to a murderous stalker’s blood-soaked rampage.
With unremitting action and skillfully polished prose, bestselling author James Swain has written his most riveting thriller yet, delving even deeper into the fascinating psyche of misbehaving crusader Jack Carpenter. A hero immersed in the evil that is his prey, Carpenter battles a stunning betrayal–and a horrendous danger no one saw coming.
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| Customer Reviews:
A lot going on October 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Lots of plots and sub-plots. Swain ties them all together in excellent fashion. Just the right mix of cop dishonesty and helpful citizens. Buster is a hoot. Eagerly awaiting the next Carpenter installment
 Jack Carpenter (and Buster) Do It Again October 7, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
"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.
Topnotch writing you expect from Swain October 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
James Swain's latest book is fast paced and riveting, with more twists than a roller coaster-just what you'd expect from him.
Abb Grimes spent twelve years on death row for murdering eighteen women that had gone missing. Jack Carpenter helped put him there. And now Abb Grimes needs help. His grandson has been abducted and he wants Carpenter to find him. And Carpenter is good at finding missing people, especially children. He should be. He was head of the Broward County missing persons unit until he lost it with a suspect. Then he resigned in disgrace before he was fired.
He now makes his living consulting with various law enforcement groups on their missing persons cases. So Carpenter takes this case on, with only four days to solve it. Except that the guy who took his job at Broward doesn't want him on the case. The FBI has already decided who the perpetrator is and is looking at him-to the exclusion of all else. And Carpenter is convinced they are both wrong.
But for Carpenter it's not about the law or procedure-it's about the missing child, and he won't stop until the child's back in his mother's arms. Through the worst neighborhoods of Broward and with the help of people who believe in Carpenter and his methods, Jack battles bullies, drug dealers, and bad cops to get to the truth-and find the boy before it is too late.
Armchair Interviews says: A must read.
Swain's best novel yet in his exciting new series September 30, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Night Stalker is Swain's follow-up to Midnight Rambler, and the book is really good. Ex-cop and missing person specialist Jack Carpenter is hired by a serial killer sitting on death row to find his abducted grandson, and it's non-stop action from then on. Like the previous installment, the locale is the Sodom and Gomorrah of South Florida; there are plenty of bad guys, bad cops, and great sleuthing. For anyone looking to escape the real world for a few days, this book is for you.
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