Saturday, February 20, 2010

The NIGHT STALKER by James Swain ***

Has a good beginning, nice descriptions not bogged down but sometimes it seems like the protagonist has magic powers. He just solves crimes in his head in seconds. He "knows" the killer is a fat fake nurse in her 30s because of the sick child kidnapped...like WHAT? CASE SOLVED!


Bonus points for having a dog but someone tries to strangle the dog and he still thinks the person is worth saving. Personally I'd shoot him between the eyes but I didn't write the book.


The writing draws you in quickly and it's action packed. One cop tells him to give up the case or you'll never work again and it's hard to understand because the character is hired by someone else; is NOT a cop and how can he be stopped? I laughed. 


Lots of magical things: he assumes a person would drop a child to kill a bum but while reading you think why? Maybe he killed the bum before he kidnapped the child. Lots of that sort of stuff makes you scratch your head. The writer thinks linear and doesn't sort out other possibilities that as a more intelligent reader you do wonder about. He does an awful lot of assuming.


In the very beginning of the story (page 4) the character says 'I had been involved in Abbs case and I knew his story'. On page 34 he says he 'NEVER quit a case'. In the END he shockingly learns all the information FOR THE FIRST TIME he should have known if he worked on the case...DUR HOMER. So I'm calling him a liar. He never worked the damn case and he quits them with regularity. Aside from the obvious inconsistencies (writer drinks a lot?) then it's a fair read. It goes quick so at least you don't have to put up with it for a long stinking time.

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