Estranged from his wife,  Jack lives in a rented room at the Sunset Bar and Grill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in South Florida. His Australian shepherd, Buster, is not only his best friend but his business associate who is capable of tracking missing children.

Jack's daughter Jessie, who plays basketball at Florida State, contacts him regarding a stalker who is following her team. At the game, Jack confronts the stalker (Mouse) who runs from the arena and after the game kidnaps one of the other players with help from the same perpetrator (Giant) that Jack has been haunted by these 18 years. The police do not believe Jack's story about the kidnapping and instead arrest a former boyfriend to save face for the city, which is hosting the basketball playoffs.  

In this gripping novel Jack tracks down Mouse and Giant to a shocking denouement in a town in the middle of nowhere Florida inhabited by strangely disabled citizens. Written in the first person, James Swain provides the reader with a vulnerable hero.

The Night Monster contains compelling vignettes about missing children, including an autistic child who runs from a change in his personal environment and a teenage girl molested by her stepfather, which illustrate Swain's knowledge of his subject and his home state of Florida. There is also a cameo appearance by Tony Valentine, the hero of Swain's previous series about gambling. Readers of this series will enjoy the interaction.

While it would help to have read the previous two Jack Carpenter novels, The Night Monster can be appreciated by all who enjoy a fast paced, exciting thriller with a sympathetic, heroic and complex main character. I can't wait to find out what will happen to Jack next.

--Jerry Solot