Dramatic Events!

Whether they make sense or NOT! I can't figure out how someone like this author can spend a career in law enforcement and not have learned attention to detail. I got to 33% and got fed up. DNF ( )

La vida de Max Freeman cambió una noche que no olvidaría jamás. La noche en que mató a un niño en defensa propia durante un tiroteo en Filadelfia. La noche en que dejó de ser policía. Ahora lleva una existencia solitaria en los Everglades de Florida, donde intenta deshacerse de los fantasmas de su conciencia.
Entonces, encuentra el cadáver de una niña junto a un antiguo río y su pasado estalla en el presente.
De pronto, Freeman se ve envuelto en la búsqueda de un asesino en serie que desconcierta tanto a las autoridades locales como al FBI. Los antiguos habitantes de los Glades –tipos duros y curtidos que viven aislados de la civilización-, desconfían de él y lo presentan ante la policía como sospechoso. Freeman debe caminar por una sutil cuerda floja de desconfianza a ambos lados de la ley. Cuando desaparece otro niño, todos los ojos se vuelven hacia él, y el ex policía, impulsado por sus viejas costumbres y el recuerdo de aquella lejana noche en Filadelfia, sabe que no tiene más opción que atrapar él mismo al asesino.

THE BLUE EDGE OF MIDNIGHT won the Edgar Award for best first novel in 2003.

One of the interesting features of the novel, given that it is published at the beginning of the 21st century, is the use of a GPS tracking device, left as a clue to detectives near the site of each child's body. For me that was a distraction because I am not sure that it worked as the author thought it might. Nor was I sure that the murderer would be able to afford to do that. Surely GPS devices in 2003 were very expensive?

The murderer appears to be trying to pin the series of murders that he is committing of children on to Max Freeman. And therein lies one of the puzzles. Apart from accidentally killing a child himself, what has Max Freeman done to become a target for a serial killer? And then secondly, why is he killing children? The answers are there, and make sense in the end.

A very dark novel painting an interesting picture of life in the Everglades, newly opened up to tourists by the road built from Tampa to Miami. ( )

Max Freeman is desperately trying to get his previous life as a police officer in Philadelphia behind him. Hiding out in one of the last solitary places on Earth, the Florida Everglades, Max has finally found some peace. Still haunted by his shooting on a nasty night as well as the aftermath, Max has learned to cope by canoeing through the dark hours from midnight to dawn when he can't sleep.

The dreams don't come as often anymore but as the book opens, his inability to sleep has driven him once more into the night. His quest for peace this night ends when he finds a child's body in the roots of a tree just down river from his home.
Not only does this dead child bring his past to life once again internally for Max, it also brings him to the attention of a task force. A task force chasing a child killer who has killed before and of which Max knew nothing about thanks to his self imposed exile. Already considered a suspect because of what happened in Philadelphia along with his finding the body, Max soon finds that the killer is planting additional clues, all pointed towards Max. The killer seems to have target Max as the fall guy and begins to manipulate him toward a violet confrontation.

This is a well plotted debut novel with intriguing characters and a believable story. Max is easy to sympathize with after his bad experiences return to haunt him. He's honest, intelligent and determined in his search for the people who are guilty for the crimes against the children.

As a first novel it has promise of even better future novels. It earned it's 3 stars.




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Loved this! A wonderful setting in South Florida that goes beyond the borders of metropolitan Miami and explores the "Old Florida" cultures-- moonshiners and watermen, fishers and gator hunters, outlaws and folks who just want to disappear who occupy the swamps and waterlands. Max Freeman is a newcomer to this crowd, a former Philadelphia cop who retires after he kills a 12 year old boy while responding to an alarm call in a convenience store, an encounter that almost cost him his own life when he took a bullet to the neck. When he discovers the body of a child in the river not far from his adopted home, he is drawn into a fraught investigation of a series of child abduction/murders. Realizing that he has become the suspect, he launches his own investigation to make sure the cops get it right. Max's voice is compelling and believable. King worked as a crime reporter in both Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale, so he brings both locations to vivid life. Looking forward to reading other books by this author! ( )