The Blue Edge of Midnight

The Blue Edge of Midnight

Author: Jonathon King

Publisher: Penguin (2002)

ISBN: 0525946438

pages: 259

Genre: mystery

Subgenre: ex-police officer

4.5 (out of 5) STARS

Annotation: Max Freeman, an ex-police officer, is unwittingly pulled into an investigation to find a child serial killer.

Summary: Max Freeman was a police officer in Philadelphia, but that all changed three years ago when he shot and killed a twelve-year-old boy in self-defense during a shoot-out. Freeman found himself unable to continue on as a policeman. After being paid a nice settlement he moved to Florida. He now lives in solitude in the middle of the Everglades trying to fight the demons in his head.

Suddenly, Freeman's solitude is broken when he is thrust into the middle of an investigation for a child serial killer. Freeman discovers the third child's body in the river by his house. As much as Freeman wants to be uninvolved it becomes no longer possible. The old time inhabitants of the Everglades are suspicious of him as an outsider. And the law and the FBI are also suspicious of his involvement as a possible suspect.

Freeman finds it necessary to track and discover the murderer himself.

Evaluation: Interestingly enough my favorite part about this book was its bleakness and darkness. There is just something attractive about a man with a past full of demons. Here is a great paragraph from the beginning of the book.

“I settled into the stern seat and pulled six or seven strokes to get upstream from the falls and then readied myself. The mile from my stilted shack had just been a warm-up. Now I’d get into the heavy work that had become my nightly ritual. This time of year in South Florida, high summer when the afternoon rains came like a rhythm, this ancient river to the Everglades spread its banks into the cypress and sabal palms and flooded the saw grass and pond apple trees until the place looked more like a drowning forest than a tributary. It was also the time of year when a man with a head full of sour memories could power a canoe up the river’s middle and muscle and sweat through yet another impossible night.” (pg. 2). The whole book has this same brooding, intense mood.

My one concern was discovering that the murdered victims were children. I have a very difficult time with any crimes against children and with sexual crimes against woman. But this book handled the murders tastefully and briefly. The murders were not the focus of the story. Freeman and the serial killer and the thought process behind the murders were the main focus of the plot.

More books to read:

There are 5 books in the Max Freeman series by Jonathon King.

1-The Blue Edge of Midnight

2-A Visible Darkness

3-Shadow Men

4-A Killing Night

5-Acts of Nature