Type of bind: Audio Cassette
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 5
Printing Date: April 14, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 3324566
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Eighty years ago, three laborers vanished while building the very first road through the Florida Everglades. Now, a descendant of the missing men turns to Max Freeman for help in uncovering their fate. But there is something much more dangerous in the swamps than long-lost ghosts. There are dangerous men who want the past to remain buried-and will kill to make sure it stays that way.
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Rated by buyers -
Having enjoyed the very first Jonathon King novel, The Blue-Edge of Midnight, I was then disappointed with the second, Visible Darkness; but his third book is again right on the money. Starting with a grabbing intro and then moving right to the meat of the mystery, this book takes you from the beginning and just doesn't let go.
Max Freeman, our now not so lonely and now Private Investigator, meets with Billy Manchester about an 80 year old suspected disappearance of several family members that is being investigated by the grandson and nephew of the long gone trio. Letters are introduced and then as the tale unfolds, more information is slowly handed to the reader.
Again this book takes place mostly in the Everglades National Park and therefore the writing skills of King transport the reader directly into the story. There are a couple of plotlines going here and with the onion of Freeman's past life again being peeled back, we get a book full of interesting writing that had me totally absorbed.
The mystery is not overly complicated and the story unfolds cleanly. The characters are beginning to take front and center in this series and call for more once the ending is revealed. There are questions about the characters that remain unanswered waiting for the subsequent installment.
Although not a five star book - I reserve that for very special editions, it ranks a solid four star.
Rated by buyers -
This is another outing for Mr King's regular series character ,ex Philly cop now Miami based PI ,Max Freeman .It opens with a short sequence set in the 1920's which depicts a father and his 2 sons ,working in virtually a state of peonage while building the Tamiami Trail, being shot and killed while trying to escape.The killer is an employee of the contractor building the Trail.
We skip then to the presnt day when Mayes ,a descendant of one of the men killed ,discovers letters they smuggled out of the labour camp and sets out to discover the truth about the past .Billy Manchester ,Max's grey lawyer friend from Philly days now also a Florida resident ,persuades Max to take the case on board .He is soon being trailed by strong arm men hired by the company ,warned to cease and desist from his investigations and almost having his isolated Everglades home incinerated.
A sub-plot revolves around Max's relationship with Sherry a Florida cop who is seeking to help another female cop through an abusive relationship with another male officer.
This is an issue heavy novel and is peppered with flashbacks to Max'x earlier life with a drunken and violent cop father -a racist,a bigot and a bully not greatly loved by his colleagues -and his own killing of a serial rapist in the Philly subway system .The whole thing is a little too like striving after "significance "(a sort of Dostoevsky -lite)to be wholly to my taste but it ia a well written and gripping novel although ,as with allsuch books flashback does serve to vitiate against narrative tension and forward momentum in the book
Dualism is at the heart of the book -city and swamp ,past and presnt ,love and violence ,paradisical landscapes as a backdrop for corporate greed -all are at their core inextricably intertwined .This is an unmissable series .
Rated by buyers 
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I admit, I'm a big fan. But, darn, he is so good. I feel like I'm right there in the Everglades, the descriptions are that good. Max Freeman is such an interesting and complicated character. He has become almost real to me.
Rated by buyers -
It's the characters, dialogue and sense of place that draws me in and keep me there page after page. Max and Billy are great characters with a strong, involving history. The secondary characters are interesting, rich and dimensional. The contrast between the city and the Everglades, as well as the time Freeman's spends on the water between the two, adds an atmosphere and richness to the story. The plot is a bit weak--I never did quite understand the motive for the killings in the 20's, but the sense of melancholy and nature versus nurture was compelling. I'd certainly recommend giving King a try.
Rated by buyers 
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Max Freeman, an ex-cop turned PI who is haunted by the violence in his past, investigates an 80-year-old murder case. The result is a pretty formless thriller without any thrills. Author Jonathan King seems to recognize the plodding nature of Max's investigation, because he makes a number of digressions to scenes of violence from his hero's years on the Philadelphia police force and an unrelated sub-plot concerning a policeman who beats his girlfriend. The conclusion of the mystery is unsatisfying and there is scarcely a single scene of true suspense. The prose is direct but unremarkable. The strongest aspect of the book is its Everglades setting, but King does not evoke it nearly as well as, say, Tony Hillerman's masterful description of the southwestern desert.
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