NIGHT CRIMES by Judith Woolcock Colombo

NIGHT CRIMES by Judith Woolcock Colombo
AmErica House, Baltimore - April 2001
ISBN: 158851174X -
Thriller Suspense
By a Copy

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, MyShelf.com

Night Crimes is as much about love as it is about insanity, as much about psychology as it is about crime. It's also about soul, self-expression and art.

All that makes it a lot more than a tense thriller for a lonely night. Still, although no one gets cannibalized in Night Crimes, in terms of pure terror, this is a novel that will give Silence of the Lambs a run for its money.

Colombo not only writes us into the heads of a sweet-souled cop, an artistically edgy mother and wife but also into the very minds of a psycho or two. Well, OK. More than two. One is an artist, the other a poet; both love their victims. As readers we get to compare their motives, their reasoning, their modus operandi. We come to respect their talents and their humanity; we are angered by their lapses in reasoning, their uncontrolled insanity.

My favorite villain--if you can call him that--is an observer of the night. He is a poet, though he may not be aware of this talent (He views himself as God's instrument for death). Still, he treats us to simple poetic descriptions of his world: "The moon paints patterns on the water's surface," he says. He is a bard with an intimate knowledge of death: "The desire for death cannot be a passing whim. It is an unreturnable gift." He knows death up close, can feel it, express it, smell it. If you are a curious sort,
you'll want to experience death the way he sees it and tells it.

If some Hollywood producer doesn't pick this up to chill the summer of 2002, it's their loss. It can be ordered at www.publishamerica.com.