The weakest book so far in the series. A good story idea but just never felt fully developed. Very disturbing subject matter may have played apart as it deals with child abuse. Still, this book, like the others takes the reader on a couple of thrill rides. ( )

The book and subject are raw and gritty. John captures the networks that haunt these dark pedafiles. Their victims are real and the effects last. As in the daughter who kills her father to stop her daughter being a victim ( )

Another win for Parker in his series. On to the next one ( )

Pretty decent thriller. At the beginning we are treated to the villain's thoughts, which read like so many villains in so many other thrillers that I was not happy. Fortunately, the book is not peppered with these intrusions into a two-dimensional mind. Instead, the book settles solidly into the lives of the PT, Charlie Parker, and those near him.

The case begins when Rebecca Clay seeks help from Parker because she is being stalked. The stalker has asked her questions about her father, Daniel Clay, who disappeared five years previously. The stalker, whose name is Merrick, believes she knows where her father is, and that he is not dead.

Parker wonders what Merrick's interest in Clay is, so he investigate the circumstances of his disappearance. Clay was a psychologist who specialized in abused children. Around the time of his disappearance some difficulties had arisen in some of his cases and he was even suspected of colluding with a group of abusers in some way. Parker realizes there is more to this case than that of a stalker interested in a woman.

Parker therefore goes above and beyond the immediate case, taking on more than his client is willing or able to pay him for. And in the end he does resolve the burning questions.

There are interesting details here, of Parker's life, of Merrick's personality, of other shadowy figures. Parker and others are even visited by supernatural characters, "hollow men". I can't say I loved that part of this as I am no fan of the supernatural, but it is a way to indicate the darkness that pervades some souls. ( )

This story was a little bleak. It’s well written but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous books. ( )