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Before the Cradle Falls
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15 new or used available from CDN$ 0.80
Average customer review:
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Product Description
While investigating, Sommers learns that a strange man has been saving local children from various dangers-then mysteriously disappearing. With the help of Sherrie Nolan, a brilliant and embittered scientist, Sommers learns that the man is a time traveler who, grieving for his own murdered child, has vowed to use his brilliant mind to create a way for a future generation of children to live.
And Sommers hungrily hopes to save children who have died in the past as well. Particularly Shelby. Laughed off the task force as word spreads of his theory, Sommers investigates on his own. Desperate to undo his tragic history and rebuild his career, Sommers determines that the way to stop the Cradle Robber is to get to the time traveler.
But the Cradle Robber has hatched a diabolical scheme. Intent on continuing his carnage, the baby-killer has laid a trap for both Sommers and the time traveler . . . one sure to destroy every adult and child in the city.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #2001467 in Books
- Published on: 2002-06-15
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this superbly paced mix of science fiction, thriller and police procedural, set in contemporary Portland, Ore., police detective Kyle Sommers has taken to the bottle to fight the memories of his daughter Shelby's death in an accident for which he was responsible. To rehabilitate him, his superiors put Kyle in charge of a task force to fight the Cradle Robber, a vicious child-killer who has now moved to Portland. But some of the Cradle Robber's intended victims are being saved at the last minute. With the help of double-amputee and writer Sherrie Nolan, Kyle figures out that the child rescuer is a time-traveler. Fired from the task force, Kyle decides to pursue both the Cradle Robber and the time-traveler on his own. He and Sherrie eventually confront both as they try to end the Cradle Robber's trail of deathand allow the time-traveler to save his own lost daughter. Despite the high body count, the author carefully calibrates the violence for emotional impact, never crossing the line into gratuitous gore, and even a serial killer and various gang-bangers have internal lives. There's also an agreeable minimum of tokenism in Sherrie's disability, and likewise little voyeurism in the endangerment of children. David (Ship of the Damned) has contributed a fine novel to that popular genre, the well-told tale. One can only hope that the survivors will make a return appearance.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
It's always risky for an author to inject elements of fantasy into a mystery novel-- sometimes the disparate ingredients fail to emulsify--but David manages to mix it up just right. The story begins as a straight mystery: a serial killer dubbed the Cradle Robber has claimed his latest victim, a teenage girl. Detective Kyle Sommers, still distraught over the accidental death of his own young daughter, learns that an elderly man was at the scene of the crime just before the murder took place--and that he knew it was going to happen. Soon there are other reports of an elderly man appearing just before something awful is about to happen to a child. With the help of an imaginative scientist, Sommers is forced to consider the impossible: the old man is a time traveler, on a mission from the future to rescue imperiled children. Can Sommers find the traveler before the Cradle Robber does? David turns this implausible premise into a believable thriller that will appeal to both mystery and fantasy fans. David Pitt
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