Night Fall

 

Back Cover

For any little boy or girl who hears the Train Man speak,

Who feels his rancid breath caress their pretty cheek,

Must close their eyes, pretend to sleep, and very softly pray,

Or else the evil Train Man may carry them away.

Finally free of her troubled upbringing, Alex Donovan is able to live out her childhood dream of working for the FBI. But soon after she becomes a member of FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, authorities in Missouri contact them about bodies found on freight trains - all killed in the same way.

Alex never expected to be forced to confront her past in this new job, but she immediately recognizes the graffiti messages the killer is leaving on the train cars.  When the BAU sends her to gather information about the messages from her aunt in Wichita, Kansas, Alex is haunted by the struggles she thought she'd left behind forever.

In a race against time to solve4 the case and recover a deadly virus sample the killer intends to spread, Alex must face how far she'll go - and what she's willing to risk - to put a stop to the Train Man.

Review

Night Fall is...certifiably creepy. I was super excited for a new Christian crime novel - a chance to cheer on the good guys while they chase down the bad ones while also showing growth in faith. But I struggled with this one. I had picked up this book many times to start it, but had to put it back down for something different as I couldn't get past the first few pages. While I'm a huge fan of suspense novels, this one set me on edge, and not in a thrill-seeking way. By diving in deep into the depraved Train Man's mind, you learn more of his story of growing up in a perverted cult and having absolutely terrible parents. It creates somewhat of an understanding of how he came to be, but the double-edged sword is that you have to read through a whole lot of darkness to get to that point. This certainly isn't a lighter police procedural drama like "Castle", but a dark and twisted ride without a whole lot of light at the end of the tunnel. 

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.