The Murder Artist: A Thriller by John Case

Magic runs amok, December 19, 2004****


John Case's The Murder Artist is a gripping story of a father whose two sons are kidnapped. TV reporter Alex Callahan is separated from his wife and, to spend quality time with his twin sons, he takes them to a Renassance fairground. While he is momentarily distracted, his sons disappear. The police are called in and after a search they suspect that Alex has murdered the children himself. Eventually they realize that Alex is not responsible.

Alex is heartbroken at the loss of his sons. Long after the police have moved on to other cases, Alex quits his job and sets out on his own to try to find some trace of his sons. He uses the Internet to try to track down other cases of twins who have been kidnapped. Ultimately he finds similarities between the kidnapping of his sons and a couple of other "twin" kidnappings which the police had dismissed as unrelated.

Alex suspects that the kids have been kidnapped for use in some rather gruesome magic performance. Along the way he meets many experts in magic and learns much about the history of magic.

This is a very well-written novel with a complex but interesting plot. I highly recommend it. This is the first novel I have read by "John Case". I look forward to reading some of his earlier novels.