Niceville
Carson Stroud
Knopf, Jun 12 2012, $26.95
ISBN: 9780307700957

In Niceville, a security camera catches the sudden disappearance seemingly into thin air of Rainey Teague on Main Street. Not long after that a bank robbery turns ugly with four cops killed and a TV helicopter shot down by a sniper. A pedophile and a SWAT team are on the verge of a violent encounter. More people abruptly vanish as other unexplained incidents occur too.

As the townsfolk reel from the tragic events, police officer Nick Kavanaugh investigates while his wife Kate the lawyer tries to help him understand the apparently inexplicable. Thirty-six hours since Rainey disappeared leaving a town in crisis; Nick finds clues that lead to something he cannot rationally accept in nearby Crater Sink.

This is a convoluted but exciting horror police procedural thriller that never quite gels on a prime plot between the vanishings and the bloody bank robbery. This leads to way to many characters for the Kavanaugh couple and the audience to cope with. Still fans will enjoy a trip to Niceville with a need to know who or what is snatching people off the streets and in homes and stores as safety is nowhere in the town. The storyline is at its best when the abductions take center stage over the bank robbery.

Harriet Klausner