Swamplands

Swamplands is Jack Short’s first official homicide case. The murder of Kelly Reynolds falls into his lap only two weeks after joining the homicide team. This case involves the murder of a young woman whose body was found in the swamplands of Florida. The circumstances of this murder make Jack believe that Kelly might not be the killer’s first victim. Detective Short is a Christian man. He is not a fanatic; he never mentions his beliefs to anyone he works with, nor does he mention just which church he goes to. But he does pray from time to time, asking God to help him to stem the flow of evil in the world. Alvy, the man Jack is looking for, is a monster right out of the pages of Kraft-Ebbing’s Pscyhopathia Sexualis. Like most sociopaths, Alvy is difficult to find because he really doesn’t know any of his victims very well and there is little or no social history between him and the young ladies he chooses. This fact gives the police little to connect him to his crimes.