WHEN DARKNESS FALLS marks my first reading of James Grippando, but it won’t be my last. Because I’m hankering for more. I read this in one late-night sitting, saying every once in a while, “Well, just one more chapter … just one more.” And then it was over, and I wanted it to continue for another couple hundred of pages. I can’t think of any more positive review than that.

Grippando has a quick, slashing storytelling style, but it’s the super-intensity of his well-drawn characters that fascinate the reader and draws one inexorably into the world of Miami defense attorney Jack Swyteck. This is the sixth book featuring Swyteck, and he continues to get into some quite amazing problems in a simple, almost harmless way. His problem this go-round is a man named Falcon.

We first meet Falcon gripping a streetlamp on the William Powell Bridge, threatening to throw himself onto the street below. He seems delusional, and insists on talking to the mayor’s daughter. Confronting him is police crisis negotiator Vincent Paulo. Paulo is good at his craft, good at talking to the increasingly unstable Falcon, but he is still quite surprised to hear Falcon’s request.

Falcon is a homeless man. How does he know the mayor’s daughter? Is he stalking her? Paulo has a personal interest, as he himself has a relationship with Alicia Mendoza, the woman in question. But it’s a relationship that has changed dramatically. Six months ago, Paulo was permanently blinded on the job, and though he has been able to rebuild his work life, his love life remains on hold. And then there’s Falcon.

Come on, how can you not continue reading with that setup? And we haven’t even come to the series character, Swyteck. After Falcon is hauled down from the bridge, Swyteck is assigned to represent him. The bail will be $10,000, an impossible sum for a homeless man. But Falcon has the money, in fact, and a lot more stored in a Bahamian bank. And it just gets crazier and crazier from there.

All of these characters that Grippando creates – and there are even a few more like Swyteck’s best friend Theo Knight – are real and believable. Each is developed equally, a difficult task in lesser hands. Their interactions ring true. And because of this, we tend to care, even about the psychotic Falcon who remains onstage throughout the book.

This is a superb thriller, deeply satisfying with cultural and history lessons to impart – the perfect book for your next long plane trip. –Mark Rose

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