SWIMSUIT
by: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
(Little Brown: $27.99)
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Reviewed by: Patricia Ann Jones

Supermodel Kim McDaniels is smart enough to be accepted by Columbia's medical school, but dumb enough to go walking at night on a lonely beach. When Kim disappears from a swimsuit photo shoot in Maui, Hawaii, Ex-cop Ben Hawkins, now a crime reporter for the L. A. TIMES newspaper, is assigned to what could be the story of a lifetime.

Henri Benoit rents a beach front bungalow on Maui. Henri is an unprecedented pattern killer, an assassin like no other. All too soon beauty and murder collide as horrors are hidden within paradise. This elusive monster video tapes his gruesome kills for a specialized audience. Yes, he's paid a handsome fee for his videos by an elite group of deviates.

Levon and Barbara McDaniels, Kim's parents receive a late night phone call from an anonymous caller who tells them . . . "I saw her. I liked her. I took her." The caller omitted saying, "I killed her."

The McDaniels immediately fly to Maui to search for their missing daughter. They are met at the Maui airport by a man who identifies himself as their driver hired by the Wailea Princess Hotel where Kim had been staying. But is this man, Marco, who he claims to be?

You soon learn Henri Benoit is not only a serial killer, he is a first-rate chameleon. A person who has a genius for becoming whoever he is pretending to be.

The McDaniels soon realize the local police think Kim has simply gone off on her own or with friends, and are not considering her disappearance as foul play. They hire Eddie Keola, a private investigator to assist in finding Kim.

One by one the members of "The Alliance," the group of twelve very rich, very sick sociopaths who enjoy Henri's torture-murder videos as a hobby, are introduced.

Bodies begin showing up. First is Kim's roommate, Julia Winkler, then Rosa, a young girl, is found. The McDaniels disappear. Ben and Eddie team up to find them. They discover all of the McDaniels' things are gone from their room at the Wailea Princess. It is as if they were never there. Ultimately Kim's decapitated body is discovered, and her parent's bodies as well.

Henri has been a very busy fellow leaving no clues, no evidence, and Ben finding himself at a dead-end is recalled by his editor back to L.A.

Meanwhile, Henri satisfied with his work for his clients, moves onto another venue.

Ben, back in L.A. feels he's failed, he's dejected and would have bet anything that his part in this story gone awry is over. He'd be wrong again.

The next two hundred and four pages unveil a story more suspenseful than few I've ever read. Revealing anything more would be a total disservice to readers. Personally, I believe Patterson and Paetro took great delight in leaving the best of their convoluted tale to the last.

"Swimsuit" is not a novel to read on a sunny beach. I suggest the confines of your own home with all the doors and windows locked. Even then you may feel uncomfortable as if someone is watching you. Was that the doorbell? Don't answer it!