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Before the Cradle Falls
Paralyzed by drink and despair since the accidental death of his young daughter, Shelby, Detective Kyle Sommers nonetheless must lead a task force to catch a brutal serial killer. Nicknamed the Cradle Robber, this murderer has methodically snuffed out the lives of children all along the California coast. Now he's come to Portland.
While investigating, Sommers learns that a strange man has been saving local children from various dangers-then mysteriously disappearing. With the help of Sherrie Nolan, a brilliant and embittered scientist, Sommers learns that the man is a time traveler who, grieving for his own murdered child, has vowed to use his brilliant mind to create a way for a future generation of children to live.
And Sommers hungrily hopes to save children who have died in the past as well. Particularly Shelby. Laughed off the task force as word spreads of his theory, Sommers investigates on his own. Desperate to undo his tragic history and rebuild his career, Sommers determines that the way to stop the Cradle Robber is to get to the time traveler.
But the Cradle Robber has hatched a diabolical scheme. Intent on continuing his carnage, the baby-killer has laid a trap for both Sommers and the time traveler . . . one sure to destroy every adult and child in the city.
"David (Ship of the Damned) has contributed a fine novel to that popular genre, the well-told tale. One can only hope that the survivors will make a return appearance. " - Publishers Weekly
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
While investigating, Sommers learns that a strange man has been saving local children from various dangers-then mysteriously disappearing. With the help of Sherrie Nolan, a brilliant and embittered scientist, Sommers learns that the man is a time traveler who, grieving for his own murdered child, has vowed to use his brilliant mind to create a way for a future generation of children to live.
And Sommers hungrily hopes to save children who have died in the past as well. Particularly Shelby. Laughed off the task force as word spreads of his theory, Sommers investigates on his own. Desperate to undo his tragic history and rebuild his career, Sommers determines that the way to stop the Cradle Robber is to get to the time traveler.
But the Cradle Robber has hatched a diabolical scheme. Intent on continuing his carnage, the baby-killer has laid a trap for both Sommers and the time traveler . . . one sure to destroy every adult and child in the city.
"David (Ship of the Damned) has contributed a fine novel to that popular genre, the well-told tale. One can only hope that the survivors will make a return appearance. " - Publishers Weekly
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 16, 2002
About the author
James F. David
25 books30 followersJames F. David has a Ph.D. from Ohio State University and is currently a professor of Psychology as George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. He is the author of the thrillers Footprints of Thunder, Ship of the Damned and Before the Cradle Falls. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Tigard, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 16, 2024
The cover blurb states that Before the Cradle Falls is "Superbly paced mix of science fiction, thriller, and police procedural" and I have to agree, even if you have to suspend your disbelief a bit along the way. Set in Portland, Oregon, our protagonist, Detective Sommers, starts the book still reeling from the death of his young daughter and his fall to booze. It seems he and his daughter hit a deer on the way home, he lost control of the car and the resulting crash killer her. Before, Sommers had quickly risen in the ranks of the PPD, and had been tasked to lead the hunt for the so-called Cradle Robber, a serial killer slowing working his way up the West Coast.
Well, the Cradle robber arrived (he kills young kids in their bedrooms, leaving toys in their hands) and Sommer's chief activates the task force, putting Sommers in charge, albeit warily. So, on the one hand, we have a serial killer story/police procedural. The author, however, also brought a 'wild-card' into the mix, with a strangely clad older man starts to show up in places somehow knowing crimes and/or tragedies would soon ensue. Who is this guy? How does he know the future? He even leaves clippings from a newspaper that narrated events that he helped thwart.
Mild spoiler (it is on the back flap), it turns out the mystery 'good Samaritan' has somehow travelled back in time to prevent various tragedies, but why? I will stop with the plotting here to avoid spoilers. David's workmanlike prose and pacing moves the story along nicely. Decent character development, even if some of them possess a bit too much 'larger than life' attributes. The author is also a professor of psychology and it shows in places, especially the motivations of the killer and how the various characters deal with grief. The rather saccharine ending stopped me from rating this higher, but jeez, quite a page turner. 4 untimely stars!
Well, the Cradle robber arrived (he kills young kids in their bedrooms, leaving toys in their hands) and Sommer's chief activates the task force, putting Sommers in charge, albeit warily. So, on the one hand, we have a serial killer story/police procedural. The author, however, also brought a 'wild-card' into the mix, with a strangely clad older man starts to show up in places somehow knowing crimes and/or tragedies would soon ensue. Who is this guy? How does he know the future? He even leaves clippings from a newspaper that narrated events that he helped thwart.
Mild spoiler (it is on the back flap), it turns out the mystery 'good Samaritan' has somehow travelled back in time to prevent various tragedies, but why? I will stop with the plotting here to avoid spoilers. David's workmanlike prose and pacing moves the story along nicely. Decent character development, even if some of them possess a bit too much 'larger than life' attributes. The author is also a professor of psychology and it shows in places, especially the motivations of the killer and how the various characters deal with grief. The rather saccharine ending stopped me from rating this higher, but jeez, quite a page turner. 4 untimely stars!
August 14, 2019
Spoiler alert *****
This was a very interesting read. The story started very bizarrely, but then eventually settled into a good read. I will still never understand why the author needed to showcase a gangrape, and then show how a killer, hellbent on keeping children immortalized as children could have killed Carolynn Miller, only to be upset that she wasn’t his type... Did he not realize from the get go that she was too old for him?
That being said... I enjoyed the time travel element. I still feel like the novel got very caught up in explaining the causality paradox/other paradoxes... however, I find it funny, that a time traveler, who seemed well aware of how much damage or danger he could cause by saving all of those other people, would waste time on them (ultimately changing the future), when he could have saved his daughter.. this seems poorly explained. This is where I wish authors could go back and rewrite these parts, to help make their logic apparent to the readers.
I enjoyed the characters thoroughly, Kyle was a dark and brooding father, a thorough and caring detective, understanding the pain of anyone who has lost a child. However, he was also an ex alcoholic, and someone on stress leave. he was a broken man coming back to the force.. but as he stayed on, his character gained likability and strength. I found he grew a lot in the book... I liked how he explained to the Cradle Robber that he (CR) was causing pain to the parents, forcing Norman Patterson to see the error of his ways.
The characters were very interesting, especially Mac and Sherrie. Mac was like every big teddy bear of an authority figure... he genuinely enjoys people and talking/charming them. It is hilarious that he is stuck with a Lenore... someone who cares about him, but makes him eat a vegetarian lifestyle when all he wants is meat. I guess we’ll never know it here, but Lenore is most likely the reason Mac is alive still.. caring about his diet when he can’t.
Sherrie, is a true feminine hero, rocking life in a wheelchair, without her feet. Even though life has dealt her an unfair hand, she still is able to rise above and seems to want to hope for the future.
Sherrie is also able to push Kyle to see parts of himself he doesn’t want to learn about. She helps him realize that though alcoholism is an addiction, he is the one who made the choice to drink. She has a similar opinion about her own situation. Her accident might not have happened if she hadn’t been drunk. She realizes that that was hers to learn from. And Still, no matter how crappy of a fate she has, she still hopes to grow in the future and deal with whatever life throws at her. The fact that Kyle sees her as hating her life and wanting to die; I believe he is pushing his views on her. However, what I wasn’t a fan of, was the way Sherrie was described from the lead character’s eyes. I understand that when dating someone who is missing limbs, one might experience a setback where she is “unattractive” in his eyes... but why spend the entire novel explaining how she doesn’t fit his actual fantasy of a woman whilst going on and on and on about her sexually attractive features. (her seductive body shape, beautiful formed arms, personality and appetite seem to attract him). It’s as though the author is trying to make us believe that yes, people who are disabled are attractive.. I promise.. Duh... of course they are! They don’t need to be sexualized every two seconds either. I really hate how this book doesn’t give the reader the actual love scene between them? We heard about all of the awkward hang up scenes (his leg grazed her stump and he lost his erection-yikes), but never did we have resolution. I almost feel like the author is saying, well, I went down a different path... but because I don’t know much about this, I think I will stop here... leaving their sex scene or even love scene off camera (pan to fireplace if this were a tv show). This would have felt a lot more organic, if the main character had bedded her early on, or at least some time in the actual novel. Instead the reader doesn’t get any sort of resolution... except that in the last chapter, we’re to believe that she is pregnant? So they did have some intimacy.. but sorry reader, you’re not allowed to get a sneak peek of it. Grrrrr... it upsets me, probably the most because I dated a man with cerebral palsy. He had a bit of trouble walking, was in pain physically at times, but with that being said, he had no real issues in the bedroom. He rocked my world on several occasions and remained to be one of my better friends despite our differences and having broken up, or was up until last summer, when he passed away. However, it was definitely something for me to wrap my head around in the beginning. I remember how scared I was of touching him in the beginning. I know that I wanted him because I was attracted to his personality and body, but at the same time, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I didn’t know if he was able to have sex normally. I didn’t know if there was something not right with me for wanting this person, that most of society said was not fit for wanting as a partner. That wasn’t ever how I viewed him, but all I could think about were the things people would say about him. When I was with him, I had to think of things differently, make sure that where we went, all of the places were accessible. I guess what pisses me off about this novel, is that the author went there with someone disabled... they decided they would broach the topic of sex with a limbless person and instead of making it something sexy and fun.. they made it something that the rest of us just don’t get to experience.
Society is so messed up wants us to think that disabled people are worthy of love, worthy of sex, worthy of all of the things that however, we just don’t want to hear about it. I’m not talking about any sort of fetishization of someone without legs, but doesn’t the character of Sherrie deserve to be loved? Doesn’t she deserve to know what it’s like to be held and stroked, and kissed and #$&*ed? The author would have us believe that she got those things eventually, but only in the most pg of senses... well she’s pregnant now, use your imagination! I would have liked to see Sherrie and Kyle have some real resolution in the bedroom.. but maybe a novel about child killing/time travelling, wasn’t the place for it. Author, you have talent... and if you would let yourself go, truly, you might even find a niche for yourself that others enjoy.
And that being said, I feel I have been rather harsh on your novel.. on your characters. I really did enjoy most of what I read. This is why I wish I could help authors by editing their work for them. I feel like this novel came very close to being a bestseller, but instead fell short, because of the fact that some major “tick” areas, were not “ticked” properly. It honestly, in my mind, could be the plot for a very cool movie. I only hope author, that you see what I have suggested, and possibly use this to better your novels in the future. Best of luck!
This was a very interesting read. The story started very bizarrely, but then eventually settled into a good read. I will still never understand why the author needed to showcase a gangrape, and then show how a killer, hellbent on keeping children immortalized as children could have killed Carolynn Miller, only to be upset that she wasn’t his type... Did he not realize from the get go that she was too old for him?
That being said... I enjoyed the time travel element. I still feel like the novel got very caught up in explaining the causality paradox/other paradoxes... however, I find it funny, that a time traveler, who seemed well aware of how much damage or danger he could cause by saving all of those other people, would waste time on them (ultimately changing the future), when he could have saved his daughter.. this seems poorly explained. This is where I wish authors could go back and rewrite these parts, to help make their logic apparent to the readers.
I enjoyed the characters thoroughly, Kyle was a dark and brooding father, a thorough and caring detective, understanding the pain of anyone who has lost a child. However, he was also an ex alcoholic, and someone on stress leave. he was a broken man coming back to the force.. but as he stayed on, his character gained likability and strength. I found he grew a lot in the book... I liked how he explained to the Cradle Robber that he (CR) was causing pain to the parents, forcing Norman Patterson to see the error of his ways.
The characters were very interesting, especially Mac and Sherrie. Mac was like every big teddy bear of an authority figure... he genuinely enjoys people and talking/charming them. It is hilarious that he is stuck with a Lenore... someone who cares about him, but makes him eat a vegetarian lifestyle when all he wants is meat. I guess we’ll never know it here, but Lenore is most likely the reason Mac is alive still.. caring about his diet when he can’t.
Sherrie, is a true feminine hero, rocking life in a wheelchair, without her feet. Even though life has dealt her an unfair hand, she still is able to rise above and seems to want to hope for the future.
Sherrie is also able to push Kyle to see parts of himself he doesn’t want to learn about. She helps him realize that though alcoholism is an addiction, he is the one who made the choice to drink. She has a similar opinion about her own situation. Her accident might not have happened if she hadn’t been drunk. She realizes that that was hers to learn from. And Still, no matter how crappy of a fate she has, she still hopes to grow in the future and deal with whatever life throws at her. The fact that Kyle sees her as hating her life and wanting to die; I believe he is pushing his views on her. However, what I wasn’t a fan of, was the way Sherrie was described from the lead character’s eyes. I understand that when dating someone who is missing limbs, one might experience a setback where she is “unattractive” in his eyes... but why spend the entire novel explaining how she doesn’t fit his actual fantasy of a woman whilst going on and on and on about her sexually attractive features. (her seductive body shape, beautiful formed arms, personality and appetite seem to attract him). It’s as though the author is trying to make us believe that yes, people who are disabled are attractive.. I promise.. Duh... of course they are! They don’t need to be sexualized every two seconds either. I really hate how this book doesn’t give the reader the actual love scene between them? We heard about all of the awkward hang up scenes (his leg grazed her stump and he lost his erection-yikes), but never did we have resolution. I almost feel like the author is saying, well, I went down a different path... but because I don’t know much about this, I think I will stop here... leaving their sex scene or even love scene off camera (pan to fireplace if this were a tv show). This would have felt a lot more organic, if the main character had bedded her early on, or at least some time in the actual novel. Instead the reader doesn’t get any sort of resolution... except that in the last chapter, we’re to believe that she is pregnant? So they did have some intimacy.. but sorry reader, you’re not allowed to get a sneak peek of it. Grrrrr... it upsets me, probably the most because I dated a man with cerebral palsy. He had a bit of trouble walking, was in pain physically at times, but with that being said, he had no real issues in the bedroom. He rocked my world on several occasions and remained to be one of my better friends despite our differences and having broken up, or was up until last summer, when he passed away. However, it was definitely something for me to wrap my head around in the beginning. I remember how scared I was of touching him in the beginning. I know that I wanted him because I was attracted to his personality and body, but at the same time, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I didn’t know if he was able to have sex normally. I didn’t know if there was something not right with me for wanting this person, that most of society said was not fit for wanting as a partner. That wasn’t ever how I viewed him, but all I could think about were the things people would say about him. When I was with him, I had to think of things differently, make sure that where we went, all of the places were accessible. I guess what pisses me off about this novel, is that the author went there with someone disabled... they decided they would broach the topic of sex with a limbless person and instead of making it something sexy and fun.. they made it something that the rest of us just don’t get to experience.
Society is so messed up wants us to think that disabled people are worthy of love, worthy of sex, worthy of all of the things that however, we just don’t want to hear about it. I’m not talking about any sort of fetishization of someone without legs, but doesn’t the character of Sherrie deserve to be loved? Doesn’t she deserve to know what it’s like to be held and stroked, and kissed and #$&*ed? The author would have us believe that she got those things eventually, but only in the most pg of senses... well she’s pregnant now, use your imagination! I would have liked to see Sherrie and Kyle have some real resolution in the bedroom.. but maybe a novel about child killing/time travelling, wasn’t the place for it. Author, you have talent... and if you would let yourself go, truly, you might even find a niche for yourself that others enjoy.
And that being said, I feel I have been rather harsh on your novel.. on your characters. I really did enjoy most of what I read. This is why I wish I could help authors by editing their work for them. I feel like this novel came very close to being a bestseller, but instead fell short, because of the fact that some major “tick” areas, were not “ticked” properly. It honestly, in my mind, could be the plot for a very cool movie. I only hope author, that you see what I have suggested, and possibly use this to better your novels in the future. Best of luck!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2017
This book is light years ahead of the author's previous books in terms of the writing. The dialog was much better and flowed more naturally. I was also able to get to know the characters better and become emotionally invested in what happened to them.
I started reading James David with his second book, "Fragments" and then his third, "Ship of the Damned." Over the course of those two books, and now with this one, he has shown a steady improvement in terms of translating an interesting concept into a readable novel.
I found myself zipping thru the dialog in much the same way I would with a John Grisham or Stephen King novel.
In terms of the book's resolution, I would've liked to have seen Sherrie's brother and Kyle's partner Mac brought into the final scenes in the epilogue. It would've been nice to know what happened with them. I was also curious to know what Kyle told the Sinclairs about their daughter.
Overall though, a good job by James David. This is a book to be proud of.
I started reading James David with his second book, "Fragments" and then his third, "Ship of the Damned." Over the course of those two books, and now with this one, he has shown a steady improvement in terms of translating an interesting concept into a readable novel.
I found myself zipping thru the dialog in much the same way I would with a John Grisham or Stephen King novel.
In terms of the book's resolution, I would've liked to have seen Sherrie's brother and Kyle's partner Mac brought into the final scenes in the epilogue. It would've been nice to know what happened with them. I was also curious to know what Kyle told the Sinclairs about their daughter.
Overall though, a good job by James David. This is a book to be proud of.
November 17, 2025
One of my more enjoyable books of the year and it was a random draw from a nearby little library. Thriller mixed with science fiction. A time traveler comes back in time to save his daughter from a horrendous crime and death. While there, he tries to set other things right while a child serial killer runs amok in Portland. A Quantum Leap meets Back to the Future, but what is the physical results to the world if he changes the time line too much?
May 4, 2018
This book could easily be a movie! Not what I expected, but enjoyed it none the less.
January 17, 2023
So good! I could not put this book down!
February 6, 2016
Is it a time travel book?
Is it a police procedural novel?
Is it romance?
It's all of them, well blended and with one of the best definitions of a paradox that I have ever read.
Slight taking off for points for the cliche, Scientist investigates phenomenon years beyond themselves and even though current technology has no equivalents still manages to do some predictions as to the math and such.
Is it a police procedural novel?
Is it romance?
It's all of them, well blended and with one of the best definitions of a paradox that I have ever read.
Slight taking off for points for the cliche, Scientist investigates phenomenon years beyond themselves and even though current technology has no equivalents still manages to do some predictions as to the math and such.
August 6, 2008
Sort of slow but once the character of Sherrie is introduced it picks up.
October 28, 2011
An intriguing suspense thriller that kept me turning pages.
December 6, 2012
Amazing book. Anyone who like mystery and police work will love this book. You have to keep your mind open thou. The science of time travel might just trip you up.
December 15, 2012
I enjoyed this book. I live around the Portland area,where this book takes place, and I was able to follow along with this book quite easy. I also enjoyed the characters.
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January 10, 2013i thought it was a great book! i love detective/police mystery! there was murder and mystery and time travel... and it all came together perfectly in the end! i couldnt put it down! great book!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews