Henri is a psychopathic murderer with absolutely no feeling for his victims. This story begins with Henri kidnapping a super-model in a photography shoot in Maui, Hawaii. Henri sets up a video camera on a tripod and rapes the girl as she is tied up on a bed. Then he pulls her head up by the hair so that the girl is facing the camera and quickly severs hear head from her body. Blood spurts everywhere and the girl has her eyes wide open, a despairing look on her face. Henri looks into the camera, his face next to the model’s head and asks, “Is everybody happy?” Later Henri plays this private video over a video conference to a group of voyeurs that he knows as the “Peepers”. These are very rich folks who pay Henri very high prices for his violent sex video killings.
Ben Hawkins, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, flies out to Hawaii to cover the story of the missing model. Her body is not found for some time. While in Maui Ben gets to know the model’s parents who are frantically trying to find her and praying she will turn up ok. As Ben is working on trying to find the girl there are three more similar murders. But Henri leaves no clue behind. Henri leaves the islands to go on to more killings in Asia, then in Europe. Ben sees so many similarities that he knows there is a serial killer at work. But Ben does not realize that after Hawaii he will not be free from this adventure.
Henri has decided that Ben is going to write his life story and kidnaps Ben to show him pictures of his girlfriend and himself and reveal things about their lives that no one should know. He convinces Ben that if he does not do as he is told both he and his girl would easily become victims. Ben tries to set traps for Henri but Henri outsmarts him always staying one step ahead. Finally Ben is taken at gunpoint out into the dessert where he spends four days recording Henri’s story as material for the book. His publisher has agreed to print this one knowing it will be a blockbuster.
When Ben is turned loose he does begin writing the story but killing after killing convince him that he must stop this madman. So, once again he tries to track down Henri following him to Paris. While there his girlfriend who had followed him to Paris against his express wishes and he are again captured by Henri. Though it looks like Henri will kill him and his girl he does not. He gives Ben one last chance to go home and write the book like a good boy.
But Ben does not go home. He sends his girl to a secret location in the mountains in another country and goes after Henri. Since he can’t directly locate Henri he decides to go after the other “Peepers” who Henri has identified in the recording material for the book. When he has to force the rich architect from Amsterdam into the street naked with the word “Murderer” written on his forehead to get the attention of the police things begin to turn. The police interrogate the man not very successfully. Among his things they find a video of a man Ben is sure is Henri being questioned by a thug. At the end of the video the man is beheaded. It sure looks and sounds like Henri. The police round up all the “Peepers” and the ring busted. Ben is in hiding awaiting the trial and wondering if Henri is really dead.
“Swimsuit” is another great thrilling story from Patterson. I give it a 7 of 10 on the Weaver scale. The disappointing thing about the final chapters is that the question of why this psychopath wanted his story published is never really answered even though the author asks it. I hate loose ends like this.
