Shadow Man: An explosive serial killer thriller perfect for readers of Lee Child
May 2017 · Atlantic Books
3.0star
1 reviewreport
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368
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About this ebook
An explosive serial killer thriller perfect for readers of Lee Child, Karin Slaughter and Michael Connolly.
Southern California, 1986. Detective Ben Wade has returned to his hometown in search of a quieter life and to try to save his marriage. Suddenly the community, with its peaceful streets and neighbourly concerns, finds itself at the mercy of a serial killer who slips through windows and screen doors at night, shattering illusions of safety.
As Ben and forensic specialist Natasha Betencourt struggle to stay one step ahead of the killer - and deal with painful episodes in the past - Ben's own world is rocked again by violence. He must decide how far he is willing to go, and Natasha how much she is willing to risk, to rescue the town from a psychotic murderer and a long-buried secret.
With eerie, chilling prose, Alan Drew brings us into the treacherous underbelly of a suburban California town in this brilliant novel of suspense; the story of a man, and a community, confronted with the heart of human darkness.
Wonderfully imagined and wonderfully written, patient but propulsive, serious but suspenseful, grown-up but gripping, Shadow Man is everything a great thriller should be. - Lee Child
Southern California, 1986. Detective Ben Wade has returned to his hometown in search of a quieter life and to try to save his marriage. Suddenly the community, with its peaceful streets and neighbourly concerns, finds itself at the mercy of a serial killer who slips through windows and screen doors at night, shattering illusions of safety.
As Ben and forensic specialist Natasha Betencourt struggle to stay one step ahead of the killer - and deal with painful episodes in the past - Ben's own world is rocked again by violence. He must decide how far he is willing to go, and Natasha how much she is willing to risk, to rescue the town from a psychotic murderer and a long-buried secret.
With eerie, chilling prose, Alan Drew brings us into the treacherous underbelly of a suburban California town in this brilliant novel of suspense; the story of a man, and a community, confronted with the heart of human darkness.
Wonderfully imagined and wonderfully written, patient but propulsive, serious but suspenseful, grown-up but gripping, Shadow Man is everything a great thriller should be. - Lee Child
Ratings and reviews
3.0
1 review
Midge Odonnell
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January 11, 2018
Shadow Man is a good book with strong plotting and relatively strong characterisation. Unfortunately, it did not stand above the herd of books in this genre sufficiently to garner anything more than 3 stars from me even though I did enjoy reading it. Our main protagonist, Ben, has moved back to his home town to get away from the violence of Los Angeles but it seems it may have followed him. Whilst Ben is busy bemoaning his marriage breaking up and the erosion of the Cowboy way of life in the canyons the Night Prowler is making his way down the Pacific Coast Highway and striking at random in quiet planned communities on it's path. So far so good, if a little trite in places. At least Ben appears to be a troubled cop with a lowercase t rather than the more standard uppercase one. He is maintaining a relationship with his family and doesn't appear to be alcoholic (although he has flirted with it). Then he finds an illegal Mexican shot in the back of the head in a strawberry field and this leads him back into his own past (cue descent in to Troubled). Although the themes explored are handled well and the writing has good flow and cadence it still feels all a little contrived. Too much angst from Ben about his past and his decisions start to look more and more like those of a maverick cop. We have more than a surfeit of those in this genre and it would have been nice to have a more balanced character at the helm. The resolution of the book is not a cliched one and is paced correctly for maximum reader satisfaction. The villain of the piece is described with some amount of empathy so he is not just a stereotype from the writer's handbook - I just wasn't convinced that either Ben or the Night Prowler could have made their way up the steep canyon side in their respective conditions. Overall this is not a bad book but neither is it a great book. It is a good book within it's genre and you won't feel cheated reading I was just, somehow, left expecting more from it.
About the author
Alan Drew is the author of Shadow Man, a literary thriller. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Gardens of Water, has been translated into ten languages and published in nearly two-dozen countries. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was awarded a Teaching/Writing Fellowship. An Associate Professor of English at Villanova University where he directs the creative writing program, he lives near Philadelphia with his wife and two children. Learn more about his books at www.alan-drew.com.
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