Review – Shadow Man
Posted on December 5th, 2009
Shadow Man by Cody McFadyen
Bantam, June 2006
ISBN 0-553-80465-0
Hardcover
Debut author Cody McFadyen’s brutal thriller Shadow Man features the emotionally and physically scarred Smoky Barrett. An FBI agent since 1990, Barrett had been working out of the agency’s Los Angeles office with the Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center (CASMIRC). But Barrett has most recently been recuperating at home on an extended medical leave of absence following the murder of her husband and daughter, and her own abduction and torture by a psychotic killer.
Now, when the terrifying action of Shadow Man opens, Annie King, a lifelong friend of Barrett’s has been tortured and murdered in San Francisco, and Annie’s ten year old daughter has witnessed the cruel and vicious crime. In a bizarre twist, the mysterious murderer has left a personal message for Barrett wherein he makes certain boastful claims and derisive taunts: “To Special Agent Smoky J. Barrett. [ . . . ] I am a direct descendent of Jack the Ripper. [ . . . ] I am carrying on in the footsteps of my ancestor. Like him, I will not be caught, and like him, what I do will become history. Will you play the Inspector Abberline to my Jack? I hope so, I truly do.”
Barrett and her colleagues in the CASMIRC unit, upon doing their preliminary investigation into King’s murder and upon conducting some quick analysis of the presumed murderer’s extraordinary communications are convinced that their UNSUB is, among other things, “Cold, organized, competent, technically proficient—and he’s definitely the real thing.”
There is also a terrible urgency in the case. After all, the messenger says of Annie King, “She was the first. She will not be the last.” So, when the messenger sends along another provocative challenge, “Let’s begin the chase in such a way: Be at your office on the 20th[,]” the spine-tingling hunt begins.
Yet there are other problems. The indomitable Barrett had been the FBI’s most successful serial-killer hunter, but when she tracks down Annie King’s killer and, at the same time, finds herself surrounded by unimaginable terror, Barrett will need to confront more than just another psychotic killer. She will also, at the same time, need to overcome her crippling grief and psychological demons, and she must decide whether or not life is still worth living.
The publisher of Shadow Man justifiably touts first-time novelist McFadyen’s “totally engaging heroine” and his “unforgettable tale of psychological warfare.” Readers who like their conventional, tightly-plotted serial-killer thrillers to be extra dark and disturbingly violent will most certainly enjoy McFadyen’s crisp, polished prose and Shadow Man’s visceral, fast-paced scenes.
Tags: Bantam, Barrett, Bizarre Twist, Child Abduction, Cody Mcfadyen, Fbi Agent, Inspector Abberline, Investigative Resources, Jack The Ripper, Leave Of Absence, Lifelong Friend, Medical Leave Of Absence, Preliminary Investigation, Provocative Challenge, Psychotic Killer, Resources Center, Serial Murder, Shadow Man, Taunts, Vicious Crime
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