Shadow Man [Audio Download]

Okay let's get this out of the way first: there is no doubt that Shadow Man won't upstage Hannibal but their similarities just cannot be avoided. A highly-intelligent killer dogged by a female FBI agent with "personal baggage". But in Cody McFadyen's first novel he portrays his characters, especially Special Agent Smoky Barrett, in a far more authentic light.

The opening chapter ends with Barrett contemplating suicide:

...."This gives me something to think about for the next three or four hours. Being crazy, I mean. Tomorrow is the day, after all.

The day when I decide if I go back to work for the FBI or come home, put a gun in my mouth, and blow my brains out"

So why would a successful FBI serial-killer hunter find herself in this position? The answer is that a madman terrorized her family, killing both her husband and daughter before turning his knife on her. Although Barrett was able to shoot him dead, the destruction of her family has left her utterly violated. None of this is giving the plot away.

Throughout the ensuing therapy sessions, Barrett believes she is slowly coming to terms with her personal horror but not yet ready to return to work. But a sadistic killer has other plans and issues her a personal message: a videotape of his latest hideous crime. One in which he leaves a child motherless by such a repugnant act of brutality that it leaves her mute. The gauntlet has been thrown down and Smoky Barrett accepts, waking the old Barrett -- the one who hunted killers for a living. But first she must face her old FBI buddies, a daunting task in itself.

There is a suggestion that Smoky's inner steel is slowly returning even if she seems to be forever misting over. But the killer is like no other she has hunted; and soon he claims more victims, all very close to home: a fellow agent, a woman and a mother.

Just how much more can Smoky take?

Much of the novel's plot is driven by Smoky's need to find the killer, as much for her own sanity as in catching him, and is handled well with some unexpected twists and turns. McFadyen has drawn Barrett her fellow FBI members tenderly and intricately.

The identity of the killer shouldn't come as too much of a surprise; it's rather elementary my dear Smokey. But the revelation is made all the more dramatic by almost allowing history to repeat itself.

I love Serial Killer Thrillers and this book sure is one hell of a Serial Killer Thriller. We have the masked psycho, the brave but tortured FBI heroine and the cast of "loose moralled" women who star as the killer's victims. It's all there, regretably a lot of it has been done before but this doesn't have to spoil the read.

It's a very fast read which keeps you going from one page to the next not wanting to put the book down. McFadyen also has a way of making the killer seem really sinsiter and evil with the imagery he uses, something I found to be suprisingly effective.

There were a few things that let this book down for me. The first was the extreme nature of the characters. Everyone in the book was either the strongest, sharpiest, most intelligent, kindest, funniest person in the world . . . ever! This became a little tiresome after a while and also took away some realism from the book.

Another thing, a personal gripe perhaps. This book is written in the present tense and for some reason this stopped me from becoming really engrossed.

Thirdly, and the most damaging thing with the book, is the fact that the narrator is a female character but McFadyen's style of writing is very masculine and throughout the whole novel I really, truly couldn't believe in this character. I didn't believe in her wholly. Had this book been written in third person there would have been no problem. First person presented me with a big problem. Many people wouldn't recognise this.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. It isn't as grand and clever as other Serial Killer Thrillers but it is a good read. I await book number two.

I'm astonished by all the good reviews, as this is one of the worst books i've ever read. The plot line was terrible, the murderer patently obvious, and main character downright annoying. For a team of the best FBI agents around they fail to follow the most obvious leads. All the information the killer has on them is passed off as easily obtainable, they ignore basic police procedure as smoky gets a "feel" on the killer, and the fact that she drags the daughter of a victim around is downright ridiculous. Jut when I thought the story couldn't get any worse this "top FBI agent" forgets to put security back on the girl after her first protectors were killed. Put all this together with a main character that spends page after page going on about how devastated she is about the death of her husband only to jump into bed with a man at the first opportunity, which then gives her a new hope in life truly made me want to give up reading it. But i'm a sucker for hanging on to the end, if only to have my expectations confirmed, which they were, in predictable circumstances.