SHADOW MAN
Cody Mcfadyen
Bantam
Thriller
ISBN-10: 0553804650
ISBN-13: 9780553804652

I wish I could tell you more about Cody Mcfadyen. He is married, has a family, lives in California, and is involved in some capacity with a software company. That is about all I know, besides the fact that his first novel is the wildest night ride I have been on for quite a while.

SHADOW MAN is soul-numbing, a stiff-legged march through a five-mile-long frozen food locker with bouncing betties intermittently placed beneath the ice. It has a convincing, badly damaged heroine named Smoky Barrett and a brilliant serial murderer who calls himself "Jack Jr." after Jack The Ripper. Jack Jr. knows everything about Barrett. He is intimately familiar with the incident that caused Barrett, an FBI Special Agent, to take a leave of absence, that left Barrett physically and emotionally scarred and her husband and daughter dead. And he's privy to more details than even Barrett is.

Jack Jr. commits an unspeakable act to get her out of the house and back on the job, and then proceeds to go after her FBI team members in the same manner. Everyone on Barrett's team is very highly motivated to catch this guy, but they can't. He might just be too smart. At first blush, the team members are stereotypical: a nerdy brainiac with an anti-social personality, a gentle black giant with a heart of gold and a terrifying façade, and a gorgeous redhead who is almost, but not quite, Barrett's equal on the team. Forget about the first blush, however, and wait for the second.

Remember those bouncing betties I mentioned earlier? Those are the revelations about Barrett, et al. that will jump off the page and explode in your face. Whether Barrett and company catch Jack Jr. almost takes a back seat to the next hidden truth, past and present, about each team member whom Jack Jr. reveals in dribs and drabs. By the time you finish reading this book you'll be running on adrenalin you never knew you had.

If you're sick of books about serial killers, SHADOW MAN is the cure. Mcfadyen's writing and characterization run long, deep and true. And, by the way, he is beyond scary. Not to be missed.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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