Atmospheric literary thriller and detective Ben Wade’s cathartic journey.
Billed as a ‘gritty thriller about an idyllic community rocked by a serial killer’ potential readers will undoubtedly presume that the “Shadow Man” of the title refers to a psychotic murderer on the loose. However despite this novel featuring a serial killer ominously dubbed the Night Prowler, the looming shadows could also be interpreted as the demons that haunt former LAPD detective Ben Wade and the secrets of his dark past when he returns to his rural childhood home in Southern California. So although a serial killer does terrorise the neighbourhood and an undercurrent of brooding tension bristles throughout, Shadow Man is really the cathartic journey of a man brave enough to break the silence surrounding the unspoken secret that hangs over the town. Atmospheric and highly emotive, the serial killer takes a backseat when Ben’s suspicions surrounding the death of a young illegal boy and his possible suicide are raised and it reawakens the adolescent traumas that blighted his own past. Shadow Man is Ben’s gutsy story and focuses on his struggle to find the courage to tackle the horrors that live in plain sight in a respectable local community. Best described as a literary thriller with a slow burning mystery element lasting throughout, potential readers would do well to be forewarned.
The novel opens with former LAPD homicide detective Ben Wade having returned to his hometown of Rancho Santa Elena in a futile effort to save his flagging marriage. After being shot in the line of duty in the city and in a bid to stave off a separation with his former wife, Rachel, they opted for the quieter pastures and the easier caseload of the town where they both grew up and where Ben and his cattle ranch father rode together in the hills. Now 1986 and with the town gradually being transformed into another of the master-planned communities of southern Orange County, Ben is slowly watching the breathtaking surroundings that he cherishes being devoured. Having not discharged his weapon in his four years in Santa Elena he has become used to feeling like a “glorified security guard in a place already mind numbingly safe”, but all that is about to change, and when it does it threatens to destroy Ben along with it. As the whispers of a serial killer in LA and northern Orange County gather apace on the police rumour mill Ben knows it is only a matter of time until the psychopath casts his eye to Santa Elena where the low crime rate and lauded public schools lull the citizens into a trusting state of complacency, making them blind to the dangers and long buried secrets within the neighbourhood.
When Ben attends the latest incident just seven miles away in Mission Viejo he and Deputy Medical Examiner, Natasha Betencourt, see all the hallmarks of the serial killer and his signature modus operandi, from the killer slipping into homes through screen doors and open windows in the cover of darkness to the fractured hyoid bone. When the next incident takes place in Rancho Santa Elena it gives rise to the feeling of a community under siege. As Ben struggles to make headway he is driven to distraction by the looming threat of a killer and passes sleepless nights listening to the police scanner and attempting to pinpoint where the killer will strike next. It is the second death in Santa Elena that rocks Ben’s already shaky foundations when a teenage and undocumented Mexican boy is discovered in the orange groves with a gun in hand having taken a bullet to the back of the head. With Ben disconcerted by this change of the killer’s modus operandi he begins to wonder if he the boys death is perhaps a suicide, staged or otherwise, or if there is in fact a second predator on the loose. As Ben digs into the background of the dead boy, Lucero Vega, it is the handwritten note in the boys back pocket that sends him reeling and takes him straight back to his own traumatic adolescence, from the death of his father at age eleven to his years as a star of the school swimming team. As Ben recognises an earlier incarnation of himself in Lucero Vega he gradually finds the courage to expose the dark secrets that have lain dormant for two decades to become the person who shatters the silence and refuses to stand by and watch others succumb to such horrors. Whilst it isn’t too difficult to intuit Ben’s own demons and the unspoken secret that has devastated his and many other young boys lives in the subsequent years, it is his coming to terms with the events and confrontation of events that makes Shadow Man so profoundly memorable and compelling.
As Drew draws out the marital discord and touches upon the unreachable part of Ben that is responsible for keeping ex-wife, Rachel, shut out from his frustrations he illustrates the troubles which have prematurely ended the marriage. As Ben watches Rachel’s own life changing and his fourteen-year-old hormonal daughter, Emma, becoming steadily more independent he creates a wholly sympathetic but undoubtedly flawed character, caught in a battle with his own conflicting emotions. More than anyone in the town, Ben knows how human nature deals with shame and with a broken marriage and an unresolved internal battle with anger, the scars that he left the town with are more apparent than ever before.
With a tentative romance with medical examiner Betencourt having floundered, the author takes the opportunity to explore not only Ben but Natasha in greater detail and lay the foundations for an escape from the childhood that has held him prisoner for so long. Hugely introspective with periods of genuine insight and self-examination, Drew sets his story against the vivid backdrop of mid-1980’s southern Orange County and the changing landscape and as readers follow Ben and his journey through the Santa Ana winds and rolling hills there is no doubt that Ben’s childhood home has his heart. Between the focus on the investigation there are chilling entries from the psychopath revealed in italicised text which add to the moody atmosphere. Readers will be struck between the similarity between Ben and the killer and the scars of the past that motivate their parallel storylines. Drew captures how a childhood lived in fear can that drive a man to such shocking depravities, and how our pasts can send us to a point where inflicting pain on others is the response.
Readers expecting a pulse-pounding hunt for a serial killer will, I suspect, be sorely disappointed. However, the upside is that there is much to admire in this engrossing and immersive literary thriller that combines a character study of a man confronting his past, a social examination of a community in transition and the people in a community with the most to lose, from the illegal citizens to those scurrying to withhold their secrets. Evocative and eloquent, although Shadow Man never rises to the heights of delivering nerve jangling suspense a brooding tension does permeate events, ensuring readers will be hard pushed to put this novel down before Ben Wade’s story is over. One slight disappointment was the belated attempt by the author to try to link the boys suicide to the serial killer but it feels very half-hearted and does a disservice to Ben’s burdensome journey which is a substantial achievement in and of itself. Part police procedural, the era and the rural location mean that the forensics and police response are less under the microscope than they might be in a more modern imagining.
Shadow Man is Alan Drew’s first foray into crime fiction and on the strength of this impressive effort I hope to read more of his work. Whilst I doubt that there is more to come in detective Ben Wade’s cathartic story, if Drew can capture the sense of place and the multilayered characters of Shadow Man in his future efforts then it deserves to pay dividends. Atmospheric and very well explored, this is ultimately Ben’s story and for once the serial killer plays second fiddle. A powerful read, Shadow Man, is an alternative take on a serial killers spree and it’s potential to unsettle the most harmonious and seemingly contented communities.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
The novel opens with former LAPD homicide detective Ben Wade having returned to his hometown of Rancho Santa Elena in a futile effort to save his flagging marriage. After being shot in the line of duty in the city and in a bid to stave off a separation with his former wife, Rachel, they opted for the quieter pastures and the easier caseload of the town where they both grew up and where Ben and his cattle ranch father rode together in the hills. Now 1986 and with the town gradually being transformed into another of the master-planned communities of southern Orange County, Ben is slowly watching the breathtaking surroundings that he cherishes being devoured. Having not discharged his weapon in his four years in Santa Elena he has become used to feeling like a “glorified security guard in a place already mind numbingly safe”, but all that is about to change, and when it does it threatens to destroy Ben along with it. As the whispers of a serial killer in LA and northern Orange County gather apace on the police rumour mill Ben knows it is only a matter of time until the psychopath casts his eye to Santa Elena where the low crime rate and lauded public schools lull the citizens into a trusting state of complacency, making them blind to the dangers and long buried secrets within the neighbourhood.
When Ben attends the latest incident just seven miles away in Mission Viejo he and Deputy Medical Examiner, Natasha Betencourt, see all the hallmarks of the serial killer and his signature modus operandi, from the killer slipping into homes through screen doors and open windows in the cover of darkness to the fractured hyoid bone. When the next incident takes place in Rancho Santa Elena it gives rise to the feeling of a community under siege. As Ben struggles to make headway he is driven to distraction by the looming threat of a killer and passes sleepless nights listening to the police scanner and attempting to pinpoint where the killer will strike next. It is the second death in Santa Elena that rocks Ben’s already shaky foundations when a teenage and undocumented Mexican boy is discovered in the orange groves with a gun in hand having taken a bullet to the back of the head. With Ben disconcerted by this change of the killer’s modus operandi he begins to wonder if he the boys death is perhaps a suicide, staged or otherwise, or if there is in fact a second predator on the loose. As Ben digs into the background of the dead boy, Lucero Vega, it is the handwritten note in the boys back pocket that sends him reeling and takes him straight back to his own traumatic adolescence, from the death of his father at age eleven to his years as a star of the school swimming team. As Ben recognises an earlier incarnation of himself in Lucero Vega he gradually finds the courage to expose the dark secrets that have lain dormant for two decades to become the person who shatters the silence and refuses to stand by and watch others succumb to such horrors. Whilst it isn’t too difficult to intuit Ben’s own demons and the unspoken secret that has devastated his and many other young boys lives in the subsequent years, it is his coming to terms with the events and confrontation of events that makes Shadow Man so profoundly memorable and compelling.
As Drew draws out the marital discord and touches upon the unreachable part of Ben that is responsible for keeping ex-wife, Rachel, shut out from his frustrations he illustrates the troubles which have prematurely ended the marriage. As Ben watches Rachel’s own life changing and his fourteen-year-old hormonal daughter, Emma, becoming steadily more independent he creates a wholly sympathetic but undoubtedly flawed character, caught in a battle with his own conflicting emotions. More than anyone in the town, Ben knows how human nature deals with shame and with a broken marriage and an unresolved internal battle with anger, the scars that he left the town with are more apparent than ever before.
With a tentative romance with medical examiner Betencourt having floundered, the author takes the opportunity to explore not only Ben but Natasha in greater detail and lay the foundations for an escape from the childhood that has held him prisoner for so long. Hugely introspective with periods of genuine insight and self-examination, Drew sets his story against the vivid backdrop of mid-1980’s southern Orange County and the changing landscape and as readers follow Ben and his journey through the Santa Ana winds and rolling hills there is no doubt that Ben’s childhood home has his heart. Between the focus on the investigation there are chilling entries from the psychopath revealed in italicised text which add to the moody atmosphere. Readers will be struck between the similarity between Ben and the killer and the scars of the past that motivate their parallel storylines. Drew captures how a childhood lived in fear can that drive a man to such shocking depravities, and how our pasts can send us to a point where inflicting pain on others is the response.
Readers expecting a pulse-pounding hunt for a serial killer will, I suspect, be sorely disappointed. However, the upside is that there is much to admire in this engrossing and immersive literary thriller that combines a character study of a man confronting his past, a social examination of a community in transition and the people in a community with the most to lose, from the illegal citizens to those scurrying to withhold their secrets. Evocative and eloquent, although Shadow Man never rises to the heights of delivering nerve jangling suspense a brooding tension does permeate events, ensuring readers will be hard pushed to put this novel down before Ben Wade’s story is over. One slight disappointment was the belated attempt by the author to try to link the boys suicide to the serial killer but it feels very half-hearted and does a disservice to Ben’s burdensome journey which is a substantial achievement in and of itself. Part police procedural, the era and the rural location mean that the forensics and police response are less under the microscope than they might be in a more modern imagining.
Shadow Man is Alan Drew’s first foray into crime fiction and on the strength of this impressive effort I hope to read more of his work. Whilst I doubt that there is more to come in detective Ben Wade’s cathartic story, if Drew can capture the sense of place and the multilayered characters of Shadow Man in his future efforts then it deserves to pay dividends. Atmospheric and very well explored, this is ultimately Ben’s story and for once the serial killer plays second fiddle. A powerful read, Shadow Man, is an alternative take on a serial killers spree and it’s potential to unsettle the most harmonious and seemingly contented communities.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.