Cody McFadyen, Shadow Man (2006, Bantam)
I was looking for a good “summer book”. Something brisk and entertaining and who cares if it’s a little light on logical sense?
I picked this one and in my first few sittings I thought I’d made a mistake because it’s so damn bleak. After every chapter, I needed a hug just to feel better about being alive.
As you keep going though, the silly things begin to pile up and up and then they start to come at you fast until the whole shebang takes the shape of an ultra-commercial thriller obviously intended to kick off a series (and if Hollywood is interested, it’s ready). Yes, it has harsh violence and grotesque crime scenes, but what’s more commercial than that these days? Who in the 21st century wants to read about someone getting beaned with a candlestick in a billiard room? No, we want serial killers raping and murdering as told in unsettling detail.
THAT’S what we want to read on the beach–and I’m not kidding.
I kept turning these pages, at least, though I’m not on a beach.
Our hero is an FBI agent. Her name is Smoky Barrett, which is one of the first signs of silly stuff to come.
Anyway, since her husband and daughter were killed during a horrible night involving a crazy madman (who also raped, tortured and gave permanent physical scars to Smoky herself), our Smoky has been not so well. She managed to kill the guy and now spends her days thinking about killing herself. She’s rotting from the inside out and Cory McFadyen writes the hell out of it, dwelling inside her head as she stares at her new scarred face and body, talks to her slick Bureau psychiatrist and sometimes does nothing but stare into blank space. She has no idea about how to deal with her loss and that’s no joke. Smoky’s post-trauma life is always there and is clearly going to be the driving force of the series.
What snaps her back to life is, grimly, another murder. One of her oldest friends gets tortured and slaughtered by yet another madman. It’s not a pretty scene, but maybe the most ghastly detail is that the killer spared the woman’s young daughter for the sole purpose of traumatizing the child for life.
Or of giving Smoky someone else to protect and potentially lose.
It’s shortly revealed that this new killer is out to prey on Smoky specifically. This guy is like the Zodiac Killer. He taunts law enforcement while he does it, sending them emails that gloat about his latest victim and even videos of his depravity. He knows everything about Smoky and the small crew of top shelf investigators that she leads.
Check out these cartoon characters:
Callie is a tall, beautiful redhead who speaks her mind and could pass for a supermodel. Her looks alone intimidate people; meanwhile, she’s also a forensics genius. Callie also has an irritating habit of calling everyone “honey-love”. She does it at least 100 times in the book and I’m not kidding. Sometimes she does it twice in one paragraph. McFadyen seems to think that’s cute; me, I nearly threw the book against my bedroom wall. I never thought that a character’s speech tic would bother me so much in prose, but Cory McFadyen did it! I spent this whole book wanting Callie dead. She doesn’t die, though. She has some personal drama of her own that’s intended to be teased out in later volumes, sadly.
Then, you’ve got Alan, a huge, powerful, man-mountain black guy who could break most people in half like a toothpick, but he’s disarmingly gentle and sweet. His genius is in interviewing people. He’s a warm presence who can get anyone to talk. Alan can get a person to confess to crimes like they’re talking about their favorite TV show. Also, his sweet, earth mother wife has cancer. More drama is sure to come in later books.
Next is James, a fearsome genius for crime investigation who hides his skills behind a rude exterior. He’s like Albert Rosenfeld from Twin Peaks. Impolite. Got no patience for anyone, but very good at his job. His sister was murdered by a serial killer and ever since James has been dedicated to taking down scumbags. James is a short, slight man, but he can’t be intimidated. He’ll confront anyone. No one else on the team likes him and will call him an asshole to his face (not that he cares about that), but they do recognize his value. James reveals nothing. We want to learn more.
Up next is Leo. He’s young and new. He’s the computer wiz, here to explain the internet and hacking and all of that shit. While the others on the team are engaged with psychology and DNA and gunplay, Leo does his best work at a keyboard and with a cable modem.
Lastly is Smoky herself, a brilliant mind in a tiny female body. She’s slightly over munchkin height, but was brilliant with a gun the first time that she ever touched one and graduated at the top of every class she took on her way to the FBI.
So there’s someone here for everyone to either relate to or fantasize that they’re more like them. It almost seems like fun to be among these people, trying to catch a psychopath, living on this exciting edge.
And then the killer emails them another ghastly torture/rape/murder video, which McFadyen proceeds to describe in detail, and then it doesn’t look so fun.
Things get campy again though when the killer’s identity is revealed. No spoilers, but it’s SUPER goofy. I was annoyed at first, but it didn’t take me long to just go with it. We are in Silly Town after all.
I enjoyed this book, but I won’t go for further volumes unless they’re cheap. I’m talking the Half Price Books clearance shelf. I ain’t paying more than a few bucks for more of Callie’s “honey-love” shit.