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.