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Book Review of Shadow Man (Smoky Barrett, Bk 1)

Shadow Man (Smoky Barrett, Bk 1)
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Helpful Score: 1


Shadow Man introduces Smoky Barrett, a profiler with the FBI who became one of her subject's victims. Smoky's face bares the physical scars of her confrontation with the killer, but her bigger scars are emotional since her husband and daughter were also killed in the incident. She is on leave and trying to decide whether to return to the FBI, when a new killer begs for her attention by targeting her best friend and colleagues. Smoky has no choice but to return to work and hunt down the sadistic killer. She must find him before he takes what little is left of her life.

Shadow Man is very, very scary. It fills the reader with a sense of dread, similar to what I felt when watching the movie Seven. There is nothing unique to the outline of the story (strong but damaged cop chases misogynistic killer), but the brutality of the crimes and the frankness with which they are described is extremely disturbing. Smoky and the rest of her FBI team are vivid and appealing characters, and the reader will keep turning the pages to see what happens to them. This book should appeal to fans of Silence of the Lambs and Chelsea Cain's Archie and Gretchen series.