May 23, 2017 | 368 Pages
May 23, 2017 | 801 Minutes
“Excellent, atmospheric . . . [a] superb police procedural . . . [Ben Wade] is but one of many sharply etched characters who help make Shadow Man a stellar achievement, a book that unspools like a dark-toned movie in the reader’s mind.”—The Wall Street Journal
“The crime part of this novel is superbly done: Wade, along with forensic expert Natasha Betencourt, are both indelible characters, and the passages from the criminal’s perspective are chilling. Yet there is also a lot of complex emotion—a lot of novel, if you will—going on here, especially in the excavation of Wade’s past and in the tension between the remaining wildness and the parcels of civilization carved out of the valley.”—LitHub
“[Alan] Drew’s debut psychological thriller succeeds admirably. There are three hearts of human darkness within, and it is for the reader to decide which character is the true ‘shadow man’ . . . The Steinbeck-like passages about the vanishing cowboy landscape contribute to the novel’s power.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Drew’s engrossing novel works equally well as psychological study and cop thriller, literary novel and genre piece.”—Kirkus (starred review)
“Drew’s cinematic descriptive powers, which he displayed so well in his debut, are on full and wonderful display [in Shadow Man], helping to make it an absolute must-read this summer. . . . Drew’s prose will remind readers by turns of Dennis Lehane and T. Jefferson Parker. This is a remarkable work that you will want to read in one sitting, simply because its author sinks the hook so deeply from its first paragraph that it is impossible to put down until completed.”—Bookreporter
“Entertaining, well-constructed . . . The darkness that affects [Ben] Wade, a lone wolf rides horses for pleasure, forms the heart of the story, and Drew draws it out nicely while still moving the plot forward.”—Publishers Weekly
“Recommend this one to fans of Michael Connelly, Tana French, and Dennis Lehane. . . . The Steinbeck-like passages about the vanishing cowboy landscape contribute to the novel’s power.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Wonderfully imagined and wonderfully written, Shadow Man is everything a great thriller should be. . . . A home run.”—Lee Child, author of Night School
“Shadow Man revises the old detective story and turns it in several fascinating directions. Alan Drew writes with precision, subtlety, and a streak of suspense that does not often color the literary novel.”—Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin
“Shadow Man is smart, chilling, and impossible to put down.”—William Landay, author of Defending Jacob
“Always thrilling and often terrifying, Shadow Man is a descendant of Chandler’s The Big Sleep. Underlying the grisly dangers of Drew’s novel is the forceful honesty of all good California noir.”—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus
“Shadow Man has everything I like in a novel: grit, heart, and nail-biting suspense. It’s the sort of magically absorbing novel that keeps you turning the pages and checking the locks on the door.”—Lauren Grodstein, author of Our Short History
“In Alan Drew’s electric new novel, Southern California in the 1980s is so palpable it is almost a character of its own. An enrapturing read from its start to its unpredictable, enthralling finish.”—Daniel Torday, author of The Last Flight of Poxl West
