Chandler McGrew In Shadows

In Shadows

Chandler McGrew

Dell, Oct 2005, $6.99, 416 pp

ISBN 0553586041

Near Galveston Bay, police officer Jake Crowley meets Reever hoping he will give him information to bring down two of Houston's most powerful crime lords. Gunfire erupts when the Torrio siblings arrive; Jake kills Jos Torrio. He finds himself holding the amethyst that Jos was wearing and when he jumps into the bay he hears the whispers that send him running from his hometown, leaving the only woman he ever loved behind because he didn't want to involve her with his madness. When the gunfire stops, Jimmy Torrio escapes but most of the other criminals are dead.

His cousin from Crowley calls Jason to tell him his Uncle Albert was murdered; Jake returns to the home he abandoned over a decade ago. Jake and other people hear whispers and see shadows of a being that kills in a gruesome manner. Jake reunites with his lost love Mandi and her son Pierce; a genius though blind and deaf can fix any appliance or vehicle. He is the one who realizes the stone that Jake took from Jose is important in getting rid of the creature and ending the curse but Jake must also must deal with the mundane matter of Jimmy who wants to kill the man who murdered his brother Jose.

What starts out as a crime thriller quickly turns into a horror novel that is so scary, the audience will read IN SHADOWS with all the lights left on. Mandi's son Pierce is a special child with a good heart, a strong sense of right and wrong and is the key to the mystery of Crowley's curse. His choice to give up what he desires most so that others may live will bring tear to the eyes of the reader. This is horror fiction at its most chilling making Chandler McGrew a worthy successor to Stephen King.

Harriet Klausner