Great read. A little long. Reminded me a bit of Bosch which I enjoyed. Story was deep and intense but overall well developed and written.

Rancho Santa Elena is a bedroom community in California. Residents come there for the low crime and the excellent public schools, fleeing the dirt and crime of the cities. The constant construction of new houses is changing the landscape, destroying the ranches and horse trails that had given the city its name.
Detective Ben Wade grew up there. He left and worked in a city police force but as his daughter, Emma, grew older, he and his wife decided to move back home. Unspoken was the thought that a move might save his marriage but that didn't work out and his wife, Rachel, is now an ex-wife and Ben lives alone up on the ranch he grew up on.

Now evil has come to the town. A serial killer is riding the interstates, emerging at night to find victims. He breaks into houses, often through unlocked doors, and strangles the women he finds there. The police force is on high alert trying to catch him. Ben is involved in the case although he is also working the death of a teenage boy found in a strawberry field, the child of immigrants. Ben worries about his wife and daughter, now alone in a condo and he worries about his town.

Ben was a swimmer at the high school growing up and the teenage boy was also. Santa Elena has a famous swimming program that produces scholarship level swimmers who win state records and some of whom even make the Olympic team. But Ben knows there is a dark secret that is the other side of the success and glory that swimming brings the boys. Somehow it all seems intertwined, the killer, the secrets kept by the city and the boys sacrificed to keep the secret going. Can Ben save his city?

This is an interesting exploration of several themes. The erosion of unsettled places as people flee crime, the dark secrets that everyone is suspicious about but not willing to deal with, the effect that teenage trauma can have on adults throughout their lives and the ability to finally confront the evil that has haunted one are all found here. Readers will be interested in the main character, Ben, and hope that he finds a way forward through the memories that haunt him. The next book in this series is going to be released later this year and readers will get a chance to see what Ben is like after the events in this book. This book is recommended for readers of psychological suspense.

The cover. The title. The story. Page turning and thought provoking. Enjoyable. And compulsively readable

Shadow Man is a mesmerising psychological murder mystery that dwells on the depth of the characters in the story. It is so well written with its twists and turns eluding the secrets that it is difficult to not finish in one sitting. Overall a superb read.

A suspenseful, well-written serial killer thriller set in Southern California. SHADOW MAN is an atmospheric take on the serial killer genre, and one that examines the ripple effects of discovering one in your neighbourhood/region. There's maybe some inspiration taken from the Golden State Killer, too.

It's well-written, and quite gripping. The characters are well-drawn and three-dimensional. Recently, I've lost interest in much serial killer-based crime fiction, because they too often felt the same. However, Drew has written and excellent example of what the sub-genre can be/do.

Definitely recommended to all fans of crime/thriller fiction.

RATING: 3 STARS
(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)
(Review Not on Blog)

To be honest I cannot remember much about this novel. I do remember when I was reading this book I was disappointed that this book wasn't a suspense but more of a literary suspense. I went into this novel thinking it was like a Michael Connelly book, but it was super slow and while it wasn't a bad book but it wasn't what I thought it would be.

Thank you for giving me the chance to review this book. I'm just not interested in it anymore.

The suburbs aren't really safe are they? This well written novel (which still would have benefited from editing to both cull and add a bit) is not really a thriller but more an exploration of the lives of Ben, Natasha and various members of the community, most importantly the immigrants. I was thrown by the fact that it was set in the 1980s but I'm not sure WHY it was set then except perhaps to illustrate (without directly saying so) that technology has vastly improved law enforcement capabilities. Nevertheless, it's a good read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This book started out like any other thriller, and I wasn't sure if I would like it. THEN I realized that it took place in Orange County, CA in the 80s. That was right up my alley. I loved being able to picture all of the places described, along with hearing the songs that were mentioned, in my head. It ended up being an interesting storyline. It had suspense and romance, which kept my interest.

Random House and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Shadow Man. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Detective Ben Wade has returned to his childhood hometown, in search of a quieter life and a more peaceful existence. When the community is shocked by a serial killer, working his way through their midst, Ben and medical examiner Natasha Betencourt try to collect the key evidence that they need to find the perpetrator before more victims are claimed. Between trying to keep his ex-wife and his daughter safe and trying to keep old memories from consuming him, will Ben be able to keep the shadows at bay?

Shadow Man is a police procedural thriller with good pacing and a well developed plot. Detective Ben Wade is a main character with flaws, which is nothing new with regards to books in this genre. His past, and how it ties into parts of the present, is slowly unspooled until readers are able to fully understand the detective, his actions, and his motivations. The ex-wife is hardly needed as written, although I would not have minded for her to have a more prominent role in the plot. Her background, as it relates to Ben, is just as important and would have helped to flesh out his character more. Shadow Man will appeal to readers who like police procedural thrillers and I look forward to reading more by author Alan Drew in the future.

In the 1980’s era master- planned community of Rancho Santa Elena, a suburb of Los Angeles, no one could believe there was a serial killer on a rampage, stealing into homes through unlocked windows and doors, strangling women, and then slipping out into the darkness. Detective Ben Wade grew up here, and returned to raise his daughter in the safe, secure community he and his former wife Rachel remembered from their high school years.

As Ben assists in the serial killer case, the body of a teenaged boy is discovered in a field, with a single gunshot wound to the head. Realizing this doesn’t fit with the serial killer’s MO, and reluctant to believe this is simply a suicide; Ben’s investigation brings out many uncomfortable and embarrassing secrets that go back at least twenty years.

Shadow Man is not really a thriller, not a true crime story, not a family drama…so what is it? We have a serial killer, who operates in the shadows, but the story reveals the shadows of several men throughout and reminded me that most of us have something we would prefer to hide.

Great mystery. couldn't put it down!

Highly recommend

Published by Random House on May 23, 2017

Shadow Man is a crime novel, but like all good novels, its focus is on how people respond to the forces that shape their lives. Two plot threads intersect. One involves a serial killer, the reliable fall guy of crime fiction, but the killer is only a prop to keep the story moving as Alan Drew deals with the deeper human drama of broken relationships, parenthood, and child abuse. The other plot involves a school’s swim coach who has a history of sexually abusing vulnerable members of the swim team.

Most novels about serial killers and sexual abusers are superficial and melodramatic. They exploit the subject matter to induce outrage, but they rely on stereotypes rather than nuance. Shadow Man is more insightful in its grasp of human nature than most crime stories that address sexual abuse. In fact, it is more insightful than most crime novels, period. Shadow Man won’t appeal to readers looking for a dumbed-down, fast-moving thriller with a tough guy protagonist who fights eight men at a time, lovingly describes his guns, and has never entertained an unconventional thought or a moment of self-doubt. I enjoy books like that if they’re well written, but I always prefer to read a novel that takes the time to establish setting, atmosphere, and characters. Shadow Man does all of that while still delivering an engaging, multifaceted plot.

Ben Wade enforces the law in a planned community called Rancho Santa Elena, where in the mid-1980s, serious crime is virtually nonexistent. Ben lives at the edge of town with (sometimes) his daughter, in the cowboy ranch where he grew up, having returned after a stint with LAPD. Ben has a troubled relationship with his ex-wife and nearly everyone else in his life. He’s having difficulty adjusting to the fact that his daughter is growing up. Ben is a complex character who spends the novel wrestling with demons from his past as he tries to decide whether the time has come to reveal the secrets that have shaped his adulthood.

Ben is asked to assist with a body in nearby Mission Viejo, a death by strangulation, perhaps the latest victim of a serial killer. Before long, he’s investigating more deaths, some of which match the serial killer’s signature, although the death of a teenage boy, the son of migrant workers, is quite different. That one takes Ben back to his high school years, reawakening memories of a small town that is intolerant of anyone who doesn’t fit the bigoted standards of the community.

Shadow Man doesn’t deliver the artificial thrills of car chases and shootouts, but it does develop and hold a steady level of tension. The story moves quickly but not so quickly that important elements of atmosphere and characterization are neglected. Ben’s observations about rural California’s transition in the 1980s from cowboy country to gated communities contributes to a strong sense of time and place. The story stands out, however, for its portrayal of Ben’s troubled childhood and how those troubles have shaped the fears that plague him as an adult. Even minor characters wear their pain realistically as they struggle to cope with uncomfortable truths. The serial killer is almost a minor character, which I found refreshing, and he is developed in a way that avoids the common serial killer stereotypes. Not many writers do literary crime fiction well, but with Shadow Man, Alan Drew positions himself in that select group.

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Lock your doors, are we ever safe? Looking for some peace & solitude, Detective Wade retreats to his quiet home town, where at this rate will be getting quieter one murder victim at a time...

This book was not for me. For some reason I couldn't become engaged with the main character and the book became a DNF because of that.

Same old same old

There is nothing wrong with this book. It's reasonably well written and the characters are all well developed and there is a story. The problem is that I seem to have read this same book a hundred times in the past 3 years of reviewing for NetGalley. (In particular it could almost be the Jimmy Vega series by Suzanne Chazin.) So give it a miss and find something more unusual.

I received a review copy of "Shadow Man: A Novel" by Alan Drew (Random House) through NetGalley.com.

"He was a shadow man who made his own darkness and hid in it."

Incredibly well done, Shadow Man grabbed me from Part One, and did NOT let go. The first chapter is so scary and creepy, it actually made me uncomfortable.

Although I found the story meandered a bit in certain places, it becomes clear what Alan Drew is up to about three quarters of the way through. I saw it coming, but it's still good when it goes, and all the threads begin to unravel in a very good way. Our detective Ben is a Shadow Man himself, only he doesn't know it. His connection to the serial killer seems unlikely at first; it's only later that we realize how close he actually is.

P.S. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Random House, for the review copies.

Slow reading in the beginning but once you get into the book it's a roller coaster ride.

Happy to read Drew who is a new author for me. Each character is well drawn with complicated relationships and motivations. I liked the writing using both the predator and hero's perspectives. No preaching just realistic characters making difficult choices