This is the third in the Special Tracking series by Spencer Kope, but the first one I've read.

Magnus "Steps" Craig is part of an elite FBI team. His partner in the field is Special Agent Jimmy Donovan, and Diane is the IT member of the team. Steps has a special ability, one that gives him an edge--however, only Jimmy is aware of it, and the two never mention it.

Following a high speed chase ending in a wrecked vehicle, the driver escapes and a young woman is found in the trunk. The FBI Special Tracking Unit has been called in, and Steps and Jimmy are glad to be working with a team they've worked with successfully in the past.

The team manages to track and capture the suspect who seems psychotic, babbling about broken people, his need to fix them, and repeating that "Eight" needed fixing--in a disjointed conversation with himself. He mentions the Onion King, but it is unclear whether this is a real person or a delusion.

When the young woman regains consciousness, she reveals two things: the man who abducted her and the man in whose car she was found are not the same man...and she has been referred to as Eight.

The suspect is eventually identified as Murphy Cotton, and it appears that perhaps there is an Onion King and that the two have worked in tandem. Steps and Jimmy, working with the local team, suspect there will have been seven previous victims...and perhaps a ninth has already been taken.

Steps and Jimmy have been partners for five years and work well together. They exhibit both determination to unravel the threads involved in the investigation and a deep sense of humanity and compassion. While the plot isn't particularly believable, Steps and Jimmy (and Step's unusual ability) kept me engaged.

I might look into the previous two books. Read in April; blog review scheduled for Aug. 10.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books
FBI/Crime/Procedural. Aug. 25, 2020. Print length: 336 pages.

I really enjoy this series, with its solid FBI plotting and added slightly supernatural twist. This installment did not disappoint.

Shadows of the Dead is a great cross between mystery/thrillers and SFF - there's just enough fantasy to let you know you there could be something deeper going on, but Kope doesn't use it as a crutch, allowing the story to progress like a great thriller. He has an eye for details, setting each scene encountered by his protagonists with precision and authenticity. Kope has a background in law enforcement and investigation, and that clearly shines through throughout the novel; this experience helps the realism of the novel counterbalance the SFF aspects.
While part of a series (which I found out later), you don't need to have read any of the others to enjoy Shadows of the Dead. I thoroughly enjoyed Shadows of the Dead, and plan on going back and reading the earlier novels in the series.

Great book, I didn’t like the dubbed killers name.... it was hard for me to take it seriously. Otherwise it was a great book.

A different take on a FBI Thriller.
Magnus “Steps”Craig is on the FBI Special Tracking Team. He has a unique gift he calls the shine that helps him catch the killer.
Perfect for fans of Robert Crais and John Sandford. There is humor along with the very serious subject of a crazy , creepy serial killer know as The Onion King. This is my first book by this author and I have not read the first 2 books.
“ All things considered, I suppose pushing a stuck car from the mud in Sasquatch country isn’t so bad.”
Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the arc copy for my honest opinion.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Not my type of thriller. Maybe I'm not the intended audience, but I did not finish this one.

I really liked this book. The characters were very well developed and the plot & storyline were great. It was very suspenseful and hard to tell exactly what was going to happen at the end. I really liked that the plot wasn't dependant on the previous books. The author made sure to cover any important info and gave more than enough background to fill in any gaps. I've already ordered the first book in the series to get caught up.

Shadows of the Dead is the third book in a series about a pair of FBI agents, one of whom has a special power called "Shine" in which he can see the past movement of both victims and perpetrators. This was the best book in the trilogy so far and the ending foreshadows at least one more book to come. The 2 agents make an odd couple but they are interesting and the book is very well written. The plot made sense and kept you guessing until the very end. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about the FBI and serial killers.

Steps and Jimmy are back with a case full of tension and suspense. Women have been abducted and it's a race against the clock. There is humor to balance the darkness. The part about Bob had me laughing. The dry wit is one of my favorite aspects of this author's books.
This can be read as a standalone but I highly recommend reading the first two to really understand the characters. The "shine" is unique and sets Steps apart. This case ups the creepy factor. I was on edge wondering what horrors the detectives would stumble across next. The ending was action packed and satisfying.

Shadows of the Dead is my first book from Spencer Kope! When I finished this book, i started looking for other books from Kope and came to know that Shadows of the Dead belongs to a series.. wow.. but this book can definitely pass for a standalone. The thing is you cannot stop with this one! Reading through the story reminded me of all the mystery/thriller FBI series I have watched.. ( like Criminal Minds)! Try this one you definitely won’t be disappointed.. its hard to review without giving out the interesting parts. And believe me there are a lot of interesting, page turning, mysteries!
Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher for ARC. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way!

Marcus "Steps" Craig is part of the FBI's elite tracking unit. And he's got a special skill that only his partner Jimmy knows about: he sees "shine," the individual aurae people leave behind. This helps him both track the movement of suspects and follow the path of the dead to their resting places.

He and Jimmy are called out to help track down a suspect in the Pacific Northwest who kidnapped a young woman. But finding their suspect is just the start. It turns out he's been killing women that another man, the self-titled Onion King, has left for him.

Shadows of the Dead follows the story of Steps, Jimmy, their colleague and local law enforcement as they track down the Onion King before he kidnaps any more women. Can they catch him in time?

Shadows of the Dead has great central characters and a fast-paced story. I highly recommend reading it.

Free ARC from Net Galley

I enjoyed the book although the light the FBI is put in as nowhere to be found day to day; that is a bias from me. This might be better if I had read the other entries in the series. I enjoyed the shine aspect and maybe you will too.

It is a bit hard to review this book without giving away parts that would be better left for the reader to discover.
It is a bit Si-Fi, a bit macabre with a lot mystery. I really enjoyed the author's sly, dry, and witty humor dispersed throughout. I would read another book by this author for sure!

I enjoyed this book! It was a real disservice to me that I hadn't read the earlier books. I was confused at first. Only by fault of my own. After I read the explanation of 'shine', I got it! I loved the interaction of the characters. I am going to read the previous books as soon as I can get my hands on them! Thank you for allowing me the privilege to read this book and giving me a new author and series to enjoy!

#shadow of the dead. I absolutely loved this book it is the third in the trilogy. It has such a interesting take on his special skills and it wasn’t far fetched. This was a absolutely amazing book!! Please read

It was a crazy novel that reminds me of criminal minds.i would like to think netgalley for letting me review this book.

I have loved Steps and Jimmy in the first two books of this series, and they are even better in this book. This case started out a lot different than the cases in the previous books. Just the fact that there was a survivor and they found her in the trunk of her kidnapper’s car made this story start off very different. The story was made even trickier because the dark web was involved along with tracking in the real world. I am excited to read the next book in this series.

This book was really tough to get through. The amount of imagery and information that was between the storyline was excruciating. There is a stark difference between setting up a scene or story for success and giving far too much information. It seemed as though the writer felt the reader was not that smart and had to spell absolutely everything out for you. The concept of the mystery was interesting and I did appreciate that it took time and it wasn't easy, but there's only so much description of processes a person can take. Too many parts were explained and reexplained that it was difficult to not skim through. The writer also multiple times used thee word virgin as a way to say untouched that was unnecessary and repugnant (ie: virgin book pages, virgin snow, etc).

This is the third Special Tracking Unit book, although the author provides enough background in this book that you do not have to read the first two, though I would recommend them because they are very good. Magnus “Steps” Craig is part of an elite unit that track, usually, serial killers. Steps is known for his ability to see the ‘shine’ of a person, a trail of colours over most any surface, that are unique to a person. This allows him to follow the trail where otherwise law enforcement might not have investigated. As is the case in this story, after a car chase and crash, a woman is found in the trunk of the car. The driver has taken off into the woods. Steps is able to follow his trail to a remote cabin where the suspect is eventually arrested. The story moves along at a quick pace, events happen, are investigated which leads to the next clue. I would highly recommend this book, it is very good. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

384 pages

5 stars

Wow! How did I miss this author?

A high speed car chase. A crash. An unconscious woman in the trunk. A chase through the woods. The suspect is caught.

Magnus “Steps” Craig and his partner James “Jimmy” Donovan are on the case and the arrest. They form two members of the three person Special Tracking Unit of the FBI. The third person is Diane. She is an IT Specialist. Steps has a special ability that greatly aids him in tracking people. Only Jimmy knows about it.

When the suspect Murphy Cotton keeps calling the woman in the trunk “number eight,” the agents get a bad feeling. After interviewing him, they know that he is not working alone. There is a shadowy figure who calls himself the “Onion King” pulling his strings.

They are saddened to learn that there are indeed eight women.

Steps, Jimmy and Diane are able to pick up some valuable clues from not only their research, but that of neighboring – and very helpful – police forces. They are as anxious as the FBI to capture this serial killer.

This is a fast-paced thriller. It is also a detailed and highly interesting police procedural. It shows all the disappointments and triumphs of an investigation. I like the way that Mr. Kope interjects occasional humor to break the awful tension the agents and police officers must be feeling. As Steps tells the story, the reader is right there. I was riding in the car with them, witnessing the awful results of the murders, and eavesdropping in on various conversations. I usually don't enjoy stories told in the first person, but Mr. Kope made Steps so very real, and so human. I really liked him and Jimmy. I liked their interactions and ability to work well with one another. They communicated on a level that didn't need words. This is my first Spencer Kope novel, but it certainly won't be my last. I loved the book!

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for forwarding to me a copy of this remarkable book for me to read, enjoy and review.