I rarely give out five stars but this was an easy decision. I love this author's books and one of the few authors whose books I will automatically purchase without reading the synopsis.

This one was unbelievable. Kept my heart racing throughout the entire book. Particularly the end. Oh holy cow that ending. I'm going to need therapy. Deep, long therapy.

Best mystery/thriller this year. Sublime. And I absolutely fell in love with the characters. Please make this a series. Please. But give me time to save up for therapy.

This book was filled with tension from the beginning.
As usual there was some major twists which for me as a reader i had no idea they were going in that direction
I shall be recommending this author to friends who love the same genre as me

You could cut the tension in this book with a knife.

I loved having the viewpoint of the psychologist, rather than just the typical storyline with police. It gave this one a completely different feel.

The Shadow Man is an anxious and scary race against the clock... that'll leave you double-checking your locks and squinting into dark corners.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this title.

I am a big fan of Helen's books and I couldn't wait to read this book, If you like tense, creepy, scary books, then this is the one for you, I loved how when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. Helen never disappoints and always has you guessing. My skin crawled reading this book, it was very eerie but made me want to read on. Three victims are taken and locked up but they have no idea why. What they discover in there will break your heart, The shadow man is a dangerous man who has got issues himself, what will happen when his victims try to escape, him being weak himself, will they make it? It all wraps up into a outstanding ending. I cannot wait to read Helen's next book.

Thoroughly enjoyed the previous books by Helen Fields and, as anticipated, this did not disappoint.
A dark tale with so many twists and turns I was gripped from the outset.
Hopefully the start of a new series featuring Dr Connie Woolbine.
4.5 stars

THE SHADOW MAN
BY HELEN FIELDS

Helen Fields has crafted a standalone thriller called "The Shadow Man," which is bone chillingly creepy. I really loved this chiller about a mentally ill man who has Cotard's Disease which is a fancy diagnosis for feeling like you are dying and your body is decomposing. This scary man is experiencing psychotic delusional episodes which happen in cycles allowing him to function enough to murder and abduct innocent unsuspecting targeting individuals of all ages and escape getting caught. In the very beginning pages you know who this psychopathic criminally insane person is. He changes his name frequently. His real name is Harris Povey but he is currently going by the name of Fergus Ariss whose psychopathy may be the result of his mother committing suicide shortly after she gave birth to Harris murdering his twin brother before she does herself in. He was raised by his grandmother in a farmhouse that is conveniently in the rural countryside so that his abducted victims screaming for help can't be heard by neighbors. Soundproofing in the most natural environment that has allowed him to go undetected for so long.

Connie Woolwine is an American forensic psychologist that has been consulted from superintendent Overbeck from Edinburgh, Scotland. Connie is teamed up with Detective Inspector Baarda to profile and catch this demented serial killer and abductor. Fergus is very scary and I was scared by his actions and I really cared about his victims. He has taken Elspeth who in his crazy thoughts thinks she is his wife by having her dressed like a bride and he forces her to exchange his supplied wedding bands. Elspeth goes along with his delusions because she thinks it will keep her alive maybe long enough for her to get rescued if she is lucky. He next abducts a twelve year old girl named Meggy whose stepmother is always late picking her up from school. He stalks and studies his victims. The last of his abductions is a young man named Xavier whom is a paraplegic who is wheel chaired bound.

The three are trying to escape while Connie and DI Baarda race to find the identity of this pattern of abductions that they deduce are linked. I really loved this dynamic duo as I witnessed how well they worked together while investigating these crimes. I would love to see a sequel or a series with these two interesting characters. I have never read Helen Field's before but I really hope she writes a continuation with Connie and DI Baarda. This was a very pleasant discovery for me. I highly recommend this creepy, chilling thriller to fans of this genre.

Publication Date: February 4, 2021

Thank you to Net Galley, Helen Fields and Avon Books UK Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#TheShadowMan #HelenFields #AvonBooksUKPublishing #NetGalley

A huge thank you to Netgalley, Avon and Helen Fields for a copy of this outstanding book in return for an honest review.


"The paint had run, as if the windows themselves were crying at the sickness of the world they hid."

Sickness doesn't even cut it! The horrors throughout this book are so awful its so good!
Fergus is a very ill and very messed up individual and having a lot of the book in his perspective was bloody fantastic!

"Fergus Ariss waited to see if this time, at last, he would stay dead."

Connie and Baarda are an amazing couple of characters, I really really hope to see more of these two.

Fantastic story! 5* highly recommend

This is the best book I have read for quite a long time. It kept me hooked throughout. The characters are great and you really start to feel and care for what’s happening. it really is a great dark read especially at this time of year and I look forward to reading other books Helen has to offer .

A five star read!! A brilliant new character in Dr Woolwine and also a very creepy villain. I like the way a character from the brilliant DI Callanach series is in the book also. Would love to see this as a new series. #NetGalley#TheShadowMan

This is a standalone novel from Helen – whose Perfect detective series I LOVE – and golly, it is clever. A man, woman and child are locked in a flat, put there by someone who wants them for themselves – and shows no sign of letting them go. This shadow man is a ghostly figure but all too real for his prisoners. It’s up to detectives and a specially flown in aid to work out the shadow man’s motives and background, and ultimately, what he plans to do with the unlikely trio. It is quick, it is clever and it is shocking in some areas – literally hand over mouth shocking – but the depth of research and quality of writing is exceptional. Please Helen, write all the books.

When I read the book blurb, I thought we would be looking into the perspectives of the captives. But this book features less of that.

The only thing I liked about the book are the psychology bits and the climax. Rest of the plot is jagged because of the POV shift. The author didn't handle them well.

But still a pretty good book and a really good lead character.

Wow, this book is dark! Seriously creepy and disturbing throughout. The characters are all fabulous and play their role to perfection. I really hope this is the first of a series for Connie as she is brilliant.

A great story keeping you gripped from start to finish and leaving you wanting to know what happens next...

Dr Connie Woolwine is called in to a case in Edinburgh to work with detective Brodie Baarda in the disappearance of a well known local woman, Elspeth.

Elspeth is being held hostage and is soon joined by two others who are all looking to escape the evilest of nightmares, the Shadowman. He is always watching and waiting for them to make the wrong move.

Helen is one of my favourite authors and the ‘Perfect’ series is by far one of the best. So when Avon kindly sent me a copy in exchange for a review it certainly made my day and I devoured it over a few days. Beware the first chapter is not the best to read when you’re in bed alone!

Did I just discover a new author ? ✔️✔️
Have I ordered the Perfect Series (all of them ) between reading this book. ✔️✔️

Dr. Connie is my hero. I love her. Write more about her please. She is so kickass🦸🏼‍♀️and cool 👩🏼‍💻I really feel like we would be BFFs. I need to see where this goes with Baarda.

So she is a super smart , super quick ,forensic psychologist who profiles serial killers and does all sorts of other neat stuff. I could write a paragraph on just that. Baarda seems to be a badass cop, and together they try to find Fergus who believes he’s dying , and before he does he needs to create the perfect family. But things don’t work out every time for him so he’s killed a few along the way. Elspeth, Meggy and Xavier are the perfect family to him.

You meet all sorts of cool characters (whom I hope to meet in her other books that I have on the way📬).

I love these types of books. This book is not for someone who can’t take gory details. But I love them.

DEF A 5 STAR READ. Get this book when it’s available , it was amazing.
Thank you NETGALLEY AND HELEN FIELDS!

This book really seemed up my street and I was pleasantly surprised with the journey the story took me on. I think this is a decently written, well thought out plot with a lot of twists and turns.

<b>What did I like?</b>
- The characters! I like how we got the point of view from nearly all the main people in this book. I thought Connie's perspective was particularly interesting and I really liked reading from Meggy's too.
- I liked the concept of the book. I had originally thought this book would start with the captives together and we would flashback to what happened to get them to where we were but this didn't happen. We saw it in real-time and the progression was very quick (if somewhat unbelievable).
- I thought the ending was decent. I was satisfied where the end headed and I felt like justice was brought.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did but a lot of seemed so chaotic to me. I think the book might have worked better from either one of the captive's point of view, the kidnapper or Connie. I think the flickering between them all, although I enjoyed, affected the flow of the story. I also felt the entire thing felt so rushed and not thought through.

Overall, this was a decent, interesting book with a lot of potentials and is perfect for this time of year!
<I>I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This stand-alone from the author of the excellent DI Callanach series is a very good introduction to what I hope will be another series. It's pretty gruesome and violent in parts but not in a gratuitous manner and Ms Fields does a good job in exploring the psyche of the "villain" which, while not excusing his behaviour, at least makes it understandable.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Wow this was scary the thought of the Shadow Man makes my skin crawl imagine being kidnapped by him it would give you nightmares we’ll it did me. I think I prefer DI Callanach and DCI Ava Turner instead of Connie but I’m sure I’ll warm to her definitely recommend this book and want to say thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for letting me read it.

I loved this book, a stand alone to the perfect series but which included the dreaded over beck and the charming ailsa lambert.

A very easy book to pick up and get in tom I didn't want to put it down and was as sad to finish it as I was to reach the satisfying ending.

I would love to read about brodie and Connie again as I think they make a great team.

As I was reading I kept picturing this book made into a really scary horror movie! The kind where you have to cover your head with a blanket because you are that scared! The author definitely knew how to ramp up the creep factor, from describing the shadow man to describing his creepy house and what went on inside. The descriptions were so vivid I felt like I was there, which made reading this an intense experience that I thoroughly enjoyed! Who doesn't love a good scare!