Reviewed by Donna

 

TITLE: Shadows Fall

AUTHOR: J.K. Hogan

PUBLISHER: Wilde City Press

LENGTH: 103,253 Words

BLURB:

For him, the whole world is a graveyard…

A gift—or curse—gives Titus McGinty the unwanted ability to talk to ghosts. When he starts seeing the same few apparitions repeatedly, appearing with similar gruesome injuries, he begins to wonder what they want from him.

Detective Charlie Hale has a serial killer on his hands. On the loose for weeks, the Queen City Slayer has left the police nothing to go on, no forensic evidence other than what he wants found. The city is running out of time.

The crisis brings Titus and Charlie together—Titus stumbles upon a body and finds himself a suspect. Their budding romance is tested as they are sucked into a web of underground laboratories, restive spirits, and religious fanaticism. They’ll have to work together to find the identity of the killer before he takes his next victim…Titus.

 

REVIEW:

One paragraph. That’s all it took before I was all in with this book and despite its longer length it held my attention right through till I read “the end”. The two most hated words in any brilliant story. I was pissed that the author dared to stop writing! I wanted more! I assure you, there’s no cliffhanger, but this is obviously the first book in a new series and I was left wailing in very dramatic style – but what happens to them next!?

But I’ve started this backwards, haven’t I? Here’s me going on about the end before I’ve mentioned the beginning and all the awesomeness that happens in between.

Titus McGinty (I love saying that name) sees dead people. They are everywhere he looks, they surround him as he walks from his house to his coffee shop and back again. And if those two places hadn’t been warded to keep ghosts out, then they’d surround him there too. But it’s not so much the seeing that is the hardest thing to deal with, it’s the hearing. Their voices are a constant buzzing, as though he is in a busy room he can’t escape from and he feels like he’s slowly going mad. Especially now, when a certain group of five ghosts attach themselves to him and start speaking directly into his head. These five are the recent victims of the Queen City Slayer, a serial killer who likes to mutilate his targets’ bodies in ways that baffle police.

Charlie Hale first meets Titus when he steps in to stop a potentially violent dispute in Titus’s coffee shop. He’s instantly attracted to the young business owner but working in law enforcement in the south, Charlie feels it’s much easier to remain in the closet. He’s one of the detectives assigned to investigate the recent serial killings, so even if he was ready to have a relationship with Titus, he really doesn’t have the time.

When Titus is lead to the body of the most recent victim by the dead man’s ghost (try explaining that to the guy you’re crushing on) the two men have to work together to ensure Titus doesn’t end up in jail. Or a ghost himself.

Charlie and Titus as a couple? I freakin’ loved them! They are passionate and sexy and despite Charlie being a “gay virgin” he gets right with the program. The sex is rough and hot and often if I’m enjoying the plot I want to just skip the sex but not this time! I was loving it, they were certainly loving it!

Even as individuals both characters were certainly interesting. Titus is a gypsy (we don’t get too many of those!) who has been cast out by his family for being gay. But he’s strangely understanding about it. He owns the coffee shop where he works with his quirky friends and despite the whole paranormal thing he has going on, he has realness about him. He’s one of those fictional characters that will probably remind you of someone you know. When opens his mouth, amusing shit spills out and honestly, I probably could have read a whole book of nothing but Titus inner monologuing, and still have been happy.

Charlie, a much more commonly found closeted detective, is still unique and interesting. Like I said before, he may have never been with a man previously, but he sure doesn’t hold back in bed. Outside the bedroom, yes, he’s somewhat in the closet but he has fairly valid concerns regarding his job. His family knows that he’s gay, and he never tries to convince himself otherwise, and you get the impression that if it wasn’t for his job, he wouldn’t hesitate to walk down the street proudly holding Titus’s hand. The fact that Charlie is closeted never becomes an issue between the two main characters, which I was thankful for. I mean, these guys have more than enough to deal with already.

Which brings us to the plot. I’ve read some fantastic books lately, by many readers’ “best authors” (mine included), but this book is my stand out favourite in a good long while. The serial killings are marvelously gruesome and when you figure out the connection between the victims it’s obscure enough that you feel proud of yourself for catching it before the detectives. It’s not one of those murder intrigues that are so stand out obvious you want to delete the book from your ereader in protest of the stupidity of the characters. I found the identity of the killer to be discernible from the moment they entered the story, but that didn’t derail my pleasure at all. The fact that I could see Titus had attracted my assumed killer’s attention just amped up the tension a little. When Charlie discovers a genetics lab operating in what appears to be a covert fashion while pursuing a lead, it just adds an exciting new twist to the story. A twist that is left in the background, waiting, I assume, for the next book?

Which brings us back to where I started, at the end. No cliffhanger, but there are still a few threads left blowing in the breeze. Enough to leave us anticipating the next book. Please let there be a next book! This certainly reads like the first book in a series.

I unequivocally recommend this book, in case you missed that already, and I applaud the author for the amount of thought and, I assume, research that went into this story.

 

RATING: 

 

BUY LINKS:

Wilde City Press

ARe

Amazon