Shadowheart

by Meg Gardiner

Overview

What happens when two serial killers begin to compete with each other?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Gardiner comes a new high-octane thriller in the acclaimed UNSUB series.

FBI Special Agent Caitlin Hendrix faces a case from nightmares.

In a Tennessee prison, Efrem Judah Goode draws haunting portraits of women he claims he has killed. Around the country, desperate families of the missing seek answers in his eerie drawings. And on darkened back roads and New York City streets, a new killer poses duct-taped bodies at the sites of Goode’s murders.

Two serial killers are locked in a twisted rivalry. To stop the brutal slayings, FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix must unravel the connection between Goode and the Broken Heart Killer. Their warped competition destroys anyone in their path. Caught between a manipulative psychopath and a ruthless UNSUB, Caitlin has to dive into not one, but two dark and twisted minds. She will risk everything, plunging into the depths of their depraved clash to hunt down an unstoppable killer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212877121
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2025
Series:	UNSUB Series , #4
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Meg Gardiner is the author of a number of critically acclaimed novels, including the Evan Delaney series, of which China Lake won the Edgar Award.

Editorial Reviews

This is a fantastic series of books by Edgar Award winner Meg Gardiner.

Janet Evanovich

Brilliantly written. An unforgettable story. Stunning.”

Don Winslow on The Dark Corners of the Night

Gardiner makes every one of her characters leap alive off the page.”

Jeffery Deaver

This novel is fantastic…gripping, clever, and heartfelt.”

New York Times bestselling author Jeff Abbott

Like the proverbial phoenix…the indomitable Gardiner rose out of the ashes to reach new heights.”

CrimeReads

Hillary Huber gives a top-shelf performance of this audiobook…Huber’s character voices are excellent…distinct enough that listeners can identify each character. There are many threads to this story, and Huber’s fine work helps bring them together.”

AudioFile

Meg Gardiner is one of my favorite authors. She always delivers a terrific read.”

Karin Slaughter

What makes the UNSUB novels work so well is the way Gardiner…has designed her protagonist…As always, the writing is exquisite and the story is perfectly crafted.”

Booklist

Meg Gardiner’s trademark strengths…characters as real as your friends, and a plot as real as your nightmares.”

Lee Child on Dark Corners of the Night

Shadowheart is dark, devious, and disturbing on the deepest levels…Gardiner charts her own territory with masterful precision, having crafted an intricate plot complete with a dastardly villain who has the cunning of Hannibal Lecter, but without the hypnotic charisma.”

Criminal Element

Shadowheart is a terrifying idea from a brilliant writer.”

Don Winslow

Her novels are, simply put, the finest crime-suspense series I’ve come across.”

Stephen King

Meg Gardiner is an astonishing writer…I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.”

Tess Gerritsen

Gardiner writes her twists and play on words perfectly, allowing readers to try to put pieces together that make for a suspenseful plot.”

Military Press

Hillary Huber gives a top-shelf performance of this audiobook featuring some really twisted serial killers. Her narrative voice is pleasant and captures the scene and atmosphere of the moment. It also keeps the complicated plot moving. FBI Special Agent Caitlin Hendrix of the Behavioral Analysis Unit is charged with finding out how serial killer Efrem Judah Goode, now imprisoned in Tennessee, is connected to a copycat killer. Huber's character voices are excellent. Her tonal shifts between them are subtle but distinct enough that listeners can identify each character. There are many threads to this story, and Huber's fine work helps bring them together. G.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2023 - AudioFile

2023-07-13
The fourth of Gardiner’s UNSUB series opens a door into what seems like an endless series of homicides.

Arrested by Jessup County Deputy Marius Hayes in a Tennessee motel parking lot, drifter Efrem Judah Goode insists he had nothing to do with the deaths of the three women inside the motel or the fourth, also mummy-wrapped with duct tape, in the back seat of the car he’d been driving. But he’s perfectly willing to cop to 13 other homicides stretching back to 2003. He’s unsurprisingly convicted of the four brand-new murders as well, but Special Agent Caitlin Hendrix of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, isn’t satisfied. Working with other members of the unit willing to put in endless hours in pursuit of scant evidence, she realizes that this new streak of murders, which continues apace while Goode is safely imprisoned, is the work of a copycat. Acting on further information from Finch Winter, an adopted teen who’s convinced that her birth mother was one of Goode’s victims, she uncovers enough links between Goode and the copycat to reach a truly alarming conclusion: Yesteryear’s killer knows perfectly well about his latter-day imitator and is doing his best to provide information and directives about potential victims from his prison cell. As the bodies dot roadsides from the Southeast to New York, Caitlin, who also gets potentially distracting hints that the elusive killer she’s called the Ghost is still active, struggles to come up with a reason why at least two different killers would target so many victims from so many places for such a long time. Readers will likely be divided on whether the final surprises are worth the slog.

Enough murders, past and present, to sate all but the most voracious serial-killer buffs.

Kirkus Reviews