Shadows of the Dead: A Special Tracking Unit Novel

by Spencer Kope

Overview

In this gripping thriller, the world's best tracker must hunt down two nearly untraceable killers before time runs out for their victims.

Magnus "Steps" Craig, part of the FBI's elite Special Tracking Unit, is called in on a case that requires his unparalleled skills. A woman, abducted and found in the trunk of a car after a high-speed chase, reveals two crucial pieces of information: the man who kidnapped her is not the same as the man who left her in the woods, and she's not the first victim—she is number eight.

Steps has a secret to his talent. He possesses a kind of synesthesia that allows him to see the 'essence' of a person—what he calls 'shine'—on everything they've touched. Brought in to track the driver through a dense forest after the blood hounds have lost his trail, Steps and his partner Jimmy find the driver laughing maniacally, babbling about souls, and hiding a pristinely maintained box of eight posed rats.

Now, the Special Tracking Unit must chase two villains through both the real world and the dark web, tracking an enemy they can't see, as time runs out for the unknown victims in Spencer Kope's Shadows of the Dead.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250178350
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/25/2020
Series:	Special Tracking Unit , #3
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

SPENCER KOPE is the author of Collecting the Dead (a finalist for the Barry Award for Best Thriller) and Whispers of the Dead, the first two novels featuring Steps and the Special Tracking Unit. He is also the Crime Analyst for the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office in Washington State. Currently assigned to the Detectives Division, he provides case support to detectives and deputies. He lives in Washington State.
SPENCER KOPE, author of the Special Tracking Unit series featuring Magnus "Steps" Craig, is the Crime Analyst for the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office. Currently assigned to the Detectives Division, he provides case support to detectives and deputies, and is particularly good at identifying possible suspects. In his spare time he developed a database-driven analytical process called Forensic Vehicle Analysis (FVA) used to identify the make, model and year range of vehicles from surveillance photos. It's a tool he's used repeatedly to solve crimes. One of his favorite pastimes is getting lost in a bookstore, and he lives in Washington State.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/22/2020

Early in Kope’s relentless third novel featuring Magnus Craig, the leader of the FBI’s Special Tracking Unit (after 2018’s Whispers of the Dead), Craig and his partner, Jimmy Donovan, succeed in capturing “mental train wreck” Murphy Cotton at a remote cabin on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. In the trunk of a car Cotton has stolen is a bound woman, Charice Qian. Craig and Donovan learn from Cotton that he kidnapped Charice on behalf of someone he knows only as the Onion King. Cotton refers to Charice as Eight, leading the FBI agents to believe that there are at least seven other victims who might still be alive. Aided by other FBI personnel, Craig and Donovan make a gruesome discovery deep in the woods that helps them identify the other victims. Craig has a secret ability that he calls “shine” that allows him to perceive that surfaces have been touched by specific individuals months or even years afterward. Not a magic bullet, this ability is a useful tool for identifying suspects, victims, and locations, but it can’t be used to secure a search warrant, replace a computer search, or make entry into a building. By layering Craig’s skill with traditional FBI procedural techniques, Kope has created something truly special. Agent: Kimberly Cameron, Kimberly Cameron & Assoc. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Kope has created something truly special." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

03/01/2020

From Barry Award finalist Kope, this work brings back Magnus "Steps" Craig as part of the FBI's elite three-man Special Tracking Unit investigating an abduction. The victim claims that her kidnapper and the man who dumped her in the woods are not one and the same person—and she's not their only victim.

Library Journal

2020-06-03
An FBI agent with a gift to see Shine, a person’s essence, finds his tracking sense stymied when the killer he’s hunting plans his misdeeds through the dark web.

When Magnus Craig, better known as Steps, is called in on an unusual case on the Olympic Peninsula, surrounding a cabin in the woods and capturing its occupant is the easiest piece of what seems to be a grotesque puzzle. The occupant, who identifies himself only as Faceman, perseverates to the agents about how angry a mysterious “he” will be and where “number eight” has gone. Steps and his partner, Jimmy Donovan, conclude that Faceman, ne Murphy Haze Cotton, has been part of a plot to kidnap women, bring them to the remote cabin, and create death masks of the women’s last breaths. Based on Faceman’s ramblings, it appears that the woman discovered alive in the trunk of his car is No. 8, leaving it up to Steps and Jimmy to figure out the identities of seven victims, a possible motive, and the identity of the “he” Faceman has fingered as the orchestrator of the grander plot. Meanwhile, the bodies of the deceased have been turned into chemical sludge in barrels, so even matching dental records is unlikely. This is where Steps’ special gift comes in. After an early childhood trauma, Steps gained the ability to perceive Shine, an essential feature that serves as a unique identifier as well as a trail that shows where people are or have been. It’s made Steps a gifted human-hunter uniquely positioned to solve the case—until Steps and Jimmy realize that Faceman and his boss communicated over the dark web and the ringmaster could be anyone, anywhere. Combining online detection with studying some epically gross artifacts from the murder scene, Steps and Jimmy pool their talents to track the man behind Faceman.

Creepy set pieces alternate with warm, sometimes funny interactions between the dogged agents. No computer skills required.

Kirkus Reviews