The Shadow Men by M. R. Mackenzie
They see everything. They hear everything. They know everything.
When a young police officer, Derek Sullivan, goes missing, the detective investigating his disappearance turns to criminologist Anna Scavolini – Derek’s one-time university lecturer – for help. Haunted by the belief that she failed in her duty of care towards her former student, Anna finds herself drawn increasingly deeper into the investigation.
Meanwhile, Zoe Callahan – once Anna’s best friend, now unhappily estranged – becomes preoccupied by unsettling rumours involving her old school. Uncovering a trail of evidence implicating the most powerful men in Scottish society in a scandal stretching back decades, she soon attracts the attention of sinister forces who don’t look kindly on those who disturb the past…
A missing police officer, a highly coveted list of names, a fatal car crash on a rainswept night – what connects these seemingly unrelated threads? And who are the mysterious Shadow Men, whose very name strikes terror into the hearts of everyone who hears it?
About the author.
M.R. Mackenzie was born and lives in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at Glasgow University and has an MA in English and a PhD in Film Studies. In 2019, his first novel, In the Silence, was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year and longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. His third novel, The Library Murders, was featured in Crime Time’s Best of the Year 2020 list.
Review
‘The Shadow Men’ was a gritty, darkly compelling book which at places took my breath away. I had previously not read any of this authors work which is surprising since I normally try to read all the nominated books for the prizes at Bloody Scotland but they must have slipped through the cracks somehow. Well, I am definitely going to remedy this as ‘The Shadow Men’ comes across as a part of a blisteringly good series. This is the third book in the Anna Scavolini series but you can certainly read it as a stand-alone.
Anna is a lecturer in criminology and when one of her students, a young police office Derek Sullivan goes missing she is asked to help with the investigation into his disappearance. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information about him or the circumstances around the night he went missing. Zoe is Anna’s best friend although they have drifted apart as late, and when she goes to a school friend’s funeral she is dragged into the world of institutionalised sexual abuse of students in various schools in the west of Scotland.
I felt that this was a book of two halves. The first felt much slower than the second part when Anna and Zoe meet up again. But when they do the storyline sizzled with tension and was action packed. I loved Zoe as a character as she was brash, clearly proud of her working class roots, talked in broad Glaswegian Scots and had a heart of gold. Anna is the opposite personality wise - refined, elegant, focus on her academic career, maybe doesn't put the effort into relationships and is clearly in denial about her pregnancy and the imminent birth. But she is also kind, loyal, not willing to back down from a fight and wants to fight for the forgotten people. I loved both of them. Its part of why I am so excited to go back and read the start of the series as I am sure you will find out so much about what shapes their characters.
This is a brilliant series and this is an issue which needs highlighted and it was empathetically done in this case. There was no gratuitous scenes as the horror of it was plainly and skilfully put across without needing to resort to that. The author has clearly researched a lot into mental health as the portrayal of those it affects in the book was realistic and sensitively done.
I can’t wait to read more from this author and this book deserves all the recognition it gets. Let me know if you pick it up.
