The Shadows by Alex North

Celadon Books, 352 pages, $16.99 (c2020)

Alex North has already gotten on people’s nerves — in a good way — in “The Whisper Man.” Although I’m a little late with this review, this is the second book in his series starring Amanda Beck, a detective in Featherbank, England. Never throw away a good formula, they say, so North is sticking to horrifying people with the (perhaps) occult and (definitely) murders. Again, children have been murdered. If you draw the line at reading books about children being murdered, opt out of this series. I don’t know if North is going to make Detective Beck a specialist in child murders, but this is the second book with that theme. Just saying.

This time the action takes place in the nearby town of Gritton and the outer area of Gritton Wood. Grrrritttton. Quite a grating, rasping noise. The name doesn’t lend itself easily to imaginings of bucolic woods and quaint thatched cottages, unlike Stow-on-the-Wold, for instance. It is an ideal representation for the economic wasteland the town and surrounding area have become and for the woods, which are not bucolic and are, in fact, gloomily called The Shadows.

Paul Adams grew up in a sad house in Gritton Wood, as did his friend, James. Paul saw it as his duty to protect James from bullies when they were young school kids. Once they were older and transferred to a larger school in town, Paul was helpless to stop it when James was pulled into the orbit of fellow student, Charlie Crabtree. Charlie’s henchman, Billy Roberts, slavishly followed Charlie and resented the intrusion of James and Paul into their two-person cohort. But Charlie needed them.

The book goes back and forth between the present day and when Paul was fourteen years old. Back then, Charlie was at the center of a trauma that haunted Paul so much he found himself unable to return to his town until now. He has returned because his mother, Daphne, has dementia and is living her last days. Occasionally, Daphne will wake up and urgently say things which make no sense. Like, “Red hands, Paul! There are red hands everywhere!” And, “Oh God, it’s in the house, Paul!” Of course, one might say that that “information” reaches Paul too late, since he is staying in his mother’s house while in town.

Aaaaaaa.

What did Charlie do? It is alleged that Charlie masterminded the killing of another child. Then Charlie disappeared. Fourteen-hear-old Paul was hauled into the police station.  

Paul never returned home after he left for college. He became a teacher 400 miles away. He had wanted to be a writer, an activity he shared with Jenny, who became his girlfriend after he and James started to drift apart. But what was it about Charlie that broke the strong bond between James and Paul? Charlie referred to a local myth about a man who haunted The Shadows. If Charlie and the other boys could meet this man (who had a dark hole where his face should be) through lucid dreaming, they could use the man as a guiding spirit to punish people for slighting or tormenting them. Paul was hesitant but James was all in.

While Paul is in Gritton he discovers that other children have been murdered over the years by people who claimed to have done the killings in the name of Charlie Crabtree. There’s an online discussion group in which a poster has adopted the handle, @CC666. They claim to know a lot about the case because they were there! This is what brings Detective Beck into the picture. In researching the old Charlie Crabtree case, she discovers Paul is now back home. It’s a golden opportunity to find out if he was involved in the subsequent killings or, more probably, has some insight into them.

And that’s when spooky things start happening to grownup Paul. He finds spooky things in his mother’s attic. He meets people from long ago who mostly are reticent to discuss the past with him (and they’re spooky). Something spooky is pushed through his mother's mail slot. There are spooky glimpses of someone/thing in The Shadows.

I can hear you asking a lot of questions, because my bare-bones summary leaves a lot unaddressed. I can’t help you. To answer them would be to commit the ultimate sin of giving away the plot.

I will say there is authorial trickery involved in this book. That’s my only hint. Maybe it’s too much of one. Maybe all it does is make you think I’m showing off. I offer that hint because I think the book could have done without it. That’s my rationale and I’m stuck with it.

North is great at creating atmosphere and giving glimpses of things that go bump or swish-swish-swish (the sound of a knife) in the night.