0
0
When I was a little girl, I watched a TV movie about a grizzly bear stalking people and ripping them to pieces. It scared me so badly that I wouldn’t enter the woods around our property for weeks. Since then, I’ve grown to love stories about creatures, known and unknown, going after humans, which is why I picked up a copy of Kevin J. Howard’s Faithful Shadow—and I’m glad I did!
Yellowstone National Park gets hit with a major forest fire, making Ranger Joe Rand’s job a nightmare. Since the death of his son, Joe has spent most of his time drinking, and it’s beginning to affect his job. Worse yet, his co-workers are starting to notice. He needs to pull himself together if he wants to keep the job he loves and solve a string of recent disappearances.
Lieutenant Dale Caffey of the Billings Fire Department loses one of his men in the smoke-shrouded park. One minute he’s there, and the next it’s as if he fell through the earth to nowhere. Another one of his men really does fall into a hole, but he later dies under mysterious circumstances at the inn. With the help of Ranger Joe Rand, Dale explores the tunnels surrounding the hole, discovering bones of not only animals but humans as well.
They soon learn that an unidentified creature has fled the smoke-filled tunnels and is hiding in the dark corners of the inn. It’s up to Joe and Dale to go in and kill the creature before anyone else ends up dead.
Every now and then, I’ll come across a gem among self-published books that makes the search worthwhile. Kevin J. Howard’s Faithful Shadow is one of those novels. Faithful Shadow will keep you on the edge with its suspenseful flow and interesting characters. It’s the kind of story that moves along with a smooth rhythm that will keep you up half the night reading.
Ranger Joe Rand may have a drinking problem that was born out of depression over the loss of his son, but he hangs in there with a minimal amount of whining, and he does what he has to do in order to protect the many tourists who flock to Yellowstone National Park. He’s a good man who just happens to be down at the moment, but you’ll know that he’s going to pull through.
Meanwhile, part of the fun of reading Faithful Shadow is trying to guess what kind of creature stalks the park. Since it hides in the shadows, you’ll never quite be sure of what it is, but you will know that it’s vicious and deadly, and it deserves its fate, whatever that might be.
Somewhat creepy and terribly suspenseful, Faithful Shadow will not only hook you, but it will make you swallow the line and sinker as well, leaving no hope for a getaway—not that you’d want to get away from this entertaining tale of horror.
