The Shadow Man

Savannah surgeon Malcolm King had a perfect life—a loving wife, devoted daughter, and a thriving medical practice. 

And then it all ended.

A chance encounter with a reckless driver in an airport parking lot leads to his first brush with the law.  The senseless slaughter of a neighbor’s pet soon follows, with Malcolm inexplicably questioned in the matter by the police.  An adversary is found decapitated.  An acquaintance is chopped into pieces and stuffed into a garbage bag, Malcolm soon finds himself the prime suspect in a serial murder case.   But he’s not a killer. Or is he?

Who is the Thin Man who lurks at the edges of his vision?

Are the flocks of ravens that crowd overhead a warning of impending doom?  Or do they exist at all? 

And how can he protect his family from something—or someone—he knows absolutely nothing about?

As Malcolm fights to discover the truth, he learns from a mysterious Seminole tracker that he may not be the first victim of a chameleon-like serial killer known as The Shadow Man.   Malcolm’s quest for justice takes him perilously close to the edge of sanity—and perhaps a little bit over it. 

The Shadow Man is a new breed of psychological thriller, serving up a dark look into the human soul that will have the reader searching for the truth. In Mark Murphy’s debut novel, respectable surgeon Malcolm King becomes entangled in the mind games of a psychopathic serial killer. Malcolm’s home is invaded, his medical practice falls apart, and his family is threatened by a faceless assailant from the world between light and darkness: the Shadow Man.

The Shadow Man begins with a killer, identified only as “Q,” dumping a woman’s dismembered body into a Florida swamp filled with hungry alligators.  The action then shifts to Savannah, where Malcolm’s car is side-swiped by a dark-tinted SUV which then disappears into the night. The seemingly random hit-and-run is the beginning of a nightmare when the mysterious SUV is found to bear license plates from a stolen vehicle—and the stolen vehicle’s owner is found dead in a Florida hotel.  A string of horrific murders follows.  Malcolm soon finds himself the prime suspect in a serial murder case, having to convince the police—and himself—that he is not responsible for these crimes.  But what is the truth?  Can Malcolm save himself and his family? Or will the Shadow Man win out at last, dragging them all into oblivion?

The Shadow Man is a unique work.  Beautifully written, it is at once evocative and gruesome, an exploration of the intimate bonds of a loving family and the sheer terror of having those things stolen away.  This novel is heart-pounding thrill ride the reader simply cannot put down.