Rating: 
Summary: LISTEN AT YOUR OWN RISK
Review: Jonathon King has penned another winner in his third story starring ex-Philadelphia police officer, Max Freeman. Many will remember that Max has fled the city to hide out in the Florida Everglades. What a setting - murky, dark, dangerous - all qualities found in the voice of performer David Colacci as he leads listeners on a trail of corruption and death.
Max has become intrigued with an 80-year-old mystery, the disappearance of three men, a father and two sons, who were working to build a road through the Everglades. "Working" may not be the suitable word - they were laboring in horrendous conditions.
Once again Max pairs with his pal, attorney Billy Manchester, to try to figure out what went on that long ago. He soon discovers that while many years have passed there's a very present danger from those who want to keep old secrets buried.
If these three men were actually murdered in the early 1920s, what was the motive? Why is it so important today?
For those who like their listening spiced with fright and excitement - put this at the top of your list!
- Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: "Something was coming...I knew I would not welcome it"
Review: Edgar Award winning author Jonathon King presents his third novel in the Max Freeman series. I have really enjoyed all three books and specially like the way in which the author allows us glimpses of Max's past in each of the novels, letting us build an ever-growing detailed depiction of the main character. In the previous books, we found out about the episode that made Max leave the Philly police department and "retire" to the Everglades; now King takes us deeper into the relationship between Max and his father.Billy, Max's attorney and best friend, has a client that found a bunch of letters from one of his ancestors who worked along with his two sons in the construction of the Tamiami Trail. The letters describe the hardships they had to go through, as well as a series of "accidents" suffered by some of the workers who decided they had enough and tried to leave the project and return to civilization. At one point the letters stopped and nobody ever heard from the three men again. Billy requests Max's help in investigating what happened, and this make some people very nervous. At the same time, the DA is trying to evict Max from his shack in the Everglades and someone is going through the trouble of threatening Max and attacking his dwelling. Sherry Richards, the police officer Max "discovered" and fell for in the previous novel is still around and the relationship is still on track. However, a fellow female officer of Richard's is the victim of abuse by her lover, who is also a cop, and Max and Richards end up involved in the issue. These events are the ones that get Max to recall the events from the past that relate to his father. Jonathon King is moving forward through this series with a sure step and without losing intensity. In my particular case, I enjoy the fact that the novel is set up in the Miami / Ft. Lauderdale area, since I lived there for a couple of years and can "see" the places the author describes very clearly. Also, I have driven through the Tamiami Trail several times, and it is interesting to know at least part of the history on its construction, even though some of the facts presented by King are fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Third Book Relocates Bulk of the Action to the Everglades
Review: I can remember reading King's debut, _The Blue Edge of Midnight_ and thinking it had best debut Edgar written all over it (it did win that award). So I was excited when his second book came out. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as impressed by this second novel, _A Visible Darkness_. In moving the action away from the Everglades, where his character, Max Freeman, an ex-policeman turned private detective lived in virtual isolation, a lot of the magic of the debut was lost. Apparently, King learned from this because book three focuses again on the Everglades and is a real keeper. _Shadow Men_ involves the search for three men, a father and his two sons, who may have been killed 80 years before during the construction of the first road across the Everglades. All that one of their descendants has to go by are a few letters, which hint at some rather nefarious goings-on at the work site. Apparently, the company which had hired the men wasn't so willing to let them go, once they became disenchanted with the tropical heat and the clouds of mosquitoes. Someone in the present day isn't too excited either about Max and his lawyer friend, Billy Manchester, digging into this old mystery. Apparently, if the chain of evolution (what company turned into what company, etc.) can be uncovered, a modern corporation can be held liable for something done decades ago. The action in the novel moves around a lot, but it remains firmly focused on the Everglades themselves, as Max and the old Gladesman Nate Brown, who made an appearance in the second book, search for what may or may not be the final resting place of the three men. There are some great, atmospheric sequences that take place out in the swamps and a memorable scene has Max and Nate crawl into the darkness of a (hopefully) abandoned alligator hole to hide from a couple of men who are tracking them. Coupled with a subplot that involves Max's policewoman girlfriend and a friend of hers, also a policewoman, who is being stalked by her abusive policeman boyfriend, a subplot that connects directly to Max's past, the book literally flies along. It is very fast-moving and, ultimately, very, very satisfying. Easily one of the best mysteries I've read this year.
Rating:
Summary: Third Book Relocates Bulk of the Action to the Everglades
Review: I can remember reading King's debut, _The Blue Edge of Midnight_ and thinking it had best debut Edgar written all over it (it did win that award). So I was excited when his second book came out. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as impressed by this second novel, _A Visible Darkness_. In moving the action away from the Everglades, where his character, Max Freeman, an ex-policeman turned private detective lived in virtual isolation, a lot of the magic of the debut was lost. Apparently, King learned from this because book three focuses again on the Everglades and is a real keeper. _Shadow Men_ involves the search for three men, a father and his two sons, who may have been killed 80 years before during the construction of the first road across the Everglades. All that one of their descendants has to go by are a few letters, which hint at some rather nefarious goings-on at the work site. Apparently, the company which had hired the men wasn't so willing to let them go, once they became disenchanted with the tropical heat and the clouds of mosquitoes. Someone in the present day isn't too excited either about Max and his lawyer friend, Billy Manchester, digging into this old mystery. Apparently, if the chain of evolution (what company turned into what company, etc.) can be uncovered, a modern corporation can be held liable for something done decades ago. The action in the novel moves around a lot, but it remains firmly focused on the Everglades themselves, as Max and the old Gladesman Nate Brown, who made an appearance in the second book, search for what may or may not be the final resting place of the three men. There are some great, atmospheric sequences that take place out in the swamps and a memorable scene has Max and Nate crawl into the darkness of a (hopefully) abandoned alligator hole to hide from a couple of men who are tracking them. Coupled with a subplot that involves Max's policewoman girlfriend and a friend of hers, also a policewoman, who is being stalked by her abusive policeman boyfriend, a subplot that connects directly to Max's past, the book literally flies along. It is very fast-moving and, ultimately, very, very satisfying. Easily one of the best mysteries I've read this year.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT READ - EXCELLENT SERIES
Review: I enjoyed this continuation of an excellent series and felt I was rejoining a old friend, Max Freeman. The author continues his excellent character developement and throws in a rather dark, scary and damp story with it. I continue to enjoy the excellent flashbacks. I do agree with another reviewer, in that you should probably start the series from the beginning and not start with this particular book. While it is good, and certainly stands alone, it can never-the-less be more appreciated if you start at the beginning. Overall, I recommend this and Mr. King's other work highly.
Rating:
Summary: He can write
Review: I'll have to get the earlier books, because this man is a pro. He can give you the texture of the Glades and the taste of the city.
Rating:
Summary: A special work
Review: In 1923, Cyrus Mayes and his sons Steven and Robert were part of a crew hired to cut the Tamiani Trail deep through the Everglades. Though dangerous, the men received room and board and very high wages. However, the trio vanishes without a trace and no one does anything to learn what happened to the Mayes males. Eight decades later Mark Mayes has found letters that Cyrus sent to his wife before vanishing. He contacts West Palm attorney Billy Manchester to learn what happened to his relatives. Billy arranges for troubled private eye Max Freeman to conduct the search into his current home area. Max begins making inquiries of what he assumes will be impossible to learn what happened, but must have made waves because people have burned down his shack (no loss) and try to kill him when warning fails to make him back off. Instead, the attempts on his life propel the former Philadelphia cop to dig deeper into the Southern Florida wilderness. Ironically, readers know from the beginning what actually happened to the Mayes men as a bit of nasty historical darkness is made visible. In spite of that revelation, the story line grips the audience as they wonder whether Max will uncover the truth and why someone wants him silent on an incident that occurred eighty years ago. The vivid descriptions of the Everglades as usual are top rate in its raw delicate beauty. Though the flashbacks will help new readers understand Max's sorrow, fans will find them disruptive and unnecessary thinking Philadelphia is in Pennsylvania not Florida. Still Jonathon King furbishes another delightful regional private investigative tale. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and haunting trip to the past
Review: Jonathon King is another journalist who writes mystery novels, using his finely tuned descriptive powers to excellent effect, salting his stories with atmospheric settings and moods.
King's series character, Max Freeman, is a former Philadelphia cop who retired to South Florida after he was shot and nearly killed. Now Max spends his days in isolation, living in a shack in the Everglades, only occasionally journeying into civilization to help people in need.
Shadow Men again finds Max taking on the dangerous task of investigating a crime nefarious forces would rather be left ignored. The case takes both Max and the reader on a journey several decades into the region's violent past, a trip that is both fascinating and haunting.
King evokes the locales that fill his stories with such lush and vivid descriptions that the reader can't help but picture them like a movie in their mind. Although the author sometimes limits himself too much with the plots he chooses, he's a talent worth watching.
Reviewed by David Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times
Rating:
Summary: King really begins to hit his stride with this latest effort
Review: Jonathon King is quickly establishing himself as a major figure in the mystery genre. His Max Freeman series is quietly but steadily showing signs of picking up where John D. McDonald's Travis McGee stories left off, chronicling the social and economic mores of south Florida. Freeman, however, is a more enigmatic figure than McGee ever was. The titles of King's novels --- THE BLUE EDGE OF MIDNIGHT, A VISIBLE DARKNESS and now SHADOW MEN --- herald this, promising more darkness than light from the pages within. Freeman becomes more interesting as more is learned about him and his background with each successive novel. Yet each revelation gives rise to more questions. The second half of SHADOW MEN is better than the first, if only because it seems to take King a bit long to set everything up for what is to come. That isn't to say that the first 130 pages or so of SHADOW MEN is not interesting. There's an 80-year-old mystery here, involving a father and two sons who never made it home after being hired as laborers on a project to build the first road through the Florida Everglades in the 1920s. The reader learns almost immediately what happened to them. The thrust of SHADOW MEN answers the questions of whether --- and, if so, how --- their ultimate fate will be discovered. The catalyst for the investigation of the deaths is the retention of Billy Maxwell, Freeman's friend and attorney extraordinaire, by Mark Mayes, a college student seeking some closure concerning the fate of the grandfather and uncles he never knew. The only clues that Mayes has in his possession are some letters from his grandfather that implicate Noren, the highway construction company, and an enigmatic foreman named Jefferson. Maxwell hires Freeman, now a newly minted private investigator, to try to link the ancient evidentiary pieces together. The interplay between Freeman and Maxwell is first rate as King plays off the contrasts between Freeman, the semi-recluse, and Maxwell, the successful attorney, quite nicely. The differences between the men, who would seem to have nothing in common except each other, is actually the glue that binds their friendship. They are both so quirky in their quiet ways that it is doubtful they could get along with anyone who shared their respective personality traits. King uses the plot of SHADOW MEN as a vehicle for transporting his readers through the swamps of south Florida, off of the beaten track, frequented by the tour airboats and into a region that is loathe, by its very nature, to give up its secrets. Freeman's tenuous romantic relationship with Detective Sherry Richards of the Broward County Sheriff's Office also provides an interesting subplot. The two are so covered with rough edges that someone is going to get cut eventually. The conclusion of SHADOW MEN is inconclusive as to whether someone actually has been. The main story, however, is a fine and subtle morality tale that demonstrates how even casual acts of evil take root and salt the gene pool for generations. King has really begun to hit his stride here, particularly with his descriptive passages of the dark flora and fauna that inhabit the Everglades region. His prose is evocative of the best of James Lee Burke's work, but without the political baggage that Burke occasionally forces his readers to carry. King also thoughtfully backtracks through the series for first-time readers while continuing to flesh out Freeman's background as a Philadelphia police officer. He has given Freeman plenty of room to grow here. Given the quirky and engaging supporting characters who populate the Freeman novels, and King's well-developed and ever-improving writing, this series should continue to grow in popularity. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating:
Summary: Move over, Michael Connelly and Dennis Lehane!
Review: Jonathon King thanks his friend Michael Connelly in the acknowledgments for SHADOW MEN, and it's as if he has somehow channeled Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and John D. MacDonald. All of King's three books are very good, but this one is the best -- weaving a 70-year-old mystery with the tangled past and present of protagonist Max Freeman, a former Philadelphia cop now living in a shack in the Florida Everglades. It's very well plotted, and the secondary characters are nicely drawn. King's descriptions of Florida are so evocative you can hear the waves on the beach and breathe the humid air of the Glades. (Maybe he channels James Lee Burke, too. Don't miss the quick reference to a cap from "Robicheaux's Dock and Bait Shop.") Jonathon King deserves to be much better known than he is. You saw it here first!
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