Shadow Men

From Publishers Weekly Though moody ex-Philadelphia cop Max Freeman has found a measure of peace in life, he faces some of the same challenges in King's third stellar outing as he did in last year's Visible Darkness. Government types are still trying to evict him from his Everglades hideaway, his love life is tenuous and friend/attorney Billy Manchester has once again piqued his interest with a case. Max, now a fully licensed PI in Florida, agrees to look into the disappearance of a father and two sons who signed on for three weeks of work on the Tamiami Trail 80 years earlier and never made it home. Built across the Everglades, the trail is the stuff of legend, filled with murky water and murkier deeds, snakes and gators and untimely death. The case, of course, is more complicated than it seems, with corporate intrigue, intimidation and the sins of fathers raining unmercifully down on their sons. As usual, Max is aided by a lively cast of characters, including the mysterious Nate Brown, whose knowledge of the Glades and its secrets is part of his being. King strikes a deft balance between his extraordinary South Florida setting and an engrossing tale of inhumanity and greed. This fine novel resonates with the atmosphere and immediacy of the Everglades, as well as with Max's struggle to define himself in an often hostile world. Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Starred Review Welcome to Max Freeman's world. It centers on an abandoned research shack on a river at the edge of the Florida Everglades. It's lit by an oil lamp. The furniture? A couple chairs, a table, and a bunk bed, the top bunk of which is loaded with travel and history books. Freeman, introduced in the Edgar-winning Blue Edge of Midnight (2002) and met again in A Visible Darkness [BKL F 1 03], may be the most thoughtful, well-read, and multilayered private-eye hero since Spenser. He's an ex-cop from Philadelphia with a history that keeps him holed up in the wilds, venturing forth only to do investigations for an old friend, an attorney. The third Freeman novel gets its unlikely impetus from a discovery in an antique hope chest, letters from a worker on the Tamiami Trail, a road project through the Everglades undertaken 80 years ago. The letters detail the brutal conditions under which the men and boys worked. The disappearance of the letter-writer and his two sons points to a triple homicide in 1923. (The stunning first chapter showing the three men being hunted down on the river ranks among the most frightening in crime fiction.) Freeman's investigation quickly moves from history to present threat, as he discovers that any number of people want what happened on the road project to remain buried. Haunting and evocative. Connie Fletcher Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved "It begins with an eighty-year-old mystery. Three men - a father and his two sons - vanished without a trace while working as labourers on a dangerous project to build the first road through the Florida Everglades. Now, years later, a series of letters are unexpectedly discovered by a descendent of these men. Driven by the need to know what happened to these lost members of the family, he starts asking questions - and is quickly stonewalled. With nowhere else to turn, he enlists the help of former Philadelphia police officer Max Freeman." "Living in his isolated shack on an ancient river in the Glades, Max starts his longshot investigation into the fate of the men. A newly minted private investigator working with his friend and attorney, Billy Manchester, Max is surprised to immediately meet resistance at every turn. The search for the truth quickly turns violent - and Max finds he has more to worry about than just eighty-year-old ghosts. For there are powerful interests that want to make sure that the shadows of the past remain undisturbed - including some who will kill to make sure that they do."--Jacket. Book three of the bestselling Max Freeman mystery series: Max seeks to uncover the twisted truth behind an eighty-year-old triple homicideIn the 1920s, three of Mark Mayes{u2019}s ancestors left to help build the first road through the Everglades{u2014}backbreaking labor from which they never returned. Now, decades later, Mayes has discovered letters that point to murder as the cause of their disappearance, and he hires Max Freeman to get to the bottom of it all. But as Freeman follows the trail of evidence, he incurs the wrath of the corporation that built the road, and finds that the murder case may not be as cold as everyone assumed. Freeman{u2019}s search takes him to the heart of the Everglades to reveal the truth behind the murders{u2014}and put a stop to a cycle of violence three generations in the making. This ebook contains an illustrated biography of the author featuring never-before-seen photos Book three of the bestselling Max Freeman mystery series: Max seeks to uncover the twisted truth behind an eighty-year-old triple homicide In the 1920s, three of Mark Mayes's ancestors left to help build the first road through the Everglades--backbreaking labor from which they never returned. Now, decades later, Mayes has discovered letters that point to murder as the cause of their disappearance, and he hires Max Freeman to get to the bottom of it all. But as Freeman follows the trail of evidence, he incurs the wrath of the corporation that built the road, and finds that the murder case may not be as cold as everyone assumed. Freeman's search takes him to the heart of the Everglades to reveal the truth behind the murders--and put a stop to a cycle of violence three generations in the making. This ebook contains an illustrated biography of the author featuring never-before-seen photos Eighty years after three men--a father and two sons--vanish without a trace while working on a project to build a road through the Florida Everglades, a descendant of the men enlists former police officer Max Freeman to uncover the truth