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The Empire of Shadows [Hardcover]

Richard Edward Crabbe (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)


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Book Description

November 1, 2003
New York City, August 1889: within sight of Madison Square Park, a man lays dead in a darkened construction site. Jim Tupper, a Mohawk of the Iroquois nation, stands over the body. Within minutes he's seen. And as police whistles scream in the night, he runs, knowing there is but one place to hide.

With the police hounding him, Tupper makes his way back to the place he knows best-the vast, unsettled Adirondack wilderness. What he finds upon his return is both familiar and strange, a homeland torn by forces from within and without. But after surviving a deadly chase through the streets, back alleys, and underworld haunts of a teeming lower Manhattan, he is home, and Tupper sinks beneath the surface of the Adirondack forest, blending back into the landscape of his youth.

But he has left a trail of death behind, a trail leading dangerously close to a fantastic luxury hotel deep in the heart of the wilderness where Captain Tom Braddock and his family are vacationing. Worlds collide when Tom's son becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a young maid at the hotel. To clear him, Braddock has no choice but to find the illusive Indian, a man who knows the forest as well as Tom knows the streets. Determined to catch Tupper no matter the cost, Braddock launches an epic chase through more than a hundred miles of Adirondack lakes, rivers and forest, his guide the legendary Mitchell Sabattis.

But not all in the Adirondacks is as it appears. Powerful forces have been set in motion, and as developers make manifest their need to rein in the wilderness, Tom too wonders what the vast forests might hold. Will he find the clues he needs to exonerate his son and put a killer behind bars? Or will the great forest smother its secrets in shadow until its price has been paid in blood?

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Place isn’t healthy," police captain Thomas Braddock says of New York City, as he and his family escape north from there in the summer of 1889, bound for a much-needed vacation in the Adirondack Mountains. But, as Braddock quickly discovers in Richard E. Crabbe's second historical thriller, The Empire of Shadows, there's nothing particularly healthy about the dark-forested expanses of upstate New York, either--not when they become the hiding place of a young Mohawk fugitive named Jim Tupper.

After knifing a Manhattan construction foreman in self defense, Tupper, shepherded by the sagacious spirit of his grandfather, strives to vanish into the Adirondack wilderness of his Indian ancestors. He doesn't reckon, though, on being pursued by such a tenacious manhunter as Braddock. The Gotham cop takes a personal interest in the Tupper affair after the gruesome slaying of Lettie Burman, a maid at a luxurious Adirondacks resort who'd recently embraced Braddock's adopted teenage son, Mike, as her lover. With suspicion for this crime falling squarely on Mike, a former street gang member, Braddock seeks to clear the boy by finding the real killer. His hope for Mike's exoneration rests on a piece of plaid fabric and the murder weapon, a modified bayonet similar to one Tupper had acquired in New York. Yet even as Braddock, Mike, and a legendary Abanaki Indian guide follow a bloody backwoods trail, forces both rapacious and homicidal array to silence them--at any cost.

Crabbe's absorbing debut novel, Suspension, followed Braddock's chase after a cabal of Confederate soldiers bent on destroying the Brooklyn Bridge. Much of its appeal lay in the author's colorfully detailed re-creation of 1883 Manhattan. The action in The Empire of Shadows is somewhat harder to follow, as it spins through a ruggedly exquisite terrain that's terra incognito to most readers. And this tale includes episodes that seem more shocking than likely, such as one involving an unexpectedly vicious elevator operator. Still, Crabbe shows a patient skill in expanding the characters of Braddock and Mike, and he maintains a high level of mystery and malevolence until the book's closing pages. If it's not quite a 19th-century Deliverance, The Empire of Shadows is also no peaceful walk in the woods. --J. Kingston Pierce

From Publishers Weekly

After his acclaimed debut, Suspension (2000), Crabbe delivers a less than compelling historical thriller, again featuring New York City detective Tom Braddock, whose attempts to enjoy a quiet Adirondacks vacation during the summer of 1889 with his family are, predictably, interrupted by professional demands. The resort hotel at which the Braddocks are staying becomes the epicenter for a manhunt targeting Jim Tupper, a Mohawk suspected of murdering a construction foreman in Manhattan tied to the corrupt power brokers of Tammany Hall. The fugitive has apparently left a string of killings in his wake, and the local sheriff suspects that Braddock's adopted son, a former street gang member, is involved. The early revelation of the identity of the criminals behind the violence eliminates any mystery, besides leaving little room to explore the tensions between Braddock and his son. The bulk of the book reads like a cliched western, with shootouts, miraculous escapes from cliff sides and falling trees, and uncanny, indefatigable native trackers full of homespun wisdom. There's never a sense that any of the key characters are in peril, and the main villain's gory death is reminiscent of a bad slasher movie. In the absence of gripping characters or a meaningful evocation of the period, this effort is unlikely to gain Crabbe many new readers.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (November 1, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312206143
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312206147
  • Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,140,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars action-packed historical thriller, November 21, 2003
This review is from: The Empire of Shadows (Hardcover)
In August 1889, Mohawk Indian Jim Tupper kills a Manhattan construction site foreman. Although the police catch him, he breaks free when the Black Maria he?s transported in has an accident. He buys a bayonet before making his way by boat to his home in the Adirondack Mountains where he signs on at the logging camp owned and run by industrialist William West Durant.

At the same time Tupper is making his way home, New York Detective Bureau Chief Tom Braddock and his family vacation at the Prospect House resort hotel. Tom?s son Mike has taken up with the housemaid Lellie and when she is murdered, the local doctor thinks he is the killer. When Tom learns that via telegraph that Tupper is in the area and the maid was murdered by a bayonet, he believes Tupper is the killer. Tom sets out to bring this killer back so that his son?s name will be cleared, but the savvy Indian leads Tom and the authorities on a difficult chase that leads to a greater tragedy for all concerned.

THE EMPIRE OF SHADOWS is an action-packed historical thriller that gives the audience chills, thrills and a sense of adventure. Throughout the whole story line, readers will feel as if they don?t see the full picture because the audience senses there is more than just a killer on a rampage yet everything points to one killer in plain sight. That magic and the ability of Richard E. Crabbe to bring to life a bygone golden age that will never be seen again turns this work into a breathtaking tale.

Harriet Klausner

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Meet the next Dan Brown..., March 8, 2004
This review is from: The Empire of Shadows (Hardcover)
I just finished reading both of Brown's books on the New York Times best seller list, and Richard Crabbe's book is every bit as worthy of making the list. Richard combines a descriptive, sometimes violent but thoughtful style of writing that puts you in the hunt for Jim Tupper in what must be a breathtaking part of the country- It's fast, sometimes furious and a quality mystery/thriller... Dan Brown, you have company!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Another fine read, March 31, 2010
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Daniel J. Stark "DJS" (Westchester County, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Empire of Shadows (Paperback)
A great sequel to 'Suspension'; maybe half as long. Read 'Suspension' first or 'The Empire of Shadows' won't be nearly as meaningful. Enjoy!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
No man knows the season of his passing. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
escaped murderer
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Prospect House, Pine Knot, Long Lake, Missus Braddock, Mister Braddock, Castle Rock, Raquette Lake, Mister Owens, Exeter Owens, Lettie Burman, North Creek, Chowder Kelly, Mister Durant, Fat Bess, Frederick Durant, Jim Tupper, Tupper Lake, Uncle Chowder, William West Durant, Big Brook, Blue Mountain House, Handsome Lake, Mitchell Sabattis, North River
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