Shadow Men (Max Freeman Novels) [Paperback]

Jonathon King (Author)

Book Description

Series: Max Freeman Novels | Publication Date: April 5, 2005

Eighty years ago, three laborers vanished while building the first road through the Florida Everglades. Now, a descendant of the missing men turns to Max Freeman for help in uncovering their fate. But there is something much more dangerous in the swamps than long-lost ghosts. There are dangerous men who want the past to remain buried-and will kill to make sure it stays that way.

Editorial Reviews

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (April 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451411811
• ISBN-13: 978-0451411815
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,773,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born into a blue-collar family in Lansing, Michigan in the mid 50s with the generational expectation of becoming an autoworker. Discovered John D. MacDonald as a teenage reader and unknowingly began a circuitous path that would eventually lead to Fort Lauderdale (home of Travis McGee) where I began my own mystery writing career.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Third Book Relocates Bulk of the Action to the Everglades, April 26, 2004

By 

Craig Larson (Maple Grove, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadow Men: A Max Freeman Novel (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and haunting trip to the past, July 23, 2004

By 

David Montgomery "Book Critic" (davidjmontgomery.com) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shadow Men: A Max Freeman Novel (Hardcover)

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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Third Book's a Charmer, June 10, 2008

By 

Burgmicester (Pittsburgh) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Shadow Men: A Max Freeman Novel (Hardcover)

Having enjoyed the first Jonathon King novel, The Blue-Edge of Midnight, I was then disappointed with the second, Visible Darkness; but his third book is again right on the money. Starting with a grabbing intro and then moving right to the meat of the mystery, this book takes you from the beginning and just doesn't let go.

Max Freeman, our now not so lonely and now Private Investigator, meets with Billy Manchester about an 80 year old suspected disappearance of several family members that is being investigated by the grandson and nephew of the long gone trio. Letters are introduced and then as the tale unfolds, more information is slowly handed to the reader.

Again this book takes place mostly in the Everglades National Park and therefore the writing skills of King transport the reader directly into the story. There are a couple of plotlines going here and with the onion of Freeman's past life again being peeled back, we get a book full of interesting writing that had me totally absorbed.

The mystery is not overly complicated and the story unfolds cleanly. The characters are beginning to take front and center in this series and call for more once the ending is revealed. There are questions about the characters that remain unanswered waiting for the next installment.

Although not a five star book - I reserve that for very special editions, it ranks a solid four star.