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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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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Summary: This series will be one of the most popular in the genre
Review: Jonathon King was the well deserved winner of the Edgar in 2003 for Best First Novel. The question always arises-can he again write a superior and compelling murder mystery? On evaluating his third book, SHADOW MAN, the answer is a resounding yes.
Max Freeman, ex- Philadelphia PD and current PI works for his friend, Miami lawyer Billy Manchester. Freeman is asked to look into the deaths of a father and his two sons. The murder apparently occurred in the Everglades in 1923. The three worked in the construction crew and were never heard from again. Letters were found by a descendant pointing to a possible murder. It is up to Max Freeman to get to the truth. However, shadowy figures try to warn him off the investigation. His very life may be at stake.
I predict that the Max Freeman series will prove to be among the most popular in the mystery genre. The writing is strong and sure. The depiction of the locale is vivid and brings a strong sense of immediacy. The character of Max is both realistic and sympathetic to the reader. Pacing is brisk and the length is perfect for a long leisurely afternoon read. Another winner by Jonathon King.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe you had to read the other books first
Review: SHADOW MEN is not a good place to start reading Jonathon King. It takes forever to get going, and the reader is trying to hold on to all these characters through re-caps (Max, Billy, Sherry and Nate) all of whom, as far as i could tell, had far more fasicnating things happen to them in previous volumes of the series, to which King alludes again and again. I found the whole thing far-fetched and the preciousness of the conceit, that these mysterious letters from the past, which hint at much but stop just short of saying anything definite, is the modern-day equivalent of the "dying message" popularized by Ellery Queen during mystery's Golden Age. Yes, there is a lot of local color and the Everglades is an interesting site, filled with colorful characters. But I didn't find anything new in this book, just a lot of warmed over second rate James Lee Burke-isms. However, the story gets better after the first hundred pages and by the end, you can't help but applaud as Max goes out on a limb to help Mark Mayes and to see justice done, while Sherry ponders what to do about a female colleague who's getting beat up pretty bad by another cop.
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Summary: Glades and glitz, atmosphere and action
Review: The prologue to the latest Max Freeman novel homes in on a father and his two sons as they are hunted down and shot while trying to escape the first road-building project in the Everglades. So, as ex-cop Max sits in his lawyer friend Billy Manchester's Miami penthouse apartment reading 80-year-old letters from Cyrus Mayes, the reader already knows the man's fate. Building the Tamiami Trail across the broad Everglades swamp in 1923 was a slow slog through heat, muck, snakes, alligators and, maybe worst of all, insects. Mayes' recently recovered letters tell of captive labor and runaway workers who are never heard from again, so Cyrus' grandson suspects foul play. But he wants to know for sure. And the road-building company (which could still be legally liable) has stonewalled him. Intrigued, Max takes the letters back to the refuge of his sturdy Glades shack, where a suspicious early morning fire adds to his troubles without distracting his investigation. He braves the closed world of Glades natives to leave a message for the enigmatic Nate Brown (previously seen in "Visible Darkness"), meets up with his cop girlfriend Sherry Richards (who's preoccupied with an extracurricular case concerning an abusive stalker cop), and then drops off a piece of his burned shack to a forensics lab. While the Mayes case stays in the forefront, King weaves in his subplots seamlessly, revisiting his old demons and working out his present. Trailed by hired thugs, Max pursues his leads into the past and through generations. The action culminates in an all-out boat chase through the Glades, which resonates with the snap of alligator jaws and the hum of mosquitoes. Fine hard-and-soft-boiled prose, with quirky, believable characters, and an atmosphere that veers from the timeless mystery of the Everglades to the up-to-the-minute dazzle of the urban coast, King's series continues to shine.
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