Book Review: Shadowheart by Meg Gardiner

In 2007, Meg Gardiner—attorney by training, author by trade, and three-time Jeopardy champion—was an overseas success but couldn’t get a publishing contract in America. Then, Stephen King raved about her in his (then) Entertainment Weekly column, and she hit it big stateside with her Edgar Award winning novel, China Lake. Her books now number sixteen and include the Evan Delaney and Jo Beckett series, three standalones, and, more recently, the UNSUB novels. She also collaborated with director Michael Mann on Heat 2, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In June, Gardiner released the fourth entry in her UNSUB saga, Shadowheart.

Former detective Caitlin Hendrix—who made a name for herself in pursuit of an elusive, Zodiac-like serial killer known as the Prophet decades after he bested her father—is now a profiler with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit at the Academy in Quantico, Virginia. She is dispatched to Nashville when notorious serial killer Efrem Judah Goode breaks his long-held silence, staking claim to thirteen murders in addition to the ones he was convicted for (and refuses to discuss). Tasked with ascertaining the validity of his confessions, Caitlin finds herself in a cat-and-mouse game with a master manipulator, the stakes of which escalate when copycat crimes begin to occur in New York and elsewhere across the East Coast. 

Armed with Goode’s hand drawn images of his alleged victims, Caitlin is on a crusade to find the truth and see that justice is done—a noble mission that grows more urgent with the discovery of each new body (and the corresponding broken heart signature). Is this new UNSUB working with Goode? Or are his/her/their motives entirely independent? The unrelenting pressures of the case—in ways, reminiscent of the insidious nature of the Prophet investigation(s), which led to self-destructive tendencies (which manifested in both Caitlin and her father, albeit differently)—not only threaten to tarnish her professional standing but the domestic stability she’s found with her boyfriend, ATF explosives specialist Sean Rawlins, and his young daughter, Sadie.

The narrative unfolds through multiple perspectives, with occasional passages from the past interspersed with the present-day to add clarity and context as the dual storylines converge. While Caitlin is the focal point, eighteen-year-old Finch Winter steps into a supporting role. Finch believes her birth mother was one of Goode’s victims and is determined to learn the truth despite her adoptive mom’s refusal to cooperate. And Caitlin, though well versed in the necessity of detachment, can’t help but feel a soft spot for the girl, whose earnestness and fierce independence are admirable if ill advised. Consequently, their potential alliance could prove a strength or a vulnerability as the endgame nears.

Like its predecessors, Shadowheart is dark, devious, and disturbing on the deepest levels. While comparisons to The Silence of the Lambs are inevitable—and likely intentional, given the author’s affinity for the works of Thomas Harris—Gardiner charts her own territory with masterful precision, having crafted an intricate plot complete with a dastardly villain who has the cunning of Hannibal Lecter, but without the hypnotic charisma. Thrilling as a standalone, the book also ensures that the series remains exciting and emotionally resonant as it continues to evolve in new and nightmarish directions.