Rezension

Team JJ is back

The Shadow People -

The Shadow People
von Graham Masterton

Bewertet mit 3 Sternen

Cannibals, cults and cops make for another thrilling horror story.

A new weird case brings back together Jamila Patel and Jerry Pardoe when a lot of human remains are found in what looks like a creepy barbecue. Could it be that a bunch of homeless people has become cannibalistic or is there some fanatic cult whorshipping a goat-headed god that is painted on the underground tunnel walls? Soon more people are missing, and more bones are found, but the police also manages to capture some of the homeless suspects, which are only able to communicate in unintelligible growls. What Jamila and Jerry finally uncover is much more vile and dangerous than they ever thought possible.
I was eager to jump into the next case with Jamila and Jerry, however in the end I was not as thrilled as I was after reading part one. There were some lengths to the story, and the plot was dancing along on a small line between absolute horror and total ridiculousness, overstepping both borders without hesitating. There was a lot of gore, more than necessary imho - not that I'm a queasy reader, but even the most stomach turning scenes will loose their effect when repeated too often. Also, I found that the dialogues where really poor at times - especially the police slang and the seemingly forced attempts at wittiness. However, the ending brought a satisfying conclusion and the last page was creepy enough that you want to keep the light on after reading. I hope the next case for team Jerry and Jamila is already in the making, but I also hope it will be a couple pages shorter and more focused on some straight horror.

(thanks to netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)