What could be more fun than reading a first novel that has the makings of a solid series and then finding out that it’s being marketed using the protagonists’ names (a surefire sign of seriesdom) as “A Jack Kale and Beth Sturgis Thriller”? It’s debatable whether this is a thriller rather than a mystery or even a procedural, but like branding Kale and Sturgis as an established duo, marketers seem to think it will make the book more saleable.

In a less cluttered world, ONCE SHADOWS FALL would sell itself. Set in and around Atlanta, it tells the story of what appears to be a copycat serial killer on the loose. Bodies are discovered in various gruesome poses, each seeming to evoke an earlier murder. Detective Elizabeth Sturgis gets the case and quickly decides that ex-FBI profiler and psychologist Jack Kale should come on as a consultant. Kale had been involved with a case that the current killer seems to be mimicking, so his insights are key.

"The denouement is somewhat like watching a Grucci fireworks spectacular, where the audience is wondering how he can top this. And as with fireworks, the buildup is spectacular..."

Unlike most stories involving serial killers, not everyone dies; some escape or are rescued, so the reader is kept off balance about the fate of each new victim. And, using the psych equivalent of poetic license, the killer’s methods change with alarming frequency. Though there is ultimately a rationale, it makes for a more absorbing, if less realistic, plot.

Daniels, himself a psychologist, imbues each of his characters with a backstory that explains his or her motivations. Sturgis’ father is in the police force, but her sister’s suicide was the real impetus for her to join the PD. Kale has a devastating secret about his previous partner that he has been hiding even from himself, at great personal cost. The killer’s mentor (yes, killers can have them) is playing Hannibal Lecter-like mind games from his prison cell. And the killer, feeling that he needs to express himself instead of waiting for the media to come up with a moniker, assumes the name Soul Eater. 

Along with characters that are well drawn, Daniels has added some good dialogue. When Kale accuses his psychiatrist (yes, heroes have them) of slinging platitudes, he responds with one --- provoking Kale to muse that it “Sounds like something off a Hallmark card.” “Actually,” the shrink retorts, “Hallmark got it from Carl Jung.”

As often happens in fiction with short, punchy chapters that promise to deliver endless cliffhangers, the finale approaches with a series of last-minute discoveries and coincidences (not to mention bodies) that pile on top of each other. The denouement is somewhat like watching a Grucci fireworks spectacular, where the audience is wondering how he can top this. And as with fireworks, the buildup is spectacular --- so a little letdown may just be part of the price we must pay.