If you watch series like “Paranormal Caught On Camera” as I do, then you are well aware of the phenomenon known as “the Shadow People.” My desire to learn more about them and what they may represent initially drove me to the title of Joe Clifford’s new book. However, I was pleasantly surprised that it presents the barest suggestion of the Shadow People, using them more for what they symbolize in modern society. Instead, he has produced a fiendishly engaging novel that has elements of classic noir blended seamlessly with both thriller and supernatural subtext.

"[T]he last third of the novel reads more like something out of the brain of Hunter S. Thompson, featuring a bizarre sub-section of characters, underground denizens and a focus on the color blue."

Brandon Cossey waits until almost the very end of his semester at SUNY Cortland to ask out Sam Holahan, the girl he has had a crush on since the start of the school year. Right after he gets up the nerve to ask her out for a drink after class, he receives a call from Mrs. Balfour, who has been a surrogate mother to him. She informs him that her son and his childhood best friend, Jacob, has gone missing. Brandon abandons his long-awaited first date with Sam to drive from Cortland to Utica to meet with the Balfour family and try to figure out where Jacob might be.

A lot has happened to Jacob since Brandon last saw him. To begin with, he suffers from serious mental illness brought about by his father’s suicide. From that point on, Brandon and Jacob just seemed to be on different wavelengths. Jacob became obsessed with “strange things,” like an unnatural fear of the number 23 and constantly looking for battles between angels and demons all around him.

Part of Jacob’s delusion stemmed from the writing he did for a lunatic fringe underground magazine, Illuminations. Among the popular topics he wrote about were the Shadow People, a sinister race of doppelgängers, plants sent to spy on us from netherworlds and report back. It isn’t long before the authorities deliver the sad news that they found his body --- a victim of an alleged suicide in a Minnesota canyon. It is now Brandon’s obsession to find out what really is going on, why Jacob was in Minnesota, and what, if any, connection his death had with the writings in Illuminations.

Joining Brandon on this mission is an unexpected colleague, Jacob’s grandfather Francis, himself a known schizophrenic. Brandon has a very strange experience just prior to hitting the road with Francis when an elderly patient at the nursing home where he worked tells him: “Watch out, boy. The Shadow People are on to you now.” Maybe that could explain some of the weird things Brandon has been going through, which includes his apartment being ransacked for no good reason. Hopefully, this road trip with Francis will provide answers to everything.

Their mission is a wild and surreal one, described at one point by Brandon as a crusade "rendering [him] Sancho Panza to join [Francis’] punch-drunk Don Quixote storming windmills.” It’s answers they want and answers they will find as the last third of the novel reads more like something out of the brain of Hunter S. Thompson, featuring a bizarre sub-section of characters, underground denizens and a focus on the color blue.

If this sounds like a wild ride, it truly is. For those who love the avant-garde and multi-genre novels full of creativity, THE SHADOW PEOPLE is for you --- even if just to find out if Brandon and Sam ever get together!