Shadow Man: The first nail-biting case for DI Lukas Mahler

Written by Margaret Kirk

Narrated by Steve Worsley

A gripping Scottish crime thriller from the winner of the Good Housekeeping Novel Writing competition 2016.

Two brutal killings rock Inverness, and bring ex-Met Detective Inspector Lukas Mahler the biggest challenge of his career...

The body of the queen of daytime TV, Morven Murray is discovered by her sister, Anna, on the morning of her wedding day. But does Anna know more about the murder than she's letting on?

Police informant Kevin Ramsay's murder looks like a gangland-style execution. But what could he have stumbled into that was dangerous enough to get him violently killed?

Mahler has only a couple of weeks to solve both cases while dealing with his mother's fragile mental health. But caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, is ex-Met DI Lukas Mahler hunting one killer, or two?

Read by Steve Worsley
(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orion
• Release date: Nov 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781409170853

Margaret Kirk

Margaret Morton Kirk is a Highland Scot and a graduate of Glasgow University. She is the winner of the Good Housekeeping Novel Competition 2016. Find her on Twitter @HighlandWriter.

Reviews for Shadow Man

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Recently, I've been finding myself choosing certain books according to their settings, and this was the case with Margaret Kirk's Shadow Man. I have a marked fondness for Inverness, Scotland, and it was wonderful to be able to visit again through the pages of this book-- especially when one of the scenes is set in Leakey's Bookshop.

The setting isn't the only strong part of this book. I enjoyed the mystery, too, and Kirk has created an interesting cast of characters. Lukas Mahler, formerly of the Metropolitan Police in London, has an emotionally fragile mother, hence his return to Inverness. He's heard every joke possible about his surname, and he's well aware of his reputation among the other police officers: "He has, after all, his reputation to consider. Most of his junior colleagues assume he gets his nourishment by rising from his tomb to feast on the blood of the living, and he sees no reason to disabuse them of the notion."

His boss is DCI June "Braveheart" Wallace who has a Hannibal Lecter smile. His DS is Fergie who drives a memorably smelly car, and "Skivey Pete" is a well-known slacker. Even though Mahler dislikes Pete for his constant shirking of his duties, he does recognize that the young man has certain investigative talents.

The setting, the story, and the characters in this first book of the series will be bringing me back for more. I'm looking forward to visiting Inverness again (but I'll be staying out of Fergie's car).