The President’s Shadow

The Shadow #3

by James Patterson, Brian Sitts

The world is under attack.
Failure is not an option.

Disguised by his secret identity The Shadow, Lamont Cranston enacts vigilante justice in New York City.

But he’s not alone – his descendent and protégé Maddy has joined the fight. However, she has a lot to learn.

From a destructive superweapon to a deadly virus, the fate of the world is in their hands. There is no room for mistakes – now more than ever.

Maddy and Lamont must combine forces to eliminate these threats – and save all mankind.

___________________________________________

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Crime, Science Fiction, Audiobook

394 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 2025

About the author

Official US Site
Official UK Site

James Patterson is the most popular storyteller of our time and the creator of such unforgettable characters and series as Alex Cross, the Women’s Murder Club, Jane Smith, and Maximum Ride. He has coauthored #1 bestselling novels with Bill Clinton, Dolly Parton, Michael Crichton, and Viola Davis, as well as collaborated on #1 bestselling nonfiction, including The Idaho Four, Walk in My Combat Boots, and Filthy Rich. Patterson has told the story of his own life in the #1 bestselling autobiography James Patterson by James Patterson. He is the recipient of an Edgar Award, ten Emmy Awards, the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation, and the National Humanities Medal.

Reviews

[Bill Riggs · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was at times ridiculous, silly, down right stupid, and overall a thoroughly juvenile affair. This series had so much potential and it has been slowly destroyed over the last three volumes. I would imagine that this is the final nail in the coffin. Utterly disappointing…

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad, Bad, Bad

Boring and down right dumb In spots. The story is senseless, the twist down right stupid. This may be the worst book Patterson has ever been associated with.

[John H. Parmenter · Rating 1 out of 5]

The President's Shadow

I was looking forward to a fast paced, who done it. This is book is mothing like that. The characters are poorly formed. The story line is as written by a five uear old. And worst if all, James Patterson uses this book the spread his hate fir Conservativism. He attacks Presidents current and past even though they have nothing to do with a book set in the future. His attack on Fox News is absolutely ridiculous and totally misplace. He just randomly throws this crap in. He has lost it as a writer.

[Nicole Zanella Thren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible book. Horrible writing. Super disappointing. This is the first and last book I will read from Richard DiLallo. I love James Patterson and all the other collaborations of his I've read, but I couldn't even finish this. The premise is stupid, the characters jump from one emotion to the next without any warning, the dialog is really bad. Just an overall horrible book.

[Ryan Holland · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow - this book truly is terrible, I should have read the reviews beforehand!

[Deb · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Written like it is for middle schoolers. Simplistic and sophomoric.

[Valerie Robbins · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t waste your time on this one.

[Pab · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought the book was awful. Very silly and a waste of time.

[Michele M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. Probably my favorite of the three. Again in this one the shadow is fighting to save the world from a deadly virus and a crazy person causing complete deviation in countries across the world. Maddy has gone on a mission to save the a group of girls forced to work the streets selling drugs and start disappearing.

It was a very fast read but a very good one. It ended like there will be a forth so now I wait.

[Klare · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different to his usual books. This one is a fantasy based story.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I like many of James Patterson's characters, and his Lamont Cranston, the Shadow (puhleeeze), was new to me, this book was a clunky, testosterone-laden sci-fi thriller that was fast to read but pretty doggone dopey. The lure of the word "President's" in the title was really a dupe, as the current president, in what appears to be some time after 2055, appears only passingly a few times, and Cranston and he mistrust and are wary of each other. There are plenty of villains in the book.

In the way of many thriller formulae, there are two story lines in the book; they parallel for almost the entire tale and then manage to intertwine at the end. Eh. Cranston, the Shadow, is a pompous sort of super hero, and I do not intend to read anything else in this series.

[James Rivett · Rating 2 out of 5]

If plausibility were elastic, this rubber band of a novel would still have snapped. Too many last-minute twists at the climax of the book really did the damage, but the premise was flawed from the beginning.

Possibly, it is my fault reading book three of three first, but I was curious having grown up on the old Shadow film serials and his cliffhanger exploits. It just wasn't what I hoped. Luckily, it only took up two evenings of my life. Although at one point I would have risked the covid-like Newbola if it meant I could give up early.

This iteration is dull, plodding, and far from the original source material. The half-hearted attempt at a futuristic world (I only know it is after 2055) is disappointing and merely serves as a means of having capabilities to jet around the world exceptionally fast. That said, the late revelation Cranston can shift himself and objects across time and space made the earlier panic about rushing around continents seem redundant.
The side story centred on Maddy and the young dealer Belinda was a redeeming element until it was revealed as an even more laughable part of the main plot line. The rubber band of plausibility snaps again.
Maybe next time, I'll scour the secluded shelves of secondhand sellers for the real Shadow. After all, he was the basis for Batman.

[Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Might be the worst book Patterson ever put his name on. I know it is the worst one of his that I have read. No continuity, story jumped from place to place with no apparent rhyme or reason.
The shape shifting, seriously? Okay, a little might have been somewhat okay, have to suspend belief in most stories, but this was downright silly.
With the exception of a few expletives this should have been advertised for young teens as a science fiction novel or Fantasy, not the “thriller” as stated on the book cover.
Hopefully, this series is finished. Didn’t have near the success of the original Shadow. Perhaps Patterson should have stayed closer to original premise!

[Bonnie Sundermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

This is a must read I couldn't put it down. It is full of turns two story plots that keeps you reading on.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished Reading: The President’s Shadow by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARIES!! I borrowed this book from my local library, Loutitt Library 📚!

This is a fiction, suspense,mystery novel. Published July 2025 softcover large print edition around 485 pages

This is the 3rd book in the A Shadow Thiller series.

This was an ok read 😕The storylines, although engaging, are just to drawn out. The characters are just so so. The first 2 books in this series were great. I think this one was way off the mark, maybe it the end of this series 😳not sure. But this could have been a novella. The start of the plot was really interesting and entertaining, then it was just, ugh 😑 you really had to push through to finish reading it.
Summary from back cover:
For over 150 years, Lamont Cranston- and his alter ego, The Shadow- has possessed an array of mental and physical powers: scientific skills, shape-shifting abilities, and mind control . When a series of deadly natural disasters strikes the planet, he immediately sets out to identify who’s responsible…..

[Philip Cosand · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I could start this review with a frustrated snort; really get that vexation out of my nostrils, I would. This book annoyed me.

First off, let us approach this as a book about The Shadow. It fails. The Shadow is a pulp character. He began in that era and that is where he belongs. The fedora. The cape. Gangsters, revolvers, and thugs. He is a nostalgia character. He can fight Hitler, he can team up with Batman, Doc Savage, or The Spirit. But he does not fit the modern era. (I will simply say that in the late 80s, his comic writer tried to modernize him. Then he turned him into a cyborg. Yeah... The series ceased publication soon after that.)

Giving him a legacy character with similar traits to pick up his career? Fine. Having him live longer than a normal human due to his mystical backgrounds, sure. But having him be an agent of world-changing power in the current times? Nope.

Then there are the powers. Oy. Okay, The Shadow as two powers. He can cloud men's minds. Invisibility. We can accept that. And he can get read surface thoughts. Not Professor Xavier-level. Just, you know suggestions to questions paying off.

Unless you're reading this series. Take the last third of the book. They have spent the first few hundred pages flying around the country, trying to save the world (more on that in a bit.) So, as the writers warp things up and the climax builds, what does our hero do? He uses his mind and space powers to transport himself to the destination. Yes, out nowhere, he teleports himself.

-faceplant-

I... I just... no. If he could teleport, he should have been doing that the entire book. And if he has that kind of power set, then it takes away from his pulp genre. Just... no.

Then there is the fact that he is charged with fixing the world in the first place. There are multiple natural disasters to contend with. And there is a diabolical villain. I can accept that over a hundred and fifty years that Lamont Cranston has learned a trick or two. But creating a network of agents that knows every branch of technology well enough that they are the experts in every single field? No. The Shadow punches bootleggers. He might even fly across country to stop Nazis. Saving multiple countries from multiple disasters (that are, of course, manmade) is not his field.

If you really want to revive a character from the pulp world, maybe, -maybe- bring in Doc Savage. The Shadow does have his agents. But he operates... wait for it... in the shadows. Savage is more of a public figure. He's more prone to having the network, surviving the physical ordeals, and operating on a global scale. Or, if you need a more well-known character, you could squeeze Sherlock Holmes in here. He would not fare much better here than Cranston. However, you could make a case for it.

Second. The writing. Okay, this is the publisher's fault, not the writers'. However, when your copy on the jacket reads, "Could it be Shiwan Khan, The Shadow's fiercest enemy?" Yes. The answer is yes, it could be. The book does not build up to that character. They throw it in there, just to be cute. But if they want you to enjoy that twist, the least they could do was hint at it and not give it away right on the cover. C'mon, folks.

I am used to Meltzer Brad and Patterson writing short chapters. But this is ridiculous. The longest one was all of four pages. To say that the entries lacked character development is being kind. I appreciate that the book was a quick read. I was thrilled when it was over. It even worked when Patterson took up Crichton's Eruption. Here though, you rush from place to place and do not care a lick.

Then there are the parts where they do try. Where, for no plot reason at all, they set up Cranston's relative as a new hero. And she goes on her adventure. And he tries to help. And the two cases have nothing to do with the other. ...until she and her entrusted client are kidnapped and taken to the exact same spot that Cranston's group happen to be at! Yay! ... Sigh. Then there is Cranston's attempt to throw the entire world's fate aside to help this one gal, who he claimed was capable enough to take care of herself for the first two-thirds of the story. So which is she? Can Maddy do it, or is she your damsel in distress?

There are multiple points in the book where Cranston is ready to throw everything out the window for a cause. And the cause changes three times.

Oh, and then there was the shapeshifting. I had forgotten. An addition to his teleportation, now apparently The Shadow can shapeshift. So he can look like anyone he chooses. So, in the book of subterfuge and evil villains, with a global conspiracy and sneakiness required, he barely uses it. Do like the writers did and forget that The Shadow does not have that power. (He doesn't need it. He can cloud men's minds!) Well, since he apparently has the power in this book, why doesn't he use it all the time? They would all get captured a lot less.

I can't believe we have gone from an Orson Welles-led radio drama to this travesty. Miscast, poorly written, and just a betrayal of the character. For every one book of Patterson's that I enjoy (Blowback, Eruption, I come across several that make we want to abandon the book and move on with my life. This book makes me want to jump off the Patter-ship all together and swim to safer shores.

[Greer Andjanetta · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a terrible book. Obtained by virtue of JP's name as author but instead of a mystery novel it is pure fantasy and ridiculous at that. People transforming themselves into squirrels. Not a good reflection on JP. I will be much more circumspect in the future when I see his name on a new book.

[Aniruddha M · Rating 3 out of 5]

if I hadn't read it, wouldn't have missed much! Not worth wasting time reading this.

[Matt. · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 61% I just couldn’t force myself anymore. If this series continues I won’t even give it a thought

[Deb Mervold · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept was interesting with the shadow and his family all with special powers saving the world.

[Kate Eakins · Rating 2 out of 5]

If it wasn't so quick to read, this would have been a DNF. Not really sure why they bothered writing / publishing it. Normally enjoy a Patterson.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad this series is over, a little too much doom and gloom. Some evil doers just never die.

[Terri Palermo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never quite figured out how two authors can write one book, but I had trouble getting into this one. I think it might be part of a series and I jumped into the middle of it, but I’m not sure.
In any case, time ran out on my loan from the library so I will have to revisit this at some point in the future.

[Francesca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stopped reading. Did not like storyline.

[Jan Mullady]

Worst ever!! Total waste of time. I stopped reading with 4 chapters left. Who cares how it ends!

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 2nd Shadow book ( books 2 & 3). Loved them both. Need to crack down and read the first by Patterson. I also have enjoyed his Doc Savage story. Good for him for giving a new take on these classic characters!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you didn’t know the author’s politics before reading it you do now.
Definitely not up to the typical standards of James Patterson. The storyline was flat and made no sense in some parts.

[Katharine Ott · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The President's Shadow" - written by James Patterson and Richard Dilallo and published in 2025 by Little, Brown & Company, Hachette Book Group. I've generally enjoyed Patterson's Alex Cross series, but not his other books. This one continues the trend. It seems to have been written by a young middle schooler or perhaps by AI. So stilted and unbelievable. My experience was also marred by entering this Shadow series in the third book - I had no concept of the characters and the book made no attempt to describe them or past important plot points.

[Michelle Seiffert · Rating 1 out of 5]

These have always been my least favorite series of his. Think I’m done even trying to read them anymore. Reads like it was written by a middle schooler. Just terrible, couldn’t get through 20 pages this time. Time to move on from these.

[Linda Hendon · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I have read. I kept going because it was Patterson but what a waste of my time.