Shadows Across America

by Guillermo Valcárcel, Kit Maude (Translator), Andrew Eiden (Reader)

A man’s search for a missing girl leads him across borders and through a landscape of urban violence in this timely, propulsive, and brilliantly imagined thriller. Ethan is living a solid, rational life as a bail bondsman in Florida when he’s compelled to make a seemingly irrational abandon his job and his girlfriend and head south to rescue the daughter of his ex-lover, Michelle. She appears to have been kidnapped by the Mara―vicious street gangs ripping apart the fabric of Central American life―and there’s every reason to believe the girl is dead already. Except for the one that Ethan has been hiding from she is calling to him in his dreams with three desperate words… I’m still alive. What begins as an urgent mission to save her soon pulls Ethan into a subterranean culture of fear, corruption, and human trafficking with a surreal connection to the most unspeakable crimes of the twentieth century. Suddenly Ethan’s past has come back to haunt him―especially his relationship with Michelle and a passion that was as dangerous as it was intoxicating. Now, heeding impossible cries for help from a lost child, Ethan embarks on a journey that devolves from dreamscape to a nightmare from which there may be no return.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

Audio CD

First published November 8, 2017

About the author

Guillermo Valcárcel was born in Madrid. He worked in the construction industry by day and studied filmmaking at night until 2008, when he moved to Costa Rica, where he currently lives and works as a filmmaker. He also dedicates his time to writing and illustrating. He is the author of another thriller, Counterfeit, as well as The Wave That Hit Spain, an influential essay that launched his writing career.

(amazon)

Reviews

[Thebooktrail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shadows across America

A book of two parts. On one hand, it’s a solid thriller set in the murky underworld of the drugs trade in central America. On the other, a novel with a plot line which later on gets lost in the jungle along with the guerrillas.

The thriller aspect is really good however. A man sets out on a quest to rescue the daughter of a former partner who has been kidnapped. Now, in Central America this can have all manner of problems and dangers and these come thick and fast. There’s LOTS of violence and some overly graphic scenes but it does all fit in with the narrative and the god awful conditions the characters find themselves in. When you’re in Central America, tracking someone down and therefore annoying the gangs there, there’s going to be some violence after all. I still think there were some bits that could have been imagined rather than spelled out.

It was interesting to spend time in this part of the world as I hadn’t been here for some time. I’ve read about the history and culture before and some of the violence there, but this was insightful. The ways the gangs operated, their day to day workings if you like, were good to read about and it did give a sad yet realistic picture of violence in this part of the world.

There was just a little too much supernatural and mystical element to the story which ruined it for me before the novel picked up again at the end. There were flashbacks and sections that I felt didn’t have a place in the story. Felt a bit like a newsflash when you’re reading about the gang violence and then something completely unconnected jumps up. Gladly, the news resumed but the narrative was weakened as a result.

Take out the mystical threads and this is a fascinating look and exciting plot of a unique situation in a region of the world I was happy to visit without actually being there in the literary version.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a thriller, and I have to admit to not being a great fan of the genre, this started quite promisingly. A young man sets out on a perilous quest to find the daughter of an ex-partner who has been kidnapped in Central America. The South American mafia, the Mara, are involved somehow, and not surprisingly there’s a good amount of violence depicted. To be fair, the author handles this quite well and I didn’t feel that the violence was gratuitous or overdone. After all, Central America is hardly a peaceful part of the world. The hunt for the girl becomes more and more complicated, but that’s ok too. Up to a point. The last third of the book unfortunately went completely to pot. Suddenly a mystical element creeps in, then we get Nazis and flashbacks to 1930s Europe, then we have a prolonged and unnecessary torture scene, included, presumably, simply for the sake of having a prolonged torture scene. For me the last part of the book was a great disappointment. I’d just about kept with the narrative up to then, but finally it lost me. The supernatural element sat uneasily with the all too realistic violence of life in Central America, and I felt that the author lost sight of exactly what sort of book he was writing. Definitely a mixed bag of a book and not one I can recommend.

[Julie Escobedo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense story but compelling

I enjoy a good mystery and adventure so I started reading this book. It pulled me in with many twists and turns in the plot. It gave me a lot of insight into the horrible business of international kidnappings of young victims for sordid reasons. The last third of the book took an surprising turn that gave a completely different perspective. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy mystery adventures and who also have an interest in Latin American cultural history.

[Dayna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Human trafficking meets The Strain, albeit with a vaguer demonic entity. I was interested in reading the novel because of the Maras, though adding a few ex-Nazis & the occult was a bonus. There are many graphically violent scenes that may be upsetting to people who haven't been inured by watching the evening news recently. I received a Kindle edition from a Goodreads giveaway.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I. Um. Hmmm. I don’t know what to say about this book. A promising beginning and a satisfying (albeit incredibly depressing) ending leads me toward a favorable review. But then throw in the nazis and the supernatural and the god awful graphic violence, and then you have ... this. A book that will stay with me for a long time but which I can never recommend to other readers.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shadows Across America is convoluted, has a plot that contains at least three story lines, and suffers from a poor translation, but still managed to hold me to the end. I must confess to skipping over several long pages of philosophical meanderings by minor characters and nearly setting the damn thing down when I was just over half way through. There’s enough of a core plot and strong enough characters, some of whom evolve nicely during the course of the book. Hey, it’s got Mara, Nazi’s, bounty hunters, and lots of dead bodies—it can’t be that bad, right? I’d give it 2.5 stars, but I’m not given that option...

[Alex Turnbull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rollercoaster of violence and psychodrama

Hard to stop reading this action-packed novel set in Central America about child abduction but much more besides. A long book, the characters are not always credible, the action often far-fetched, but you are gripped by the bizarre underworld the writer has drawn us into.

[Frances Brook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really hard to follow, first half of the book was pointless and then suddenly a major character was introduced and the book became all about him. Taken me since September to actually want to finish it.

[Kent Dallmeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT

[Ubaldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ampliamente recomendado

[Diane Whiting · Rating 1 out of 5]

desparate

[HollyLovesBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sounded promising, started out strong and then became strange. In addition, it was a long book that probably could have been edited down to a shorter story. Too much filler for my liking.

#ShadowsAcrossAmerica #NetGalley

[Nik Olsen]

Very good, fast paced and gritty. Unusual novel for me, but would recommend.