Shadow Shepherd

Think William Tell Overture...

If you liked the first book The Tracker, then you should really get this one. The action begins right away with Sam Callahan (fresh out of law school) hanging off of a fourth floor balcony trying to escape the assassin who had just murdered his new client and now wants to kill him.
At the same time his girlfriend Natalie (a journalist) is meeting with a whistleblower (she thinks) who instead turns out to be a kidnapper. Next thing she knows she's in the back of a van with a black bag over his head. At first she thinks it's about a story she's working on but soon realizes it's all about Sam.
Meanwhile Sam's mom is once again battling leukemia. At the same time Sam is told that he has 24 hours to find an attorney from New Orleans who may be the father he never met or Natalie dies.
At first I thought "Wow,deja vu!", this really resembles the first book but that's where the similarities end. This author is proving that he is more than a one hit wonder and this series has tons of potential. The writing style is great, the characters are well developed and the plot is complex enough to keep your attention with out becoming confusing.
I won't go into anymore of the story as I don't want to spoil this for anyone.
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!
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23 of 24 people found this review helpful

Great Story Horrible ending

This is second in a series. The ending is not reasonable. It misrepresents what would be done. It does not fit with the character. It made me regret reading a book I had thoroughly enjoyed up to that time.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Interesting!

I really liked Tracker, the first novel in the Sam Callahan series. Shadow Shepherd, the second novel in the series, is not nearly as good. It is worthwhile, but the author took the series in a very different direction. There is no clear picture of the identity or motives of the antagonists.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Disappointing

The first book in this series showed promise. Although the author seemed a bit of a novice, the plot was engaging and fresh and the protagonist likable. I assumed the author would improve in the second installment, which I eagerly anticipated. What a let down! Book 2 of this series was not believable in any sense. The plot was ridiculous, the action impossible and the characters one-dimensional.

All through the book I kept asking myself what was going on, since only scant motivations and stakes were provided to justify the characters' actions and many of the plot points didn't fit together. Apparently the author had the same problem I did weaving it all together into something that made sense because he came up with a ridiculous ending that was only a proper climax to this novel in that it took the worst flaws of the story and doubled them.

Despite the multitude of action scenes, the book was boring. The story had a lot of flashbacks to melodramatic, introspective scenes that stoped the plot it in its tracks in additional to being painful for the reader. I didn't buy an action novel to listen to chapter after chapter of a man arguing with his dying mother or struggling with his feelings for his girlfriend--especially when they added nothing to the characters or the plot. I felt like I was reading the author's diary instead of his novel. The author spent many pages on an FBI agent (a minor character) dealing with his aging, belligerent father that gave no insight into anything except the author's disdain for the elderly.

The narrator did a good job overall and gave believable voices to the female characters, but the voice and accent he gave to Sam's mother was so hard to listen to that it made these already-unbearable scenes excruciating.

I wont be back for Book 3.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Unrealistic!

I was really into the story for awhile and then the ending was so-farfetched that this is the last of Mr. Zunker’s books I am reading. Better us of my time is taking out the garbage!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

This book fell apart

This book imploded in the last 45 minutes. Avoiding spoilers, I'll just say apparently the author couldn't tie everything together at the end of the story and so he just came up with nonsense. After The Tracker, I had hopes this might be a decent series. Disappointed.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

More of Sam Callahans story

While this is the second installment of a series, it can also be a standalone story, which is really a help to those of you who might not have caught book one. But let me also state that book one is really worth the time to seek out. This book takes a very different course than the first book. Sam has left his bounty hunter days behind him. His fiancee, he managed to meet in book one, is still with him, but really requires no backstory. He IS once again plunged into trouble that is none of his owe making, which I took a star off for, because there were one too many coincidences. But, still, there are a lot of action packed moments that I would recommend for your listening pleasure! And what I enjoyed the most is the fact there is no objectionable content. Synopsis already taken care of, I would recommend this series!

I’m in!!

Wow this book kept me wanting more....and I can’t wait til Sam Callahan goes on his next adventure! Great book!

Sam Callahan

Well written!! I cannot wait for the next book in this series. Zunker is great!!

He woke up and it was all a dream

This should have been subtitled “Part1 of 2” or maybe “Sam Callahan, Mini Series”.

Do not buy this book unless you have already bought Book 3.

Since I have not yet bought Book 3, cannot tell whether it will be necessary to have Book 4 as well.

Needless to say, poor wrap-up of all loose ends and just a prequel, at best, to the next in series.