SHADE OF PALE - Greg Kihn


Jukes Wahler is a psychiatrist working in Manhattan - a city filled with people who could use his services, but is he soon to be in need of a psychiatrist himself? 

One day, while looking out through a deli window, Jukes sees a tremendously beautiful redheaded woman walking past. She turn to look at him and then continues on down the block, disappearing in the crowd of people. It is a memorable moment, but it will become a bit more. 

Shortly after seeing the stunning beauty, a patient tells Jukes that a woman has been stalking him - not an ordinary woman, but a banshee (an Irish angel of death) - a beautiful redhead. It's probably just coincidence since the patient is generally quite delusional.

Jukes will forget about this when something more immediate gets his attention - his sister and her abusive boyfriend have gone missing. One man has offered to help find them ... an ex-IRA commando who is the leader of a radical terrorist group in Ireland.

This book is part horror novel, part detective mystery, and part supernatural fantasy. Each of these is a high-selling category, so this should be a clear hit with a lot of different readers, but it doesn't always work out that way.

I love using classic mythology in modern fiction and we haven't seen a lot of Irish spirits or creatures, so this may have been my favorite part of this book.

The detective mystery aspect is also quite nicely done.  I do like the classic, hard-boiled-style detective, and we get that here in spades with our New York cop. I think that a straight-forward mystery with this cop would have a good deal of appeal to readers such as myself.

While I like a good horror novel (and I'm okay with splatterpunk as horror), the horror doesn't work too well here. It's extraneous and just doesn't add anything to the story.

For a hard-boiled detective story, this moves along just right.  But for a supernatural thriller/horror novel, the pace is too slow.

Looking for a good book? Shade of Pale by Greg Kihn has just about everything ... a New York cop, Irish IRA fighters, and even a banshee, but the various storylines move at an uneven pace, bringing the enjoyment level down a notch.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

Shade of Pale

author: Greg Kihn

publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

ASIN: B010GWL4BK

ebook, 256 pages

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