Once Shadows Fall

October 26, 2015
Daniels’s competent first novel, a serial-killer thriller, leans heavily on Robert Harris’s two masterpieces of the genre, Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. Det. Beth Sturgis, newly promoted to the robbery-homicide division of the Atlanta PD, is assigned to a brutal crime scene that echoes the killings committed years earlier by Howard Pell, a criminal genius known as the Scarecrow. But Pell remains locked up in extreme solitary confinement, so who committed these new murders? Beth solicits the help of retired FBI agent Jack Kale, who put away the Scarecrow after a life-and-death struggle. Kale is still suffering from acute PTSD and has no interest in aiding Beth’s investigation, but inch by inch she draws him in. It soon becomes apparent that Pell has spawned a disciple, who has dubbed himself the Soul Eater. Might Pell somehow be guiding the Soul Eater from his prison cell? Daniels fails to achieve Harris’s level of inspired madness, and the dawning romance between Beth and Jack saps the story’s tension toward the end. Agent:
Jane Dystel, Dystel Goderich Literary Management.

October 1, 2015
Daniels' debut is a psychological thriller, complete with a deranged but charismatic serial killer and a damaged but intrepid cop. For her first major case, Atlanta homicide detective Beth Sturgis is thrown into the deep end: a scarecrow at a nearby farm has turned out to be a dead body mounted on a stake. Two equally grisly murders soon follow, and Beth notes that the murderer's style resembles that of Howard Pell, a former FBI agent-turned-sociopath. Joining her investigation is retired detective Jack Kale, who had a violent confrontation with Pell before putting him in prison. For reasons that aren't initially revealed, Kale is haunted by his memories of Pell's rampage and is now fighting to stay sane and sober. As the bodies pile up, so do the Silence of the Lambs parallels: Pell has a refined sensibility and no apparent conscience, and Beth's prison interviews get her caught in his mind games. Both Pell and his mysterious protege are prone to elaborate murders that involve mummification and surgical instruments; and both have a deadly grudge against Kale. The story's execution is smooth if a bit predictable; the murders, chases, and last-minute rescues all arrive like clockwork. But Daniels provides a killer with a believable back story and motive, bringing the mystery to a satisfying conclusion.

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Starred review from November 1, 2015
A subtext to Thomas Harris' Red Dragon suggests that if you think you're magical, you're probably crazy. This notion surfaces early on in Daniels' superbly entertaining procedural. FBI agent Jack Kale retired to a university post after his ability to enter a killer's mind nearly unhinged him. He agrees to assist the police in hunting a killer and, sure enough, he hears what he dreads: Work your magic. The Harris parallel continues when Atlanta PD detective Beth Sturgis visits an imprisoned Lecter-like psycho for insights into a serialkiller she's tracking. It's Kale's case, and as the two become partners and leave Lecter behind, they charge ahead on a hunt that takes us through morgues and prisons and cop shops and even a psychologist's office. This one lifts itself into a special place among psychological thrillers because of its evocative writing Jack could concentrate hard enough to light a match and that spooky undercurrent of madness about to surface. Both lead characters know that gazing too long into the abyss invites the abyss to gaze into them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)