Darkwalker
Gory but exciting, bizarre but fascinating, this post-apocalyptic murder mystery investigates a beast that does more than go bump in the night.
In a post-apocalyptic world of lawless wastelands and city-states run by powerful bosses, Duncan Eagleson crafts a dark and compelling detective story.
Gruesome death stalks Bay City. A shape-shifting killer known only as the Beast is targeting associates of Boss Roth, whose ill-equipped police force needs supernatural help. Roth calls in a team of Railwalkers, legendary martial-arts experts who are sworn to bring justice to a fractured society. The trio uses their mystical abilities to communicate with the “shade” of the recently slaughtered police chief to garner clues to the identity and whereabouts of the savage Beast. As the investigation takes them from Boss Roth’s inner circle to Bay City’s treacherous underside, their quarry continues his death spree and even taunts Railwalker Wolf, the head of the team. Wolf will need every vestige of his training and skill to overcome the physical and mental demons that are his destiny, and his past; for Wolf’s upbringing by his alcoholic father was chaotic and may have left him vulnerable to more than just the Beast’s deadly claws.
Eagleson constructs a richly detailed future replete with multifaceted characters, including Bay City policemen who resent the newcomers, bizarre mutants who are the dregs of society, and the elderly Madam of the Harlot’s Guild, who may be far more than she seems. One of the many nefarious characters Eagleson creates in a flashback sequence is the Bone Grinder, a ravager of the desolate Zones whose cannibalism is the least of his many perditions. He turns out to be an earlier identity of the Beast, and the chapters exploring his background and how he was molded into Wolf’s shape-shifting antagonist—and by whom—provide fascinating rationale for his hidden motivations.
This book is not for the fainthearted, for the eviscerating murders are highly detailed, and some of the dialogue is quite graphic. But for those adult readers who crave amalgamations of sci-fi, mysticism, and edgy detective stories, Darkwalker delivers.
Reviewed by
Alan Couture
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
