THE KING OF SHADOWS by Robert McCammon

Maybe it was bound to happen at some point. Maybe it was too much to hold out hope that McCammon could maintain the high quality that I’ve come to expect from the wonderful Matthew Corbett series, even with it being eight books deep at this point. Well here it is, this book marks the dip in quality. 

I’m not sure why this book was even written. It blows my mind that the author thought that it would be a good idea to have a random side quest for the entirety of the penultimate book in a 9 book series, when the momentum should actually be rising to a climax. But, it’s exactly what happens here, grinding the overall story to a halt while Matthew and his unlikely band of colleagues find themselves stuck on a mysterious Mediterranean island isolated from society. It’s all the small issues I had with The River of Souls but times 100 here. 

But like with River of Souls, I could forgive it if said side story was interesting on its own. But it’s the opposite. It feels lazy and pedestrian and not even remotely interesting, with a strange, half-baked cop out of an answer as to what was happening on the island. It also had side quests within the side quests, as we spend like 200 pages flashing back to the origins characters we don’t really give a shit about. 

So essentially, the book reads like the rejected drafts of about 4 supplemental novellas that take place in the Matthew Corbett universe that were cobbled together in an unsatisfying collection and labeled the 8th book in the main series. A total disappointment. 

GRADE: D