Shadow Language - Paperback

Police Chief Joe Hilario has a secret: he suffers from social anxiety disorder and chronic depression. He is happy only when he is alone. After losing his family, he quits his job and moves to an isolated cabin in the wilderness. His goal is to never see or talk to a living person again. But Joe is obsessed with horrific visions of his dead wife and children. . . unless of course he is imagining things? Joe is never sure. He knows only that laughing voices keep urging him to die. Joe cannot bring himself to take his own life. Myra, an FBI contact, tracks him down, and begs him to help her on a case that may be the answer Joe has been seeking. In a touristy seaside city, single men are being peacefully, painlessly murdered. Joe agrees to solve the case, determining in secret to become a victim himself. Parents warn us not to go home with strangers, but Joe wants to go home with this stranger, and for the worst-case scenario to be played out. Joe meets an assortment of women suspected of the murders. Yet as the case becomes more and more emotionally charged, Joe unravels, and is ever less certain what is real. He solves the case, but the real nightmare is just getting started.