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Shadoweyes
The first deaths go unnoticed. The next are unreported. The people of Albuquerque are suddenly unsuspecting prey for something swift and unseen. Something with golden eyes and razor-sharp teeth. Something eternally evil, unspeakably powerful, and totally hungry.
Only Chato Del-Klinne, a restless Apache searching for a way of life more congenial than teaching college students, and Laura Rainey, a young, ambitious newspaper reporter, suspect the nature of terror that authorities seem to be covering up.
Only the tribal teaching that Chato has abandoned can possibly save them.
But time is short. The shadoweyes have tasted blood. They're after more.
Only Chato Del-Klinne, a restless Apache searching for a way of life more congenial than teaching college students, and Laura Rainey, a young, ambitious newspaper reporter, suspect the nature of terror that authorities seem to be covering up.
Only the tribal teaching that Chato has abandoned can possibly save them.
But time is short. The shadoweyes have tasted blood. They're after more.
314 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1984
4 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Ptacek
74 books24 followersaka Les Simons, Kathryn Atwood, Anne Mayfield, Kathleen Maxwell, Kathryn Grant
Kathryn Anne Ptacek was born on 12 September 1952 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, but was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received her B. A. in Journalism, with a minor in history, from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she was graduated with distinction in 1974. While attending the university, she was a student of award-winning mystery writer Tony Hillerman and well-known YA writer Lois Duncan. Afterward, she worked briefly for a political party best left unnamed, was a telephone solicitor for the New Mexico Assn. of Retarded People, and spent two years as an advertising lay-out artist for a regional grocery warehouse co-op, and then worked for the University of New Mexico first as a secretary in the Dept. of Speech and Hearing, then for the University's Computing Center as their only technical writer and editor.
After the sale of her first novel, an historical romance, in July 1979, she quit to become a full-time novelist. As Les Simons, Kathryn Atwood, Anne Mayfield, Kathleen Maxwell, Kathryn Ptacek, and Kathryn Grant, she has written an historical fantasy series, numerous historical romances, and five horror novels. Her dark fantasy have won the Silver Medal and Gold Medal awards given by the West Coast Review of Books. She has also edited three anthologies, the critically acclaimed Women of Darkness and its companion Women of Darkness II (both Tor), and Women of the West (Doubleday). Editions of her books have appeared in England, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Germany. Her short stories have appeared in Greystone Bay, Doom City (Greystone Bay II), Fantasy Tales, the Post Mortem anthology, Pulphouse 5, The Horror Show, Freak Show (HWA anthology), A Confederacy of Horrors, Into The Fog, The Ultimate Witch, and Phobias. She is a member of Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, the International Women Writers Guild, and the Police Writers Club. She also prepares a market report for Hellnotes, is the editor of the Horror Writers Association's monthly newsletter, and publishes a market newsletter, The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets, which goes to writers and artists around the world.
On 1982, she married to dark fantasy novelist Charles L. Grant, who died in 2006. She shares a 116-year-old Victorian clapboard house with five cats in Newton, New Jersey. Her hobbies include gardening, jewelry making, and various needlework. She also has a large collection of gila monster memorabilia, and collects unusual teapots and cat whiskers.
Kathryn Anne Ptacek was born on 12 September 1952 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA, but was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received her B. A. in Journalism, with a minor in history, from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, where she was graduated with distinction in 1974. While attending the university, she was a student of award-winning mystery writer Tony Hillerman and well-known YA writer Lois Duncan. Afterward, she worked briefly for a political party best left unnamed, was a telephone solicitor for the New Mexico Assn. of Retarded People, and spent two years as an advertising lay-out artist for a regional grocery warehouse co-op, and then worked for the University of New Mexico first as a secretary in the Dept. of Speech and Hearing, then for the University's Computing Center as their only technical writer and editor.
After the sale of her first novel, an historical romance, in July 1979, she quit to become a full-time novelist. As Les Simons, Kathryn Atwood, Anne Mayfield, Kathleen Maxwell, Kathryn Ptacek, and Kathryn Grant, she has written an historical fantasy series, numerous historical romances, and five horror novels. Her dark fantasy have won the Silver Medal and Gold Medal awards given by the West Coast Review of Books. She has also edited three anthologies, the critically acclaimed Women of Darkness and its companion Women of Darkness II (both Tor), and Women of the West (Doubleday). Editions of her books have appeared in England, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Germany. Her short stories have appeared in Greystone Bay, Doom City (Greystone Bay II), Fantasy Tales, the Post Mortem anthology, Pulphouse 5, The Horror Show, Freak Show (HWA anthology), A Confederacy of Horrors, Into The Fog, The Ultimate Witch, and Phobias. She is a member of Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, the International Women Writers Guild, and the Police Writers Club. She also prepares a market report for Hellnotes, is the editor of the Horror Writers Association's monthly newsletter, and publishes a market newsletter, The Gila Queen's Guide to Markets, which goes to writers and artists around the world.
On 1982, she married to dark fantasy novelist Charles L. Grant, who died in 2006. She shares a 116-year-old Victorian clapboard house with five cats in Newton, New Jersey. Her hobbies include gardening, jewelry making, and various needlework. She also has a large collection of gila monster memorabilia, and collects unusual teapots and cat whiskers.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 27, 2021
What a blast from the past. Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we have all the ingredients a good 80s horror novel needs: a shady old scout named Junior Montoya, an Indian, named Chato torn between old believes and the modern world, a scheming senator and his buddies, a mysterious indestructible fetish, monsters on a killing spree, the shadoweyes, a spine tingling showdown... will Chato be able to stop the shadoweyes from leaving the pueblo of the shadows to cause havoc in the cities of the whites? Really enjoyed this intriguing and eerie story. The author really knows what she's writing about, has well crafted characters and a good plot centered around American native myths. The sad role of the American natives is also discussed on a plausible scale here. Excellent page turning horror from the past. Highly recommended!
December 10, 2022
Good, entertaining read by Ptacek, although it forces one to suspend their disbelief a bit too much to be really great. Largely set in Albuquerque and environs, our main protagonist, Chato Del-Klinne, is a full blood Apache who once trained to be a shaman; he then went to college and eventually became a professor at the UNM, but then quit. Now, he rambles around the state looking for odd jobs and something to give his life meaning.
This starts with a prologue where some Texan campers are guided by an old half-breed up in the mountains near Albuquerque, where most of them meet a grizzly death by 'shadow creatures' whose eyes are the only visible feature (as per the lovely cover!). Chato, with some time to kill before a job interview, takes a cruise up into the mountains and finds a bunch of butchered bodies at a campsite (a second campsite BTW); he reports it, and is promptly arrested. Something ugly is going down around Albuquerque and it has something to do with old Indian lore and a 'fetish' of some sort...
I like horror stories that feature the lore of Native Americans and Ptacek did a great job with the prejudice these folks face on a day to day basis as well. Overall, an interesting story, but far too many coincidences and worse, some pretty sordid romances. She also does a great job in building atmosphere here, especially in the later sequences of the story. Yet, the plot is rather clumsy and as I wrote above, forces the reader to suspend their belief just a little too much. I have read a few other of Ptacek's novels (she writes under about a zillion pseudonyms) and many seem to deal with Indian lore, and most have been pretty good but not great. Fun stuff, but nothing to write home about. 3 Shadoweyes!!
This starts with a prologue where some Texan campers are guided by an old half-breed up in the mountains near Albuquerque, where most of them meet a grizzly death by 'shadow creatures' whose eyes are the only visible feature (as per the lovely cover!). Chato, with some time to kill before a job interview, takes a cruise up into the mountains and finds a bunch of butchered bodies at a campsite (a second campsite BTW); he reports it, and is promptly arrested. Something ugly is going down around Albuquerque and it has something to do with old Indian lore and a 'fetish' of some sort...
I like horror stories that feature the lore of Native Americans and Ptacek did a great job with the prejudice these folks face on a day to day basis as well. Overall, an interesting story, but far too many coincidences and worse, some pretty sordid romances. She also does a great job in building atmosphere here, especially in the later sequences of the story. Yet, the plot is rather clumsy and as I wrote above, forces the reader to suspend their belief just a little too much. I have read a few other of Ptacek's novels (she writes under about a zillion pseudonyms) and many seem to deal with Indian lore, and most have been pretty good but not great. Fun stuff, but nothing to write home about. 3 Shadoweyes!!
January 1, 2016
Almost done. Just a few pages. So I decided I would just cut to the chase and review it now, because I'll be done this weekend, and I don't want to have to think about it. I highly doubt the last few chapters can save this one.
The prose is mostly serviceable. Until you hit an action scene; then it's awful and awkward. Or, if you hit a scene that is supposed to ramp up suspense and terrify you. Then it's just hokey and over-wrought. There is nothing notable in her prose. It isn't lovely or particularly compelling.
Now, I was interested in the setting, New Mexico, since I have never been there and would quite like to go someday. I was also interested in the Native American mythology motif, and the racial tension in the Southwest. But since the writing is so mediocre, there is no power in any of it. It is merely awkward.
This novel follows certain horror novel tropes of the 70s and 80s, and I think those tropes suck. I've read a number of novels from that period, and I rarely, if ever, like them. They are weak stories with badly drawn characters and stupid twists.
I also really hate the two lead women in this. They both bang Chato fairly quickly, and we're supposed to believe through Ptacek's lack of compelling buildup, that both women are pretty into him, if not in love. And I found her handling of Laura and Sunny to be fairly sexist. This might change; I suspect not. Laura is a career women, apparently a liberated woman--educated, smokin' hot, pampered. Sunny is apparently a prostitute, but she's a tough, Cool Girl who doesn't scream at every little thing like Laura. I'm fine with her being a sex worker. But Ptacek pits these two women against each other, at odds, and they are there mostly for Chato to have the hots for and bang. They are objects for him to use, only existing in relation to him for the duration of the story.
I also felt like any of the Native American social commentary was forced, but that might be because this books sucks so badly. Chato keeps doing things and going places that end up being pointless for him to do, so nothing really works in this book. I can't expect social commentary to work in something so poorly organized and so vapid.
I was pumped about this book--a female horror writer writing about Native American mythology, about the Southwest. But because I was so pumped, my hatred is even deeper than it otherwise would have been. No, this book were crap.
I finished it officially earlier this evening. Oh, no, it sucked. What a sad disappointment. OH, WELL, HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!
The prose is mostly serviceable. Until you hit an action scene; then it's awful and awkward. Or, if you hit a scene that is supposed to ramp up suspense and terrify you. Then it's just hokey and over-wrought. There is nothing notable in her prose. It isn't lovely or particularly compelling.
Now, I was interested in the setting, New Mexico, since I have never been there and would quite like to go someday. I was also interested in the Native American mythology motif, and the racial tension in the Southwest. But since the writing is so mediocre, there is no power in any of it. It is merely awkward.
This novel follows certain horror novel tropes of the 70s and 80s, and I think those tropes suck. I've read a number of novels from that period, and I rarely, if ever, like them. They are weak stories with badly drawn characters and stupid twists.
I also really hate the two lead women in this. They both bang Chato fairly quickly, and we're supposed to believe through Ptacek's lack of compelling buildup, that both women are pretty into him, if not in love. And I found her handling of Laura and Sunny to be fairly sexist. This might change; I suspect not. Laura is a career women, apparently a liberated woman--educated, smokin' hot, pampered. Sunny is apparently a prostitute, but she's a tough, Cool Girl who doesn't scream at every little thing like Laura. I'm fine with her being a sex worker. But Ptacek pits these two women against each other, at odds, and they are there mostly for Chato to have the hots for and bang. They are objects for him to use, only existing in relation to him for the duration of the story.
I also felt like any of the Native American social commentary was forced, but that might be because this books sucks so badly. Chato keeps doing things and going places that end up being pointless for him to do, so nothing really works in this book. I can't expect social commentary to work in something so poorly organized and so vapid.
I was pumped about this book--a female horror writer writing about Native American mythology, about the Southwest. But because I was so pumped, my hatred is even deeper than it otherwise would have been. No, this book were crap.
I finished it officially earlier this evening. Oh, no, it sucked. What a sad disappointment. OH, WELL, HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!
April 16, 2013
Mrs. Charles L Grant wrote seven books, this was my first. Looking at her other books, looks like she liked the old ways and myths & legends of Indian lore, in the southwest. This was her second novel, which to me had scenes that felt like I was in fast forward. A couple of scenes that didn't make sense, to what had happened earlier. A couple of spooky moments, and it's a TOR book almost thirty years old....but.
A little under three stars, for a quick read.
A little under three stars, for a quick read.
June 22, 2009
Good atmospheric horror. Features a native American character and tie ins to Native American culture.
October 29, 2014
Review pending
Read
July 30, 2023DNF page 137
- not intrigued by the plot or mystery
- writing is not doing it for me
Gosh I just want a good read
- not intrigued by the plot or mystery
- writing is not doing it for me
Gosh I just want a good read
February 15, 2024
This novel was the second selection in a Kindle book I purchased for $3.99. The book was titled "Tomes of Terror" and contained ten horror novels at a discounted price.
This was the first book by Kathryn Ptacek I've ever read. The bad news for her is that this wasn't good enough for me to ever exert the energy to seek out more of her books. To be clear: this book gets 2 1/2 stars. Goodreads doesn't allow for a half-star rating.
First off . . . a novel about Native Americans denying their culture and paying the price for it written by a privileged white woman? No thanks.
Second . . . there is not much story here. At least, not a story I really care about. We're just supposed to accept certain aspects of the story without enough development of character for any of it to have any significance. And the ending is too abrupt and unexplained to make even a modicum of sense.
With all of that said . . . I am giving Ptacek credit for providing some genuine chills. The creatures in this book are legitimately menacing and there is at least two sequences of this novel that provide a solid case of the heebie jeebies. Unfortunately, I prefer my horror to have more substance than carnage.
This was the first book by Kathryn Ptacek I've ever read. The bad news for her is that this wasn't good enough for me to ever exert the energy to seek out more of her books. To be clear: this book gets 2 1/2 stars. Goodreads doesn't allow for a half-star rating.
First off . . . a novel about Native Americans denying their culture and paying the price for it written by a privileged white woman? No thanks.
Second . . . there is not much story here. At least, not a story I really care about. We're just supposed to accept certain aspects of the story without enough development of character for any of it to have any significance. And the ending is too abrupt and unexplained to make even a modicum of sense.
With all of that said . . . I am giving Ptacek credit for providing some genuine chills. The creatures in this book are legitimately menacing and there is at least two sequences of this novel that provide a solid case of the heebie jeebies. Unfortunately, I prefer my horror to have more substance than carnage.
January 12, 2026
Really love the protagonist in this story. Chato seems complex, living an aimless life with no direction. He’s torn between the real world and the thing he was taught by his people. I guess that seems a little trite, but I appreciate that I can identify with a small bit of his personality and hope for him to do things I would not expect.
The plot, however is a bit formulaic, and it leans heavily on some tropes written for Native Americans in most American literature.
However, the part that will stick with me the longest is how the supporting cast is treated. The author could have done something with the first girlfriend. She had a motivation and dedicated chapters. But at the two-thirds mark, she was pushed aside by replacement girlfriend, who was nothing more than a blank slate. Seemed like a strange choice.
The plot, however is a bit formulaic, and it leans heavily on some tropes written for Native Americans in most American literature.
However, the part that will stick with me the longest is how the supporting cast is treated. The author could have done something with the first girlfriend. She had a motivation and dedicated chapters. But at the two-thirds mark, she was pushed aside by replacement girlfriend, who was nothing more than a blank slate. Seemed like a strange choice.
June 5, 2017
Disappointed
I really enjoyed Gila and Chato's character so I wanted to read more. Shadow eyes looked interesting so I gave it a try . In this book, all Chato did was whine. Sunny was a more interesting character than he was. The premise was good but execution fell flat . Very disappointed .
I really enjoyed Gila and Chato's character so I wanted to read more. Shadow eyes looked interesting so I gave it a try . In this book, all Chato did was whine. Sunny was a more interesting character than he was. The premise was good but execution fell flat . Very disappointed .
October 30, 2022
Spooktober 2022 Book 18
Shadoweyesis fine. I mean, it’s not anything outstanding, nor is it memorable, but overall, it’s decently written and mostly entertaining.
Ptacek’s style is readable and her characters seem mostly realistic. Her pacing keeps you wanting to see what happens…even if it’s a formulaic ending.
And I guess you can’t really ask for much more than that.
Shadoweyesis fine. I mean, it’s not anything outstanding, nor is it memorable, but overall, it’s decently written and mostly entertaining.
Ptacek’s style is readable and her characters seem mostly realistic. Her pacing keeps you wanting to see what happens…even if it’s a formulaic ending.
And I guess you can’t really ask for much more than that.
June 5, 2023
This was okay. I really wanted to like it more than I did but man, the ending was super disappointing with many, MANY descriptions of dark and wait… even DARKER spaces which Chato seems to navigate fairly easily all things considered. And the very end left a really random thread dangling that was just more confusing to me than suspenseful.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2024
Kind of dull to be honest. I was disappointed in the way the female characters were written - even more disappointed that a female author would make her only two female characters into dull stereotypes. The book had a lot of promise but went nowhere and became cliched and boring.
April 11, 2020
The desert setting in beautiful Albuquerque NM doesn't save this book from poor characters and gaping plot holes. Best to avoid.
December 8, 2025
After writing and publishing for 4 years under 3 pseduonyms, Kathryn Ptacek’s 1984 Shadoweyes became the first title published under her name. In the 36 years since its publication, the formula and structure will read familiar to horror fans…
After a prologue with some victim-to-be strawmen and one minor character who will provide nominal assistance later, a series of back-and-forth butcherings introduce a mostly unseen threat: that of the shadoweyes, the eponymous creatures that will set the novel’s protagonist, Chato Del-Klinne, upon a find-his-roots journey, all before it’s too late. Whilst King and many other horror greats often speak about the power of omitting outright descriptions of monsters and creatures and allowing the reader to create a powerful image of their own horror, I would argue that Shadoweyes takes this maxim too far, as that the actual creatures, even in the book’s climax, are never seen. In the final confrontation between Chato, and the creature’s servitor Junior in the pueblo lair of the beasts, the following is the closest we get to a description of the shadoweyes themselves:
He whirled and stared into the flat eyes of the creature. It hissed at him…They were all around him, shades everywhere, the shadoweyes crowded into the chamber…Talons, colder than the icy stream, raked across his bare shoulders, down his thigh, bringing bloody welts (299-300, 304)
This pattern repeats throughout the book: seemingly incorporeal, razor tooth, taloned meanies chew and hack like Gremlins, but always fade away. In what might be the book’s most interesting encounter with them, they overtake a hot air balloon festival and send one balloon careening into the festival. The resultant fiery explosion napalms those on the ground, and in its wake, the shadoweyes wash over the unsuspecting populace of Albuquerque and off two of the novel’s three antagonists, the secret triumvirate preserving the secret of a stolen fetish.
The rotating 3rd POV perspective allows us moments with these villains (a mayor, monsignor, and senator), while the narrative conceals the semi-puppet master in the darkness, hinted at as less harmless in the prologue: Junior Montoya, the “half-breed” who obeys the whims of the shadoweyes to eke out a living ripping off tourists. While the villainy and Indigenous lore would do well to anchor the novel’s threats, poor development and strange actions for the novels’ auditioning protagonists, Susan and Laura, made it difficult to connect.
After a few chapters of watching the shadoweyes massacre the unsuspecting, we’re introduced to Chato as he returns to Albuquerque where he once worked as a promising tenure-track professor. In time, the important details of his abandonment of the old ways will become the focus of the book; instead, Ptacek spends 5 full pages giving us everything Chato has been doing since, none of which seems to factor or resolve anything later in the novel. Similarly, the intrepid reporter, Laura is hinted to take a starring role, aiding Chato earlier on and even sleeping with him. But like Chato, Laura isn’t given much development, and in her case, she devolves into a coward who disappears into the novel’s background when Susan, the “whore with the heart of gold” prostitute, teams up with Chato. After a roll in the sleeping bag with Susan on the floor of Laura’s apartment (while she is in the other room, no less), Susan drives Chato out to face the big bad and in true hero fashion, Chato insists he must do so alone, affirming the cliche and supporting what many readers have said: Chato should have been/truly is the sole protagonist.
A frustrating element in Shadoweyes is the repetition of both Chato and Laura sniffing out a clue, pursuing it, and then entirely dropping the matter when confronting the individual who can confirm or deny their suspicions. Laura works hard to get an audience with the Senator, and then shies away. Chato confronts Junior (only to be put to sleep through never-revealed powers), spends a night in jail for alluding to threats to the mayor (and is easily bailed out), and goes to meet with a shaman for help, only to walk away angry and disaffected. This is not the essential “try and fail” method of escalating conflict: it’s scenes that don’t translate as dramatic or eventful.
Rushed character backstory, obligatory violence scenes, obscurely rendered monsters, formulaic antagonists are all low point, but the interesting villain, Junior, is unfortunately glossed over. Salvageable and interesting, Junior Montoya’s involvement, Chato’s shamanistic training and reconnection to “the old ways,” and the origins of the black fetish stone all would have benefited from expansion as they both detail Chato’s arc and the novel’s cool premise elements that take a backseat to the investigation . The first of several of Ptacek’s Native American horror-themed and troped stories, Shadoweyes reads like much early 80’s horror, but has its moments (did I mention the hot air balloon massacre?).
Find this and many other horror reviews and horror novel catalogs at www.macabrary.com
After a prologue with some victim-to-be strawmen and one minor character who will provide nominal assistance later, a series of back-and-forth butcherings introduce a mostly unseen threat: that of the shadoweyes, the eponymous creatures that will set the novel’s protagonist, Chato Del-Klinne, upon a find-his-roots journey, all before it’s too late. Whilst King and many other horror greats often speak about the power of omitting outright descriptions of monsters and creatures and allowing the reader to create a powerful image of their own horror, I would argue that Shadoweyes takes this maxim too far, as that the actual creatures, even in the book’s climax, are never seen. In the final confrontation between Chato, and the creature’s servitor Junior in the pueblo lair of the beasts, the following is the closest we get to a description of the shadoweyes themselves:
He whirled and stared into the flat eyes of the creature. It hissed at him…They were all around him, shades everywhere, the shadoweyes crowded into the chamber…Talons, colder than the icy stream, raked across his bare shoulders, down his thigh, bringing bloody welts (299-300, 304)
This pattern repeats throughout the book: seemingly incorporeal, razor tooth, taloned meanies chew and hack like Gremlins, but always fade away. In what might be the book’s most interesting encounter with them, they overtake a hot air balloon festival and send one balloon careening into the festival. The resultant fiery explosion napalms those on the ground, and in its wake, the shadoweyes wash over the unsuspecting populace of Albuquerque and off two of the novel’s three antagonists, the secret triumvirate preserving the secret of a stolen fetish.
The rotating 3rd POV perspective allows us moments with these villains (a mayor, monsignor, and senator), while the narrative conceals the semi-puppet master in the darkness, hinted at as less harmless in the prologue: Junior Montoya, the “half-breed” who obeys the whims of the shadoweyes to eke out a living ripping off tourists. While the villainy and Indigenous lore would do well to anchor the novel’s threats, poor development and strange actions for the novels’ auditioning protagonists, Susan and Laura, made it difficult to connect.
After a few chapters of watching the shadoweyes massacre the unsuspecting, we’re introduced to Chato as he returns to Albuquerque where he once worked as a promising tenure-track professor. In time, the important details of his abandonment of the old ways will become the focus of the book; instead, Ptacek spends 5 full pages giving us everything Chato has been doing since, none of which seems to factor or resolve anything later in the novel. Similarly, the intrepid reporter, Laura is hinted to take a starring role, aiding Chato earlier on and even sleeping with him. But like Chato, Laura isn’t given much development, and in her case, she devolves into a coward who disappears into the novel’s background when Susan, the “whore with the heart of gold” prostitute, teams up with Chato. After a roll in the sleeping bag with Susan on the floor of Laura’s apartment (while she is in the other room, no less), Susan drives Chato out to face the big bad and in true hero fashion, Chato insists he must do so alone, affirming the cliche and supporting what many readers have said: Chato should have been/truly is the sole protagonist.
A frustrating element in Shadoweyes is the repetition of both Chato and Laura sniffing out a clue, pursuing it, and then entirely dropping the matter when confronting the individual who can confirm or deny their suspicions. Laura works hard to get an audience with the Senator, and then shies away. Chato confronts Junior (only to be put to sleep through never-revealed powers), spends a night in jail for alluding to threats to the mayor (and is easily bailed out), and goes to meet with a shaman for help, only to walk away angry and disaffected. This is not the essential “try and fail” method of escalating conflict: it’s scenes that don’t translate as dramatic or eventful.
Rushed character backstory, obligatory violence scenes, obscurely rendered monsters, formulaic antagonists are all low point, but the interesting villain, Junior, is unfortunately glossed over. Salvageable and interesting, Junior Montoya’s involvement, Chato’s shamanistic training and reconnection to “the old ways,” and the origins of the black fetish stone all would have benefited from expansion as they both detail Chato’s arc and the novel’s cool premise elements that take a backseat to the investigation . The first of several of Ptacek’s Native American horror-themed and troped stories, Shadoweyes reads like much early 80’s horror, but has its moments (did I mention the hot air balloon massacre?).
Find this and many other horror reviews and horror novel catalogs at www.macabrary.com
July 11, 2025
The only reason I finished this is because I have vague plans of reading all of the Paperbacks From Hell. I may come to regret that if I have to read too many more wooden pointless stories.
September 10, 2011
This is one of my favorite books that's not by King or Koontz.
I love the story and the detail the author includes in the book.
I love the story and the detail the author includes in the book.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews