The Shadow File

 Author's Summary

Iraq War vet, Dana Williams, gets the opportunity of a lifetime: to manage a high-profile government contract right in his hometown. But Dana soon discovers that a series of deadly events will make this contract as dangerous as anything he faced in combat. After a year of public scrutiny, the controversial program he will help manage is now up for Congressional review. The emergence of a billion-dollar industry, the success of political careers, and the outcome of Dana’s personal life hang in the balance. While trying to piece together the politically charged project, Dana encounters a friend from his past and realizes that the criminal element he escaped years ago is now directly tied to his work. He doesn’t know who to trust from the mix of questionable players surrounding him. But his options are running low as the project quickly becomes a deadly game of survival, which will test Dana’s morals, courage, and will—and propel him toward an unexpected secret.

MWSA Review

Action takes a back seat to dialogue in this methodical thriller about an ex-soldier who is detailed  by his employer, a security firm, to help uncover the culprits of a domestic bombing incident in Youngstown Ohio.   As Dana Williams, the protagonist, goes about his job, collecting and sorting information for Integrated Global Data Systems (IGDS), he  interacts with other IGDS employees, local politicians and businessmen, an attractive attorney, and some former friends from his own childhood in Youngstown.   The information he assembles forces Williams to ask -- was the local casino bombed by a criminal gang in Youngstown as evidence seems to prove, or was it bombed to cover up corruption by local developers and managers, including perhaps senior figures of IGDS?   The Shadow File is an easy read and will appeal to fans who like long conversations that highlight the characters, their motives, and in this story, their secrets.

Reviewed by: Terry Shoptaugh (2012)