‘The Shadow Man,’ Karin Coddon’s Harrowing Novel of Supernatural Terror, Addiction and Family Dysfunction, Now Available for Purchase at Lulu.com
Horses and Horse People. Hauntings & Secrets. They dominate and intimidate every waking second in Del Mar’s horse country–just as Maggie attempts a last-chance life makeover. It’s only daylight she sees: fledgling freedom from her drug-addicted ex-husband, and pure empowerment to discover new love, in a new world, at a bustling equestrian center. However, darkness lurks behind the daylight. If only it weren’t for the strange shadows, inexplicable noises, and that unwelcoming staircase troubling Maggie and her young daughter Kat’s peace in their inherited Del Mar home … Available in either a download or hardcover at Lulu.com. Lulu.com is a premier online marketplace that provides a platform for people to create, buy, sell and control digital content on demand.
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) July 18, 2007 — Until the house, Maggie Flores believed in only one ghost.
She is haunted by the ghost of her ex-husband Tim, once the All-American boy and promising baseball player, now a meth addict sinking deeper and deeper into his addiction. Still entangled in a chaotic relationship with Tim, Maggie leaps at the chance to move to a house that their eight-year-old daughter Kat has unexpectedly inherited.
Kat falls in love with the ocean-view home in Del Mar, California, but Maggie has reservations – an uncomfortable feeling about the staircase, the unexplained noises, the hint of an image of a menacing old man in a gray fedora and trenchcoat. As Maggie and Kat settle in, Maggie becomes increasingly drawn to Billy O’Donnell, a horse trainer with complications of his own. But despite Kat’s riding lessons and Maggie’s adjustments to the new neighborhood, the house’s peculiarities – optical illusions in photographs, strange behavior in guests, and a whispering invitation from a downstairs closet – continue to unsettle Maggie. When the house’s strange forces seem to be threatening Kat, Maggie decides to take action against the supernatural entities, inadvertently jeopardizing her daughter, herself, and the being that most haunts her, her ex-husband Tim.
The Shadow Man offers the traditional chills of the haunted house story with a contemporary edge – a Latina heroine who grew up in the uneasy Southern California melting pot, a tragic hero submerged in the dark culture of crystal methamphetamine, a temporary suburban idyll in which the ethos of Desperate Housewives mingles with the well-heeled horsy set. Maggie Flores is street-smart and complicated, a devoted mother and career woman, and torn apart by her attraction to a new love and obsession with an old one. Beautiful, brilliant, and damaged, Tim Emerson battles his own demons while struggling to save his family – and his sanity. Ultimately, Maggie and Tim find the courage to confront the house’s evil before it destroys them in frenzy of hatred, revenge, and warped desire.
Karin Coddon is a recovering English professor and admitted pop culture junkie. She has published widely on Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, and contemporary left-wing political culture. She is a regular contributor to Political Affairs magazine, in which her short fiction “Faith” and “The Vegan Vampire” have appeared along with commentary pieces on politics, sports, and film.
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