Echoes of the Dead: A Special Tracking Unit Novel

by Spencer Kope

Overview

A group of missing friends forces 'Steps' Craig to contend with the most twisted killer he's ever encountered in Spencer Kope's Echoes of the Dead.

Magnus “Steps” Craig is the best 'tracker' in the world, renowned for his ability to follow a person's trail anywhere - no matter the terrain or how old the trail. Steps utilizes his unique talent as part of the elite three-man Special Tracking Unit of the FBI, which is called in on cases that require his unparalleled skills. But there’s a secret to his success. Steps has a kind of synesthesia where he can see the ‘essence’ of a person—which appears to him as a unique color or pattern he calls "shine"—on everything they’ve touched. It's a secret Steps has shared with a rare few people and could, if revealed, endanger not only himself but the unit that he serves.

Steps and the Special Tracking Unit are called in on a new case where the local law enforcement is baffled. Four friends have vanished while on their annual fly-fishing trip—a congressman, a district attorney, a CEO of a major accounting firm, and a cofounder of a successful hedge fund. Now, Steps must search some of the most treacherous terrain, the Sierra Nevada range, as one by one time begins to run out for the missing men. Desperate to save whoever they can, Steps and his team discover that this is no simple missing persons case, but one with sinister motivations unlike any they've seen before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250179401
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Series:	Special Tracking Unit , #4
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	1,049,133
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

SPENCER KOPE is the author of Collecting the Dead (a finalist for the Barry Award for Best Thriller), Whispers of the Dead, and Shadows of the Dead — the first three novels featuring Steps and the Special Tracking Unit. He is also the Crime Analyst for the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office in Washington State. Currently assigned to the Detectives Division, he provides case support to detectives and deputies. He lives in Washington State.

Editorial Reviews

07/05/2021

Kope’s tense fourth Special Tracking Unit novel (after 2020’s Shadows of the Dead) pits FBI tracker Magnus “Steps” Craig against a mysterious killer with a twisted vendetta. When four men disappear during a fly-fishing trip, Steps is called to the Upper Kern River outside of Bakersfield, Calif., to investigate. After one of the four turns up dead in a sadistic scenario, Steps—who can see what he calls “shine,” a person’s aura left behind on the things they’ve touched—realizes time is running out to save the remaining men. Steps’s task is complicated further by one of the missing men being a divisive politician with more than a few enemies. Steps’s partner, Jimmy Donovan, and intelligence analyst Diane Parker provide grounding with their ordinary human capabilities. Though fueled by relentless pacing and an impressively knotty plot, the real narrative power comes from Steps’s ability to see shine and the questions raised about death and beyond, which add a philosophical element to this singular saga. Paranormal thriller fans are in for a treat. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron & Assoc. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"A welcome breath of fresh air... Starkly original and as riveting as it is relentless." —Providence Journal

"Suspenseful...unfolds at a rapid pace." —Associated Press

"Relentless pacing and an impressively knotty plot." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

10/15/2021

In this fourth installment of crime analyst Kope's "Special Tracking Unit" series (after Shadows of the Dead), readers get more witty banter from the already developed characters. Steps and Jimmy of the FBI's Special Tracking Unit are tasked by the FBI director with finding a group of CEOs and politicians who disappeared from their annual fishing trip. Steps has the ability to see a colored "shine" that is distinct to every individual, and this suspect has a green shine. He must keep his ability quiet through wrong suspects and body recoveries until he and Jimmy find the person responsible. Kope shows every piece of the investigation, and the realistic, slow build to a solve keeps readers involved as the mystery unfolds. No gory detail is spared as victims' deaths are described, leaving readers scared and as eager to catch the killer as the characters. VERDICT The series has through lines, but each book can be read as a stand-alone; this installment is great for readers looking for a Stephen King—like scare.

Library Journal

2021-06-29
The disappearances of a California congressman and three of his college buddies cue another manhunt for Magnus "Steps" Craig, the nonpareil agent of the FBI’s Special Tracking Unit.

Marco Perez was a successful oncologist before the citizens of Bakersfield elected him to Congress. Wade Winchell, the Major Crimes deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, has tangled with Mexican drug lords. Jason Norris is a well-heeled accountant; and hedge fund manager Noah Long’s wealth leaves Norris in the dust. So they’ve all acquired scads of enemies along the way, and it’s anyone’s guess why they vanished from their annual fishing trip on the Upper Kern River or who the kidnapper’s primary target was. As usual, though, Steps, who can see the shine that identifies the unique aura of every human being, and his more earthbound partner, Jimmy Donovan, are confronted by crime scenes far more arresting than the humdrum details of the criminal’s motive or identity. Norris is seemingly discovered propped up on a park bench—except that the corpse in his clothing isn’t his but that of a man a generation older than him, the killer having snatched the corpse from its recent grave and substituted Norris’ still-living body. A Polaroid photo in the dead man’s pocket identifies the likely next victim as Winchell and suggests that the clock is ticking before his time is up. An episode that interjects human smuggler Abel Moya into the mix dramatizes the killer’s sadistic sense of humor. The killings are so ghoulish, in fact, that the final confrontation comes as a distinct and probably inevitable anticlimax.

The most conventional of the gifted hero’s four cases still has plenty to keep fans glued to their seats.

Kirkus Reviews