Risingshadow
Speculative Fiction Books
  • About
    • Home
    • Articles
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Staff Members
    • Newsletter
    • Finnish (FI)
  • Books
    • New Releases
    • Coming Soon
    • Books of the Year
    • Bookshelves Activity
    • Recently Added
    • Advanced Search
    • Reviews / Comments
    • Genres and Tags
    • * Submit Book
  • Community
    • Discussions
    • - Recent Messages
    • - Recent Topics
    • - Hot Topics
    • - Popular Topics
    • - Search
    • CHALLENGES
    • - Reading Challenge
    • - Book Trivia Quiz
  • Home
  • Books
  • Victor Methos
  • Shepard & Gray
  • The Secret Witness

The Secret Witness

Shepard & Gray #1 / 4
by Victor Methos
The Secret Witness (Shepard & Gray #1) by Victor Methos
Unrated

From the bestselling author of A Killer’s Wife comes the thrilling first installment in the Shepard & Gray series, featuring a young sheriff who teams up with a former prosecutor to stop a copycat killer.

This is Reaper speaking.

So begins an anonymous letter published in a Utah newspaper after a young couple is viciously murdered. Tooele County sheriff Elizabeth Gray leads the investigation into the double homicide, which is eerily reminiscent of a string of brutal killings years ago. When the letter leads detectives to yet another body, Gray calls on an old friend for help.

Former prosecutor Solomon Shepard is still struggling to recover from the deadly courtroom attack that ended his career. He’s been keeping a safe distance from the action, teaching criminology seminars about serial murders and psychopathology—until Gray asks for his help on the Reaper case.

As the body count mounts, Shepard and Gray race to unravel the deranged design of a copycat killer—and find themselves in a face-off with an enemy they never saw coming.

Amazon: Check Best Offer

ThrillerMystery
Release date: July 1, 2022

Book Order
Amazon
Kindle
Audible
Amazon CA
Amazon UK
Amazon Europe

Your Rating
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Standard Shelves

Readers also enjoyed

Hidden Pictures
★ 7.14 / 7
The Burning Girls
★ 7.20 / 5
The Chalk Man
★ 6.62 / 8
The Home
★ 8.00 / 6
The Other People
★ 7.34 / 6
The Name of the Rose
★ 8.18 / 27
The Eight (The Eight #1)
★ 7.46 / 13

Join the Discussion
You can post as a guest or sign in for more features.
Have questions about this book or want to share your thoughts? Join the conversation!
Victor Methos

Victor Methos

Few writers of legal thrillers have lived the stories they tell as closely as Victor Methos. Born in Kabul and raised in the United States from the age of nine, he grew up with an outsider’s eye, watching, questioning, and writing. By ten, he was already crafting short stories in English, sensing that the written word could carry both truth and danger. That instinct would follow him into adulthood, shaping a career that straddled the courtroom and the page.

Before turning to fiction full time, Methos built his reputation in the legal world. He studied philosophy at the University of Utah, then shifted course to law school, where his fascination with justice became something far sharper. Over the next decade, he tried more than a hundred cases ranging from capital murder to high-stakes civil rights battles. Each trial demanded not just intellect but moral clarity, and many of those experiences left their imprint on his novels.

Read more ...

His fiction blends the taut pacing of a thriller with the moral unease of real life. The Neon Lawyer, the first in his Brigham Theodore series, drew on his courtroom past to deliver a story at once gritty and compassionate. The Jon Stanton thrillers followed, expanding his reach into darker investigative territory. The Desert Plains novels, including A Killer’s Wife and Crimson Lake Road, probe the shadows where justice, loyalty, and betrayal collide. Methos is also the mind behind the Shepard & Gray series and the newer Vegas Shadows books, including The Silent Watcher and the forthcoming The Night Collector.

Recognition soon matched his output. A Gambler’s Jury earned an Edgar Award nomination, and The Hallows won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction in 2020, underscoring his ability to turn the intricacies of law into stories that feel both urgent and timeless. Yet his acclaim comes as much from readers as from critics, with his books regularly topping bestseller charts in the United States and abroad.

Influenced by thinkers as varied as Hemingway, Nietzsche, and Camus, Methos writes with a style that is lean yet layered, philosophical yet visceral. His novels ask what happens when the law is bent, when truth slips through the cracks, and when ordinary people are forced to confront extraordinary choices.

Today, he lives between southern Utah and Las Vegas, landscapes that echo the stark contrasts of his fiction, the quiet stillness of desert cliffs, and the restless energy of neon nights. Away from the page, he is drawn to adventure, even setting his sights on climbing the Seven Summits.

For readers who crave thrillers that cut closer to reality, Victor Methos offers more than plot twists. He delivers the haunting question behind every case: what is justice worth, and who pays the price for it?

Shepard & Gray

Shepard & Gray consists of three books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

The Secret Witness (Shepard & Gray #1)
Unrated
The Grave Singer (Shepard & Gray #2)
Unrated
The Deceiving Look (Shepard & Gray #3)
Unrated
Shepard & Gray Book 4 (Shepard & Gray #4)
⧗ 9.00 / 2


^ Top
Follow Us: Newsletter | Facebook | X | Mastodon | RSS
Hosted by Planeetta Internet Oy
© 1996 - 2026 Risingshadow. All rights reserved.
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
Privacy Policy