San Juan has seen its share of homicides, but what’s happened recently is complicated enough to unsettle even the most seasoned investigator. A string of murders echoes a pattern of unsolved crimes going back nearly a decade, and nobody is better at solving cold cases than Detective Skye Noir. Asked to consult on these bizarre murders, Skye is flown down from her post in the Bronx. She is repeatedly told that the case is unusual, and as she uncovers victims whose wounds are too clean, too deliberate, to belong to any ordinary predator, she realizes those warnings aren’t exaggerations at all. Now, more bodies are showing up, each marked by precise cuts and a distinct wolf pendant. Paired with sharp Detective Lily Quinn and secretive Sergeant Carlos Rivera, Skye traces the pendants to an old Puerto Rican legend, a centuries-old cult, and a beast that hunts by the full moon. Local leaders and other detectives admonish her to stay open-minded about what this city hides, but beastly crimes might be too much to believe. However, for Skye, a detective with a shrouded past, the deeper she pushes, the case becomes less about who is killing and more about what she herself is becoming.
A hard-nosed homicide detective who trusts evidence over folklore is handed a case that evidence cannot explain in the fast, fun supernatural thriller, Crimson Silhouettes. Skye is a satisfying protagonist, skeptical without being smug, tough without being cold, and the experience she’s drawn into becomes the book’s central storyline. While the novel leans on repetitive phrasing, rehashes information frequently, and telegraphs its intentions rather loudly, it compensates with a cascade of sharp, surprising twists that energize the narrative and make the payoff worthwhile. Hernandez writes with momentum, and the suspense-laden core is where the story really shines: a torch-lit cave rigged with tripwires and a weighted net, a bloodied pendant pulled from a pile of blankets, the low chant of a cult drawing closer in the dark. These scenes succeed because the ambiance builds a dread that lingers. The mythology of a shadowy council and the confrontation that forces Skye to choose between her humanity and her strength keeps the emotional uncertainty high. With its steady plotting, Halloween-tinged island setting, and a detective wrestling with a life-changing case, Crimson Silhouettes is a straightforward, moonlit mystery that horror and detective fans alike can sink their teeth into.
