In a near-future Puerto Rico, a determined New York police detective teams with local officers to solve a case with supernatural elements.

In the year 2041, Bronx detective Skye Noir arrives to help the San Juan Police Department solve a murder case. She meets with Lieutenant Bobby Chambers, who shares details between the current investigation and an eight-year-old cold case that involved six serial victims. The killings had stopped, but “Now two more bodies have shown the same pattern of “deep cuts…made with scary precision.” More disturbing, eyewitnesses report seeing “A man changing into a wolf.”

This latter detail upsets Commissioner Victoria Ramirez, who’s worried that press coverage will keep tourists away. Ramirez pressures Noir and her assigned partner to wrap up the case quickly, yet a department long-timer, Detective Sergeant Carlos Rivera, keeps cautioning them, noting that “This city holds secrets.”

Those secrets begin to reveal themselves when intricately-carved pendants shaped like a wolf’s head are found near the victims, eventually leading the detectives to a ritualistic cult with dangerous intent.

While the story offers tantalizing elements, its execution is problematic. Sentences and scenes often repeat in slightly different iterations; characters deliver obtuse dialogue and display unrealistic behavior. For example, with lives at stake, why does Rivera take so long to reveal what he knows?

There’s also a glaring lack of continuity. At one point, detectives discover the cult attempting a human sacrifice. As the cult leader approaches, “dagger in hand,” the chapter ends. In the next chapter, though, this cliffhanger is completely forgotten; there’s is no advancing cult leader, no dagger.

Careful editing could have trimmed the story by half with better results. And inexplicably, halfway through on page 208, the author writes, “Thank you for reading Crimson Silhouettes,” and asks readers to leave a review. Is this simply odd placement—or a mistake?

Even with its intriguing setting and the presence of werewolves, errors take the teeth out of this book’s bite.

Also available in hardcover, ebook and audio book.