The Raven's Shadow

Spradlin, Michael. The Raven's Shadow
September 23, 2025 by Crossroad Press
E ARC provided by the author

It's 1824, and a fifteen year old Charles Darwin has made a difficult sea trip from England to the United States. His father wants him to visit this new country before beginning his studies at the prestigious Seaton Preparatory school. On the journey, he sees some odd things, such as a wound on the captain's neck, muddy footprints on the deck, and a pale man with red eyes lurking but disappearing suddenly. Relieved to be on solid ground, Charles makes his way to the home of the Harker family in Philadelphia, where he meets their daughter, Lenore, and their nephew, Edgar Allen Poe. Besotted by Lenore, Charles agrees to meet the family at the opera the next night, but on his way home is attacked. Luckily, he is saved by a young man from Indiana, Abraham Lincoln. Shaken, Charles invites Abe back to his boarding house for a meal, and since his father has already paid for the room, suggests that Abe stay with him instead of sleeping outside. Abe comes along to the opera, and afterwards, the three young men ask if they might walk Lenore back to the family home. This ends disastrously when Lenore is attacked and whisked off while the three are answering another call of distress. Edgar is particularly heartbroken, and guilt motivates the new friends to investigate the disappearance. Things become odd when Lenore appears outside a second story window begging to be invited in, but her dead body is found on the Harker's lawn. Even odder, someone is seen carrying her body away from the house! When chasing a suspected perpetrator, the three are trapped, but saved by General William Clark in a flying ship. They learn that the culprit is a shady Character called The Count, who is probably to blame for the death of Clark's comrade, Merriweather Lewis. When it seems likely that the Count will next appear in Washington, D.C., Edgar tells the Harkers that he and his friends are traveling there to see the Calhoun and Webster debate. Staying at the Spriggs rooming house, they meet a Haitian maid, Annabel. When Calhoun is attacked, he is saved by the shadowy "Mr. Smith" who ends up being Reynolds Van Helsing, who is also searching for The Count. When he collapses and is brought to the rooming house, Annabel informs Charles that Van Helsing has been attacked by a death walker and is in grave danger. Edgar must crack a code in Van Helsing's journal to learn more, and Annabel has strategies to deal with the vampires. Clark returns and flies the group to Monticello, where they meet Sally Hemming and Thomas Jefferson, where they learn about Lewis' death and the magnitude of the vampire problem. Back at the rooming house, Van Helsing's condition is worse, and he makes Charles promise to kill him if he succumbs to his injuries, and to deliver a letter to his son. Will Charles, Edgar, and Abe be able to thwart the death walker scourge so that the fledgling United States remains safe?

I was slightly apprehensive about putting these three historical figures together until I realized that they were all born within a month of each other in 1809! One of the really brilliant parts about this story is how cleverly historical figures were woven into a riveting action and adventure story. While I looked up a lot of people and events while reading, there is an appendix at the end of the book that would be very helpful in a print version of this title, so that readers could flip back and forth from the explanatory chapter notes. Another read would uncover even more references!

Young readers like things to HAPPEN in books, and this is a fantastically paced story. Starting with a treacherous sea journey that was so well described that I got a little nauseated, the action continues on shore with sneak attacks, suspenseful pleas from the malicious undead, and plenty of running around. To let our hearts stop racing, we get views of our main characters exercising their particular skills to plot the next adventure. I didn't know that Poe was particularly good at puzzles, although it's not a surprise that Abe is able to wield an axe to take down attackers. Darwin's narrative skills, and his interest in vampires as a species, are not a surprise!

The Raven's Shadow made me realize that novels for young men have really gone downhill since the introduction of Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 2007. I used to have sixth grader reading adventure titles like Dowswell's Powder Monkey (2005), Updale's Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman (2003), Lane's Death Cloud (Young Sherlock Holmes, 2010), and let's not forget, Somper's Vampirates (2006)! All of these incorporated history, adventure, and young teens navigating the world alone while beset by overwhelming obstacles that they survived through grit, determination, and not a few good punches! The Raven's Shadow even has some terrific Steampunk scenes-- who doesn't want to travel to Monticello to meet Thomas Jefferson in a flying ship?

Middle school AND high school fans of Spradlin's many terrific historical titles like the new Web of the Spider series as well as the older The Youngest Templar series (2008) will enjoy this deep dive into the history of the early 1800s, spiced up with a touch of garlic! It's worth hunting down this Macabre Ink/Crossroad Press title for readers who can't get enough exciting historical adventures.