Shadows In The Pool Of The Black Star

Available June 18. 2026

A Detective Gabriel O'Malley Novel - Book 2
Where Sacred Geometry Meets Wartime Treason.

January in Winnipeg is a sentence, not a season. At thirty-five below zero, a bitter, hunting wind strips the warmth from the limestone walls of the Manitoba Legislative Building. But inside the grand structure, the chill is trapped—along with a horrifying secret.

When Detective Gabriel O’Malley is summoned to the building’s lower rotunda at 2:00 AM, he finds a meticulously orchestrated stage of death. Sprawled dead-center on the black marble of the Pool of the Black Star lies Alistair Thorne, the powerful Minister of Strategic Resources, his neck cleanly snapped.

The crime seems completely impossible. The white marble floor surrounding the body is pristine. There are no scuffs, no street grime, and not a single melting boot print in the winter snow. It is as if the Minister materialized directly out of the heavy, pressurized air.

To solve a murder written in the silent language of Masonic symbols and Hermetic codes, O'Malley must turn to the one person who can translate the dark architecture of the city: Olena Petrenko, a sharp-minded mystical woman from the immigrant enclaves of the North End. Together, they are drawn into a high-stakes web of psychological warfare that stretches from the elite leather chairs of the Marlborough Hotel to the gritty foundries of the Point Douglas railyards.

As World War II rages overseas, Gabriel and Olena expose a staggering domestic conspiracy. Someone is altering the metrics of Canada's vital food supply, siphoning massive reserves of gold-standard wheat straight out the back door of a starving Empire.

But in a city pushed to the edge by wartime paranoia, turning on the light makes you a target. As the players in the shadow cabinet begin to systematically plummet from window ledges and disappear into the veins of the building, O'Malley realizes they aren't chasing a standard political assassin. They are hunting an invisible director who believes he walks above the physical world, a brilliant, vengeful mastermind who moves through the stone like a draft, waiting to claim his next sacrifice.

For Fans of Greg Iles, James Patterson, and Historical Noir Fiction

Shadows In The Pool Of The Black Star is a magnificent, multi-layered suspense novel that seamlessly bridges commercial pacing with rich, literary historical depth.

"A masterful blend of historical grit and occult mystery. The author captures 1940s Winnipeg with such chilling precision that you can almost feel the frost on the page. O’Malley and Olena are a formidable new duo in the thriller genre."

"Paced like a runaway train, yet layered with the rich, atmospheric world-building of a Southern Gothic. The use of the Manitoba Legislative Building as a central, breathing character is a stroke of brilliance. Shadows in the Pool of the Black Star is an absolute standout."

"Rarely does a procedural reach this level of thematic depth. By weaving together wartime tension, political corruption, and ancient mysticism, the author has created a narrative that is as intellectually stimulating as it is terrifying. A must-read for fans of high-stakes historical fiction."

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