Murder, Suspense and Magic most foul 
 In the Shadows landed in my mailbox and zowwy was I in for a unique treat. This book melds prose with graphic novel in a fabulous time lapse story telling method that was a tension filled delight to read. 
 The story features 5 teens caught up in some very dangerous happenings sometime in the 1900s. But the graphic novel follows one character on an accelerated timeline that spans quite a number of years. So you will read a chunk of the novel then you'll get several pages of the graphic novel story line and it switches back and forth thus. The graphic novel pages don't have dialogue but they do have the occasional little handwritten letter pictured that you can read. Even though there isn't dialogue on the graphic pages it won't take you long to catch onto what is going on. By the end you will see how everything ties together and that my dears was lovely to see. 
 While the story is somewhat dark the characters help keep things light and quick moving. They have very well rounded personalities and given the number of pages in the novel the author was still able to develop them well enough for me as a reader to become attached to each of them. There is a lot of mystery here. Who is Arthur, who is the lady...what is up with the creepo that keeps giving Cora the pervy looks, is there really a witch and much more. But onto the characters! 
 Minne: A playful little spitfire with a secret 
 Cora: The dutiful older sister who needs to be needed but really just needs to be reminded about having fun. 
 Arthur: A dour lad with a dark past that he longs to forget. 
 Thomas: A loyal brother with a love for ragtime and late nights. 
 Charles: Completely charming, inquisitive and full of the best things in life. 
 I couldn't have been more pleased when I reached the end of In the Shadows to find that it was a complete story and not just the start of another series. Not everything is gone into depth but I really didn't think it needed to be. This was just the quick refreshing read I needed to satisfy one dark and rainy night. I highly recommend this for all teens graphic novel lovers.