Shadow Hunter is a prequel novel set in the Star Wars universe. The setting is on Coruscant just days before the event of The Phantom Menace . Whereas Cloak of Deception was a novel set on a grander scale and told of the origins of Darth Sidious s plan for the Naboo trade blockade and dealt with political intrigue, Shadow Hunter is a fairly straight-forward action ride of a novel.

One of the Neimoidians who was instrumental in setting up the Naboo blockade has gone missing. Nate Gunray suspects that Hath Monchar is betraying the other Neimoidians and Darth Sidious knows that there is a betrayal even though Gunray has said nothing about this. To track down Monchar, Darth Sidious has sent his apprentice Darth Maul to find Monchar, kill him and kill anybody Monchar has spoken to about the upcoming blockade. Monchar has contacted a criminal named Lorn Pavan about selling this information. With Pavan we meet his droid, I-Five.

While this is going on Jedi Padawan Darsha Assant is sent on her final test before becoming a Jedi. She must escort someone back to the Jedi Temple, but while her mission initially seems unrelated to the other storyline in the novel the mission becomes complicated and eventually intertwines with the lives of Darth Maul and Lorn Pavan.

This is a very fast paced novel, and one in which we get to see a different side of the Star Wars universe: namely, the Sith. Darth Maul becomes a more interesting character as we learn a little bit more about his background and that of the Sith and part of a reason why there are only two Sith at a time. After the exposition, Shadow Hunter is non-stop and everything is constantly moving, driving the story forward. I was pleasantly surprised with this Star Wars novel. It was a well told story (as far as Star Wars goes) with lots of action, some light saber action and a deeper look at the Sith. It was good enough that it made me want to continue on with the Star Wars novels. This isn t a great book, but I found it entertaining and I finished it in a couple of days.