Shadow Game (novel)
Shadow Game is the first Ghostwalker novel by Christine Feehan. The story centers on Dr. Peter Whitney, who has enhanced the psychic abilities of a group of Special Forces soldiers. These Ghostwalkers can move objects, talk to animals, and even walk in dreams, but the power comes with a price: many suffer from psychic overload, needing anchors to shield them from others’ thoughts and feelings. Some men die as the experiment continues.
To save the project, Whitney brings in his daughter Lily, a strong psychic, who is initially reluctant to join. Lily is instantly drawn to Captain Ryland Miller, the leader of the Ghostwalker team. Ryland suspects Whitney has betrayed the team by blocking access to important notes, and he fears the men are being murdered. He also clashes with Colonel Frank Higgens, Whitney’s rival who wants control over the project.
Peter Whitney asks Lily to meet for dinner, but he never arrives. Before dying, he telepathically reaches his daughter and reveals that someone inside Donovan’s is sabotaging the experiment and that a hidden laboratory holds all his notes. He believes the danger comes from within the project and pleads with Lily to help the remaining men and “the others.”
After Whitney is killed, Lily confronts Ryland and agrees to help the Ghostwalkers escape Donovan’s. She hides the men at her large home and begins teaching them to rebuild their mental barriers. While there, she discovers a secret lab and learns a shocking truth: she is not Peter Whitney’s biological daughter. Peter had kidnapped and experimented on twelve European orphans—including Lily—creating psychic children. He stopped the program after the same painful side effects appeared, and the other girls were adopted out; Lily was kept.
The escape plan is complicated by an implanted electrode in one of the men designed to trigger brain bleeds and murder him. It becomes clear that someone wants to steal the process and sell it. Suspicions point to Higgens and others, and Lily discovers a secretly made recording in which Higgens plots not only Ryland’s death but also that of General Ranier, Higgens’ superior. With this evidence, Lily and Ryland expose Higgens and restore the Ghostwalkers’ reputation.
The novel ends with Lily and Ryland vowing to find the young women Peter placed for adoption and uncover the full truth behind the project.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:51 (CET).