The Viking Funeral
Shane Scully • Book 2
by Stephen J. Cannell
Why You'll Love This
Shane Scully spots his dead best friend on a Los Angeles freeway — and refuses to let anyone convince him he's wrong.
- Great if you want: a cop-driven conspiracy thriller with genuine personal stakes
- The experience: fast and propulsive — Cannell keeps the pressure on throughout
- The writing: Cannell plots like a TV showrunner — tight scenes, clean reveals, no fat
- Skip if: you want psychological depth over plot-driven momentum
About This Book
Some cases begin with a body. This one begins with a ghost. LAPD Detective Shane Scully is certain he spotted his best friend — a man dead for three years — on a Los Angeles freeway, and that single unnerving moment pulls him into an obsession he can't outrun. What starts as a question about one man's death spirals into something far darker: a conspiracy reaching deep into the LAPD itself, where the lines between loyalty, corruption, and survival blur in ways that put everyone Shane loves at risk. Cannell builds the tension around a premise that's almost unbearable in its simplicity — what if the person you grieved never actually died?
Cannell spent decades writing for television, and it shows in the best possible way. His chapters move with precision and momentum, his dialogue crackles without ever feeling stagey, and he writes Los Angeles with the kind of insider grit that feels lived-in rather than researched. The Shane Scully series rewards readers who want their protagonists genuinely compromised — not antiheroes by design, but good men making increasingly costly choices. The Viking Funeral delivers that moral friction on nearly every page.
