Set in an unnamed midwestern city and told from multiple perspectives, Henson’s latest novel about addiction and the power of community offers an unseen portrait of the far-reaching and sometimes tragic effects of the 1990s drug crisis.

An interconnected web of lives in one midwestern city captures the surprising humanity of people searching for their authentic selves amid the 1990s drug crisis.

Amy Taylor finds the inner-city streets around her high school vibrant and animated compared to the bland middle-class neighborhood where she lives with her career-driven mother. In these streets, she meets the people of the city, among them a wayward boy named Jonathan, a struggling drug dealer, and Paul Lewis, a documentary photographer who becomes Amy’s mentor. Under his inspiration, she attempts to capture their world through the lens of her camera.

From the multiple perspectives of Amy and the expansive group of people she meets, award-winning novelist Michael Henson presents a heartbreaking portrait of the effects the Reagan-initiated drug war had on the young.

"“Read Secure the Shadow for the beautiful language, the poetry of Henson’s prose—and read it to ponder what it says about our world when people across the social spectrum are filled with such fear and rage and loneliness.”" - Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel