Rating - ⭐⭐⭐
"A man is savagely murdered outside Portland, and Detective Mason Callahan finds blood-spatter evidence that tells a troubling story. Files reveal the murder victim, Reuben Braswell, was a radical conspiracist. In his home, investigators find pages of diatribes against law enforcement as well as ties to Mason’s fiancée, FBI special agent Ava McLane. The victim was her informant—and had strong reasons to be paranoid.
To Ava, Braswell’s rants were those of a wearying and harmless man…until they collide with her investigation into the murders of police officers and finding the connection becomes urgent. Meanwhile, Braswell’s brother and Ava’s twin sister both disappear, and disturbing acts of sabotage target Ava’s personal life.
For Mason and Ava, the brutal crimes and escalating mysteries create a perfect storm for a terrorist conspiracy that becomes dangerously personal—one that has yet to claim its last victim."
The Silence is the second novel in Columbia River, a mystery series by Kendra Elliot.
A lot of my feelings for this book ended up being skewed because I haven't read the other series this one tied into, which would have given me a lot more context for this. Otherwise, though, this was a pretty 'meh' book. It wasn't bad or anything, but it was a pretty basic mystery story like one you can find on a crime show.
Let's get into the details.
WRITING
I was overall fine with the writing, but there was one thing that did take the story down a little bit. We do get POVs outside of the main two characters, which I didn't think was really necessary. It didn't make much sense to me to have a novel follow a criminal investigation, where you get more information from these additional POVs rather than the investigation itself.
PLOT
In all honesty, after the fact, this story didn't really stick with me. I only remembered it when I was reviewing my notes to make this review which...is not a good sign. The story wasn't anything particularly interesting or anything new but, again, it was still decent. There were plotlines added in this that were relevant to the overall plot but still could have been taken out entirely.
I also didn't like how, without spoiling anything, a revelation was made later on in the book that changed the course of the investigation, and I didn't like it because it was due to incompetence.
CHARACTERS
This time around, we follow both Ava and her partner Mason, who make up the duo of Callahan and McBride (the titular characters of the other series). Now, as I said in the introduction, I did not read the other series, so I did not get a proper introduction to Callahan's character, he just showed up. I didn't mind his character though.
Ava, on the other hand, was already introduced in the last book, but she was a bit of a mess in this one because she was in the middle of a ton of distressful situations, which I kind of didn't care for.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
So, not bad, but not great. It passes the time I guess.
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