Silenced by Dani Pettrey

Silenced by Dani Pettrey ISBN-13: 9780764211959 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Bethany House Released: May 6, 2014

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
A relaxing day of rock climbing takes a disturbing turn when Kayden McKenna's route leads her face to face with a dead climber. Is it a terrible accident or something sinister? When the case is handed to the overburdened sheriff, he turns to Jake Westin. With Jake's past now revealed, he's ready to use his talent for investigation again--but he could never prepare for where the case will take him.

Kayden and Jake soon realize that the death was no accident. And worse, it seems the killer is on to them. When strange things begin happening in Yancey, Jake is terrified that once again his world may put someone he loves in danger. But the truth is far worse than he could ever imagine.


My Review:
Silenced is a Christian romantic suspense novel. It's the fourth in a series, but you don't need to read the previous novels to understand this one and this one didn't spoil the suspense storylines of the previous novels. However, the romance apparently did start in a previous novel.

The rock climbing aspect of the story was interesting. The mystery did have clues that made whodunit guessable (without being obvious), but the murder mystery was pretty quickly solved. Much of the story was about a case from Jake's past that isn't quite as wrapped up as he thought. This created the physical-danger suspense.

I liked how we're allowed to see why Kayden is resisting a relationship with Jake, and it's a believable reason. I never understood why Jake fell in love with Kayden because we're told she had been mean to him, but I presume this was explained in a previous book. I was okay with the relationship without knowing because he seemed to know exactly what Kayden was like (reserved, a risk taker, etc.) and accepted her for who she was.

The Christian element was mainly a few prayers and then a brief (but profound) comment by Jake at the end relating to Kayden's fears. So the book wasn't "preachy." There was no sex or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this suspenseful novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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