Dead Silence by Robin Caroll

Dead Silence by Robin Caroll ISBN-13: 9781643523316 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Shiloh Run Press Released: June 1st 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Elise Carmichael is a court sign language interpreter who reads lips all the time. As a widow with a young son who is deaf, lip reading is simply second nature, until the day she reads the lips of someone on the phone discussing an attempt to be made on a senator’s life—a senator who just happens to be her mother-in-law. Before she can decide what she needs to do, she receives the information that her son is rushed to the ER and she must leave. Then she later sees the news report that her mother-in-law has been shot and killed. But when she comes forward, her life, as well as her son’s life, may now be in the crosshairs of the assassin.


My Review:
Dead Silence is a Christian suspense novel. There was no romance. When Elsie realized that the FBI had no leads except for the ones that she gave them, she and her sister-in-law and a female reporter and a female lawyer worked together to find the clues and solve the case. Granted, they did get a little help from two men, but the women were the ones actively solving the case. The FBI were portrayed as hampered by having to follow protocol and sometimes as downright incompetent. This created some suspense as the bad guys could leave threatening messages with little fear of being caught.

Unfortunately, I didn't really like Elise. She tended to forget important things whenever her son was threatened, so it was easy to throw her off her game. When one of the FBI agents pointed out that the senator died because Elise forgot to warn her or the police about the plot, Elise kicked the agents out and refused to provide them with the information they requested that would help catch the bad guy who murdered her mother-in-law and was threatening her. She did show courage by continuing to investigate the case even when threatened. But when she and one of the FBI agents were talking in the house, something happened outside that they equally should have noticed but she publicly blamed the FBI for not seeing it. She promised to do certain things that would prevent a sympathetic FBI agent from getting in trouble for helping her, but then she didn't do them and made his life very difficult. She used her deep love for her son to justify her behavior, but one can love their child without also blaming everyone else for their own mistakes.

A major clue was dropped at the beginning, allowing the reader to know all along who the bad guy was. It was understandable that the main characters didn't immediately see the significance, but it still took them a frustratingly long time to make the connections. Elise was angry at God for allowing her son to be born deaf, his father and grandmother killed, etc. Her sister-in-law encouraged her to talk to God and trust him. There was no sex or bad language.


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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