Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Books: Silent Fall

I was looking for another thriller author and spotted this book, Silent Fall, by Barbara Freethy. It was a quick library stop, and the book would be my 35th summer read. It is the second book in a partnership with Silent Run. You might want to stop reading now because there are some major spoilers in this post. Just in case you do stop reading, my recommendation is a thumbs down.

Premise? Reporter gets framed for the murder of a woman at his brother's wedding reception. Another woman, a psychic the reporter has met before, decides against her better judgement to help him.

The first issue I had was not being able to get into the book, but after the first 100 pages it got busy enough to hold my attention longer. I think one reason was because I couldn't get a good grasp of the reporter's personality. The psychic was easier. She's got a bad history that also has to do with a murderer (one who was never found.)

The second was some really stupid reactions. The woman is a witness in a murder trial that the reporter helped bring about. The reporter thinks the woman/witness may still be alive, due in part to the psychic, and decides to track her down even though he's been told not to leave town. Meanwhile the real killer is also stalking the woman/witness, so instead of staying put and giving himself an alibi he ends up in the same location as the now really dead woman/witness. There were other things like that bothering me.

Third, the psychic starts to make a connection between the reporter and herself. She confides in the reporter about her past with this uncaptured murderer, I said to myself, "Wouldn't it be stupid if the killer was the same for both of them?" Wouldn't you know...

There was some mystery that I hadn't figured out which was good, but it was very predictable. I likely won't read the first story even though there was a little tidbit from it at the end of this book. I kind of know how it ends from reading this one anyway. Wouldn't want to read another predictable book.

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