Plagued by traumatic childhood memories, crime reporter Sawyer Brooks still struggles to gain control of her rage, her paranoia, and her life. Now, after finally getting promoted at work, she is forced to return home and face her past.
River Rock is where she’d been abandoned by her two older sisters to suffer alone, and in silence, the unspeakable abuses of her family. It’s also where Sawyer’s best friend disappeared and two teenage girls were murdered. Three cold cases dead and buried with the rest of the town’s secrets.
When another girl is slain in a familiar grisly fashion, Sawyer is determined to put an end to the crimes. Pulled back into the horrors of her family history, Sawyer must reconcile with her estranged sisters, who both have shattering memories of their own. As Sawyer’s investigation leads to River Rock’s darkest corners, what will prove more dangerous—what she knows of the past or what she has yet to discover?
My thoughts on Don’t Make a Sound…
On paper, Don’t Make a Sound seems like the perfect book for me. There’s murder, mystery, a dysfunctional family, and more than one strong female character. When it came to reading what was on that paper, however, something just didn’t click. I wanted to like it. I just didn’t, at least not as much as I wanted to.
I’ve tried to put my finger on exactly why that is and I think it’s because it was a bit too much. There were two interconnected stories being played out here, both of which would have made great books in and of themselves but combined gave me ‘reading whiplash’. I didn’t know where to put my energies. Just when I got into one plot, the other came round again and I felt ‘snapped back’ into another world.
My other problem was the relationship between the three female protagonists. It was dysfunctional, which I normally love. But it didn’t quite feel right or real. I am not convinced that the secrets not shared would have stayed that way. It felt manufactured for the story. I didn’t like that. Which meant I didn’t end up enjoying the book anywhere near as much as I wanted to. A shame, but you can’t have every book be a winner can you?
Emma x
A victim on display. A detective on the rails.