Review Detail

DEAD SILENCE has a prologue, which usually I don’t care for, because they’re kind of long and are about people whose existence is as of yet unknown to you. This, however, was the prologue that when other prologues read it they give up and go home - crying. It’s short and snappy and you know what it’s talking about, forming a kind of little sneak peek into the book. It’s the sort of prologue that, after you finish the book and are thinking about it, sort of winks at you and says, ‘See, I scared you there, didn’t I?’

This book has lots of new, little, mysterious elements popping up all over the place, many of them introduced by entries from Violet’s grandmother’s journal. I particularly enjoyed these little sporadic occurrences, mainly because they felt very personal, with plenty of everyday stuff, while getting to what we actually want to know. This way it doesn’t sound like a battle log, but still isn’t bogged down with a lot of waffle. Still, all of these new twists and redirections that were on a more personal level for Violet, along with the classical murder mystery gotta-catch-the-bad-guy parts, made the book seem like it was being pulled in two different directions. I understand why it was done the way it was and agree to a certain extent, but it could have been a bit better balanced.

The villains just keep getting better and better, twisted in a piteous way and propelled by a damaged sense of responsibility. This is definitely something this author knows how to do right.

That being said, DEAD SILENCE is a bit tamer than Kimberly Derting’s previous three. There is a nice big spurt of action towards the end, but it lacks the consistent anxiety that was so prominent in the others. It almost felt as though we were being given a bit of a breather to just sort some things out.