Silence

Nell Brach, Book 1

By: S. E. Green

Narrated by: Susan Marlowe

A dead teenage girl. A growing suspect list. A town full of liars.

At 28, Detective Nell Brach is both the youngest and the first woman to make detective in her close-knit Tennessee community. Assigned her first case as lead investigator, she’s determined to prove herself and find out what happened to the 13-year-old “good girl” found in the woods.

However, the deeper Nell and her new partner, Vaughn, dig, the more potential suspects they discover…including Nell’s lover, a local judge.

With enemies forming right and left, sensitive details being leaked, and a disturbing competition dating back decades coming to light, Nell can’t risk only following the rules. One more misstep and she’s off the case. But when she begins to unravel the secrets and series of spiraling events surrounding the girl’s death, it leaves everyone in the small town stunned…

©2023 S. E. Green (P)2024 S. E. Green

A Whodunit That Ends With NOBODY Doing It!

SPOILERS:
I really enjoyed Susan Marlowe's reading of this book. Her mastery of the narrative form and accents is truly wonderful. The story is interesting, and the characters all seem to have their secrets. Where the book breaks down, I think, is Green's predilection for unfinished business. It's all well and good to have red herrings throughout a story, but when each and every alternative ends up a dead end, and the circumstances of the death in the book are discovered to be completely unrelated to anything the author has set up in the previous pages, one has to wonder if they just ran out of steam while writing it and went for the let down ending. I found myself wondering why I bothered paying attention to this little tidbit or that when ultimately, the death was not maliciously caused at all. Even the framework of the early suspicions ("The Quiet Game") is unresolved at the end. The narrator simply states that the game is ended once and for all. Say what? Green doesn't really even describe this supposedly insidious game in any kind of detail, and now its threat is totally removed forever? The ending of the story felt rushed and slipshod. It's a shame because I think there are some very good bones there.
Also, I'm not sure what criteria is being used to name this writer as a "best selling author", but there are several word usages in this book that are just plain incorrect. It makes me wonder what kind of editor worked on the manuscript that allowed those mistakes.
I spent 7/8ths of this book really enjoying the story and Susan Marlowe's reading of it. The last 1/8th is a real disappointment.