Brenda Novak Dead Silence

Dead Silence

Brenda Novak

Mira, Aug 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0778323285

In Stillwater, being the daughter of white trash, Grace Montgomery knows she has no future here by the way everyone either scorns her or leers at her. She has decided the first chance she gets she will leave her hometown to forge a future somewhere else where no one knows about her DNA; thus she began her rise in a greasy spoon in Jackson, but soon won scholarships to Iowa and Georgetown law school.

Grace succeeds, but now thirteen years later has returned home to resolve the event in her past that left her shrouded in mystery when the Reverend vanished eighteen years ago, humiliation and the tag that the acorn does not fall far from the tree occurred. However, she quickly learns that here unlike the outside she remains what she was when she left, white trash. Rising politician widower Kennedy Archer thinks otherwise as he is attracted to Grace and admires her spunk and ethics. However, he also knows by seeing her, his political career could die before it blossoms. Worse she knows that too.

DEAD SILENCE is a fascinating family drama in which events that are almost two decades old still haunt those left behind by what happened. The story line creates the atmosphere of a laid back town while introducing the key players especially the lead couple. Though that enables the reader to get deep inside everyone's head, however, that twisting pace also leaves little room for action until the latter segment of the novel. Thus not for everyone, fans who enjoy an insightful character study will want to know what happened in Stillwater that some residents prefer to remain concealed.

Harriet Klausner