Conspiracy
of Silence
Non-series
Martha
Powers
Oceanview
Publishing (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-933515-18-X (193351518X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-933515-18-2 (9781933515182)
Publication Date: October 2008
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): On a sunny day in July, Clare Prentice arrives in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Although she is on assignment to interview the town's notoriously reclusive novelist Nate Hanssen, Clare is really in search of a different story -- her story. Just months before, Clare was a bride-to-be, living in Chicago, and looking to the future. Until the day she learned her entire life had been a lie. Not only was Clare adopted, but there is no record that she or her adoptive mother ever existed. The only clue is a class ring from Grand Rapids Senior High School. Unable to get on with her future until she reconciles her past, Clare breaks off her engagement. Unraveling the mystery is like trying to sculpt fog -- until the first piece of the puzzle unexpectedly drops into place: Clare's birth mother, Lily Gundersen, was murdered in Grand Rapids. Lily's murder was one of the most talked-about events in the town's history, but no one is talking now. Clare doesn't know the whole story -- and someone intends to keep it that way.
Review:
An intriguing prologue in which a young woman, concerned about her
family's medical history, learns she's adopted sets the stage for a
decades-old unsolved murder mystery in Conspiracy of Silence
by Martha Powers.
Clare Prentice is engaged to be married when her doctor gives her the
startling news of her adoption. Though the woman she knew as her mother
has recently died, and she was told her father died when she was young,
she breaks off the engagement and leaves Chicago for Grand Rapids,
Minnesota, a town in which her adoptive mother once lived. A reporter
for a literary magazine, Clare is given an assignment by her editor
that gives her a cover story for her trip: an interview with a Pulitzer
Prize-winning author who happens to live in Grand Rapids. Once there
she quickly discovers that her adoptive mother had a sister who was
murdered in the town, presumably by her husband who subsequently
committed suicide. But strange events begin to occur that suggest Clare
is in danger herself, that in trying to discover her past she may be
jeopardizing her future.
Conspiracy
of Silence has a kind of
quiet energy that keeps the pages turning despite some obvious problems
with the plot. The small town setting works to the story's advantage,
allowing Clare to integrate herself into the community quickly,
investigating her own identity while keeping her true reason for being
there largely a secret. The author adeptly incorporates several
familiar plot twists that are generally successful in misdirecting the
reader but unfortunately are not sufficiently developed to generate any
real suspense. And there is a heavy reliance on Clare's memory
returning at convenient moments and some wildly improbable coincidences
to move the plot forward. Still, the whodunit aspect is handled well
and as a mystery for that snowy afternoon in front of the fireplace, Conspiracy of Silence
is a good choice.
Special thanks to Maryglenn McCombs Book Publicity for providing an ARC of Conspiracy of Silence for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Conspiracy of Silence? How would you rate it?
Other books by this author ...
Sunflower
Simon & Schuster (Hardcover), September 1998
ISBN-10: 0-684-83767-6 (0684837676)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-83767-3 (9780684837673)
Bleeding
Heart
Simon & Schuster (Hardcover), August 2000
ISBN-10: 0-684-86610-2 (0684866102)
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-86610-9 (9780684866109)
Death Angel
Oceanview Publishing (Hardcover), October 2006
ISBN-10: 1-933515-03-1 (1933515031)
ISBN-13: 978-1-933515-03-8 (9781933515038)
Conspiracy of Silence
Oceanview Publishing (Hardcover), October 2008
ISBN-10: 1-933515-18-X (193351518X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-933515-18-2 (9781933515182)
Omnimystery
keywords for Conspiracy of Silence
...
Location(s) referenced: Minnesota.
