SILENT FALL by Barbara Freethy

adioPublisher Penguin
Date published April 2008
ISBN 978-0-451-41255-3
Genre
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Lauren

After fighting the battle of their lives, Sarah and Jake Sanders find their way down the aisle to marital bliss. Joining them to celebrate their nuptials are Jake’s brother Dylan and Sarah’s friend Catherine. Catherine wants nothing to do with Jake’s not-so-little brother Dylan and it’s not because his nature is darkly brooding. It’s because of her visions of a hotly passionate relationship.

Not that Catherine has to worry about Dylan being interested in her. The last thing Dylan wants is to wake up next to the same woman more than once. Well actually, he has no problem with sex, be is sizzling or just a quick tumble. It’s the whole issue of connecting with a woman if he’s between the sheets with one for more than consummation of the act.

Unfortunately, for Catherine and Dylan, the situation quickly tumbles out of their hands and they find themselves on the run for their lives. With Dylan being framed for the murder of the woman, Erica, who helped him bring down a senator who he happened to also share a quick one night stand with, he has to trust Catherine and her psychic visions. Tossing aside sense and caution they leave Lake Tahoe to follow the trail to Erica’s killer. With each turn the find themselves closer and closer to the killer who is now after them

SILENT FALL is a fast moving, action packed, don’t plan on catching your breath read. Dylan is, in a word, hot. There’s just something about him as a hero that you want to gobble up. Catherine is a little hard to like, which is something the character would totally go for. If someone liked her, she might have to spend time with them and worse, open up to them. She’s got her defenses in place and no one is bringing them down. Ms. Freethy captures the confusion and struggle a psychic feels—picking up images, sensing something is happening, but unable to stop it or put a name to an unknown face.

As with SILENT RUN, there are inaccuracies as to what would happen when it comes to police activities. While someone outside law enforcement wouldn’t notice, for anyone who has worked in or around it, some of the scenarios just wouldn’t happen such as local police not being involved if a resident of their city was missing or presumed dead.

This story had great action, enticing twists as as Dylan and Catherine are manipulated by the killer. The ending was a bit over the top for me. I wasn’t sure if the author was going for a Chick-litish bring the family together type thing or if she was just trying to tie up the loose end created by Catherine’s family of origin situation. For me, all those family connections seemed over the top and just not plausible.

The killer was a complete surprise to me. That was a brilliant twist. One you will want to check out.

SILENT RUN by Barbara Freethy

Publisher Penguin
Date published March 2008
ISBN 978-0-451-41253-9
Romantic Suspense
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Lauren




Sarah Tucker is running for her life. Driving down a lonesome highway in southern California she sees the headlights that peek through the darkness coming to claim her life. Careering off the road she wakes in the hospital of no memory of what happened, why she was running or even her life. Before she can begin to get her bearings, Jake Sanders descends on her and he wants answers. Not that he cares so much about how she ended up in the hospital or why she left him months before. What he wants to know is where his baby daughter, Caitlyn, is. When Sarah has no answers for him Jake wars with his distrust and outright hatred for Sarah and his need to find his daughter.

After an attempt on Sarah’s life, she and Jake head towards Los Angeles and what they hope will be the location of their child. At each turn though the mystery of Sarah’s disappearance and who the men are who want to kill her deepens. Jake’s brother, Dylan, joins in the hunt and unearths a past that holds dark dead ends and endless questions about just who Sarah Tucker really is. Each person who could be a source of information turns into yet another mystery. Are they Sarah’s friends or linked to her worst enemy? Do they hold the answers to Caitlyn’s whereabouts or is the little girl already in a cold grave?

SILENT RUN holds so much promise. A woman on the run, with no memory of who she is and only hints of a relationship that may have been the one of her dreams or nightmares. Add in a missing child and you have all the ingredients of a breath holding romantic suspense.

Unfortunately, it falls short and plays out like a cliché Lifetime movie. Too many threads in the story simply do not ring true for this day and age. From almost the beginning I had a sense of a protected witnesses’ safety going south. The descent into amnesia and wakening came across contrived and not well researched. In the age of HIPPA and lawsuits, information provided to a stranger who professes to know the victim but isn’t even a family member lacks credibility as does a hospital allowing a patient who was in a bad car crash walk around without at least some lip service to using a wheelchair. The flashbacks didn't seem to hold any emotion while it became clear quickly that Jack and his brother have no kinder feelings towards Sarah. After the first several times he relates this to her it became repetitive. Knowing Ms. Freethy to be an excellent writer from reading some of her other books, SILENT RUN left me wondering what happened. Perhaps some of the edgier romantic suspense writers have colored my perception of a more softly written one.

Readers who are also fans of Lifetime movies will enjoy SILENT RUN and it would, in fact, make an excellent television movie. The locales, especially her friend Catherine’s house, lend themselves to some great visuals.

SILENT FALL by Barbara Freethy

Publisher Onyx
Date published April 2008
ISBN 978-0-451-41255-3
Romantic Suspense
Paperback
Reviewed by Tammy





Barbara Freethy keeps readers guessing when she pairs a stubborn bachelor with an equally tenacious psychic in this suspenseful race to expose the truth before a killer catches up with them.

Dylan is in the mountains for his brother’s wedding when a former lover shows up and lures him into the woods only to leave him drugged and accused of her murder. Catherine Hilliard is a psychic haunted with a dark past and cryptic visions that reluctantly lead her to help her best friend’s brother-in-law prove his innocence. As the evidence piles up against Dylan, and Catherine is accused of being his accomplice, it becomes clear that they have both been targeted by a sinister mastermind that has targeted them both, leaving them racing to stay alive long enough to expose the truth and stop a killer before the killer finds them and ends any possibility of a happier ever after for these multifaceted characters.

Barbara Freethy’s SILENT FALL is the follow up novel to her popular SILENT RUN. Though Dylan and Catherine are introduced in the first book, it isn’t necessary to read that book in order to fully enjoy SILENT FALL.

Dylan doesn’t believe in Catherine’s psychic abilities, yet he is undeniably attracted to her and when he finds himself in need of help, it seems only natural that he turns to her. They are both wounded souls with trust issues. Catherine is plagued with nightmares from a childhood trauma that may or may not be part of the mystery. Dylan grew up with an abusive father after his mother disappeared from his life, leaving him with only his brother to rely upon. As the mystery unfolds, things become clearer as others simply become more confused. This story twists and turns and where it ends will be an unexpected surprise sure to shock.

This is one suspense filled romance you will not be able to put down. This reader loved Barbara Freethy’s SILENT FALL so much it appears that the book that came before, SILENT RUN, may be my next purchase. Now what will be the wily Freehy’s next story hold? The suspense just never ends.