Cold Silence...6th Annual Resurrecting the Oldies Book W/O
Written: Dec 24 '08 (Updated Dec 24 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: characters, storyline
Cons: ending, too many subplots
The Bottom Line: Girard starts off good and develops her characters but has a mess of subplots.
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| kld718's Full Review: Danielle Girard - Cold Silence |
I read a book called Chasing Darkness (http://www.epinions.com/content_67782217348) a little while back and enjoyed it so much that I decided to track down some other books by the author, Danielle Girard. I found Cold Silence in paperback at my local bookstore and decided to give it a read. It doesn't really compare to Chasing Darkness.
Megan Riggs is stuck in a burning building thinking about two things; she had to get herself and Ryan out without them seeing and about the fact that everything was over. Not ready to loose her 5-year old son like she did her husband Mark, she puts her training as an ex-FBI agent to use. She had a plan. She had one for two years, ever since a Russian, Oscar Kirov, had threatened both her and her son’s life because of the death of his own son. She catches sight of Oscar’s two remaining son’s, the one’s who are obviously responsible for setting the building on fire. She gets herself and her son to the roof, changes their clothing and gets herself off to a small bank where she has money stashed. Her plan is to leave Louisiana without telling anyone, as Kirov had now found them several times.
Jennifer Townsend, who works for the FBI, is dating the second son Dmitri Kirov. It seems Dimitri has an anger management problem and has beat her up several times. She keeps going back to him because he then buys her gifts to make it up. Jennifer told her friend Megan about the drug warehouse one night after drinking too much. Megan spills the beans to her husband, Mark. Mark was involved in a case concerning Viktor (the dead son). Both Mark and Viktor had died that night. Jennifer is still angry at Megan for using the information and plans to help Dmitri find Megan.
Three years later, Ryan, now R.J. is now 8 years old and living in Northern California with his mother Megan (aka: Cody O’Brien). Cody is very strict and does not allow her son out alone. R.J. has made friends with Peter Landon, the son of Travis Landon, a CEO of a computer software company and single father. Peter wants R.J. to spend the night at his home. Cody is not easily convinced until Travis talks her into it and promises that her son will be fine. But Travis is late picking the boys up from school the next day and arrives late to find only Peter waiting. Peter tells him that R.J. had been picked up by his father, so Travis thinks nothing of it. Cody heads to the Landon home after she is not able to reach anyone and gets the biggest shock of her life in finding her son gone.
Cody prepares to leave the home in search of her son. The next morning, Peter and Travis received an e-mail and a picture of R.J.
Was Peter the target and the pick up of R.J. a mistake due to their similar looks? Or is something deeper going on? Will Cody confess to Travis?
Cold Silence is actually a true mystery because there is no romance involved as with some other stories I have read lately. I like this element of Girard's stories because it's just seems distracting to add the romance element to a mystery. Danielle Girard is able to spin a tale that is easily told, but adds her own mystery. It’s not a story that hasn’t been told before but Girard writes so well that it seems brand new. The main character, Megan, is a strong and courageous woman. She lost her husband and had never gotten the time to grieve because she then had to focus on keeping her son safe, not having anyone to rely on to help her. You can feel the true mother instinct that Megan automatically feels over her FBI agent training.
The only issue with this story is that there is a lot going on. There are also several sub plots that weave themselves around the main story. It’s not such a bad thing but it can be distracting and it isn’t really necessary here. It just makes for a less direct resolution to an ending that could have been more interesting and thrilling, if their wasn’t so much concentration on tying together all the subplots for completion. I can't really say that I was that surprised by the ending of the story because I was able to figure out what was going to happen, unlike when I read Chasing Darkness.
Cold Silence is a pretty small book at only 372 pages so it makes for a quick read. If you're a fan of Girard's then by all means, read this once but be aware that it's been done before and is nothing new.
ISBN: 0-451-41059-9
Pages: 372
Format: Paperback
Price: 6.99 US/9.99 CAN
~ Happy reading!
Kim
* Take a look at the other write-off contributions http://www.epinions.com/content_5246066820/s_~na
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kld718
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Location: Central Florida
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