Where Can You Run When Faced with ‘Shattered Silence’? [REVIEW]

While someone is hunting her ex-husband, a young divorcee must seek refuge in Amish country in Marta Perry’s Shattered Silence. (Photo by Anthony Citrano, Flickr).

A kindergarten teacher about to lose her home. An ex-husband who can’t be trusted. A private investigator determined to get to the truth. Three lives collide and send a young woman fleeing to the Pennsylvania Dutch community she found solace in as a child. But will they be able to protect her from what is relentlessly pursuing her? Find out in Marta Perry’s Shattered Silence. 

HQN

Rachel Hartline is moving on with her life. A year after she and her ex-husband Paul split, she is valiantly making difficult choices, trying hard to put her disappointment in her failed marriage behind her. On the night she is supposed to meet with him to get his signature on papers that allow her to put the house they shared up for sale, she catches him committing a crime that puts both their lives in danger.

After finding her home ransacked, she must leave behind her dream job as a kindergarten teacher, friends she loves, and even her home, and flee to the one place she always felt safe: an Amish farm and the family who always nurtured her when she needed it most.

But there are some men a person can’t outrun, such as cop-turned-private investigator Clint Mordan. Despite his empathy for Rachel’s predicament, he doesn’t believe the story she’s selling. He is confident that she knows more about her ex-husband’s activities and whereabouts than she is letting on, and he doggedly follows her to get at the truth. Despite himself, however, he starts to wonder if her fear is genuine, and he is compelled to keep her safe at all costs. Will they begin to trust one another before it is too late? Or will a killer track Rachel down no matter where she hides?

Shattered Silence may be another woman-in-peril novel, but it is so much more than that. It is a story that draws us in from page one, and we can’t help but feel pity for Rachel’s plight. Like so many women, she fell in love with the wrong man, one she thought she knew, only to find out that he harbors more secrets than she can ever imagine. Then suddenly she is left picking up the pieces of her once well-ordered life. It is an ordeal countless women have lived through, and yet it is made particularly prescient in this novel because Rachel has hidden reserves of strength that even she didn’t realize she possesses, and that makes readers like me want to champion her all the more. Thus this becomes a story of faith, resilience, and most of all, hope.

In addition to deft characterization, Perry is also gifted at taking this angst-riddled story and making it even darker. She weaves suspense like Rumpelstiltskin spins straw into gold. Each page drips with menace, even in an idyllic setting like Amish country, where everything appears to be perfect, beautiful, and serene. Danger is never far down the garden path, and we as readers quickly realize that we’re in the hands of a master, helpless to keep reading, praying that Rachel will once more be able to put her life back on track, even though it is rather evident that nothing will ever be as it once was.

If you loved Harrison Ford’s film Witness, or enjoy getting lost in the pages of Linda Castillo and Cindy Woodsmall’s Amish books, Shattered Silence is the perfect read to keep you turning pages late into the night. This is a story which strikes fear into our hearts even as it enlightens us about a culture we likely know little about and makes us yearn for simpler times, the warmth that only family can offer, and the delicious food spread out on an Amish table.

Marta Perry

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marta Perry is the author of Vanish in Plain Sight, Where Secrets Sleep, and numerous other suspense novels set in Amish Country. A lifetime spent in rural Pennsylvania and her own Pennsylvania Dutch roots help bring these stories to vivid life.

Writing is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for Marta. From the time she read her first Nancy Drew novel when she was eight years old, she always knew she wanted to be a writer, and now she’s delighted to bring her stories to her faithful readers.

When she’s not putting pen to paper, Marta is active in her church, enjoys traveling and spending time with her three children and six beautiful grandchildren.

Visit Marta at her home on the Web at MartaPerry.com and like her on Facebook.

SHATTERED SILENCE
By Marta Perry
384 pgs. HQN. $7.99

Purchase Shattered Silence at one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound, and Powell’s.

Shattered Silence is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.