Author: Frederick Weisel
Series: Violent Crime Investigations Team #1
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press on Feb. 2, 2021
Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural
Pages: 400
Format: Paperback
Source: Poisoned Pen Press
Book Rating: 7.5/10
Who will speak for those who no longer can?
When a young woman is found strangled to death and left on a park bench in Santa Rosa, California, Detective Eddie Mahler and his Violent Crime Investigations (VCI) Team are called to the scene. The crime immediately thrusts Mahler back to two unsolved homicides–young women who were also strangled–at this same location a couple of years earlier. His inability to find evidence against the man he knows was responsible for their deaths has haunted him since.
Now suffering from chronic migraines that affect his vision, Mahler has secretly lost faith in the investigation process, and must rely more than ever on his team. Its newest member, Eden Somers, is a former FBI analyst whose ability to completely immerse herself in the evidence of a case proves both a gift and a curse. While Eden dives deep into the cold case evidence, the rest of the team chase leads to identify the latest victim, and discover that her death might be the work of a different killer altogether. Now Mahler and his team are fighting on two fronts to discover who stole the very breath from these women, and to stop the killer before he silences another victim.
Review:
Gritty, sinister, and meticulous!
The Silenced Women is a complex, ominous police procedural that takes us to Santa Rosa, California, where Detective Eddie Mahler and the VCI team find themselves immersed in the investigation of a potential serial killer when a new case involving a murdered young woman left dumped in a park holds an eerie similarity to two unsolved cold cases.
The writing is sharp and intense. The characters are ruthless, flawed, and troubled. And the plot unfolds and unravels quickly into a suspenseful tale full of twists, turns, manipulation, deception, desperation, police politics, arrogance, violence, murder, and a sliver of the supernatural.
Overall, The Silenced Women is a complex, tense, solid first novel in this VCI Team series by Weisel with its intriguing characters, nice sense of urgency, and satisfying conclusion.
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Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.