The Silent Witness
Detective Amanda Steele #3
by Carolyn Arnold
Published: September 24, 2021
Publisher: Bookouture
Genre: Hard-Boiled, Mystery, Crime Thrillers, Police Procedural, Organized Crime Thrillers, Serial Killer Thrillers, Murder Thrillers
Blurb:
It’s 4 a.m. when her mom shakes her awake. “Get up baby, we’re going to play hide and seek.” The little girl presses back into the dark space, holding her breath as she hears the shots ring out. She knows she’s next…
When the bodies of a local family are discovered on a quiet street in the small town of Dumfries, Virginia, Detective Amanda Steele takes charge of the case. Brett and Angela Parker were shot three times each, leaving no hope of survival, and their tidy suburban home has been ransacked. But there is no sign of their beloved six-year-old, Zoe.
Zoe is the same age as Amanda’s daughter was when she died, and Amanda can’t bear the thought of another little girl in danger. She’s organizing a search for the child, when she notices something strange about the ottoman at the foot of the Parkers’ bed. She opens it to find Zoe, mute and traumatized, but alive.
With Zoe completely uncommunicative, Amanda must find another way to untangle what destroyed this seemingly perfect family. It’s clear that the killer is searching for something the Parkers had, and until she has this monster behind bars, Amanda fears that he may return for Zoe. When she learns that Brett Parker cut short the family’s recent lakeside vacation, she wonders why. What happened at that lake house, and did it ultimately get them killed?
Amanda heads out to Lake Chesdin on the feeling it might be key to the case, and when she finds a cell phone in the murky waters next to the Parker cabin, she knows she’s made a breakthrough. But then terrible news reaches her from Dumfries; Zoe has been taken from her school playground.
Someone wants to silence the Parker family for good, can Amanda catch them before the little girl she’s desperate to protect pays the price?
A completely gripping and addictive crime thriller that will keep fans of Rachel Caine, Lisa Regan and Robert Dugoni entertained into the early hours.
My Review:
Six-year-old Zoe is awakened by her mom in the early hours of the morning to tell her that they were going to play a game. Her mom tells her to hide in the bench at the foot of their bed. I can see it all in my head and imagine Zoe’s mother telling her to hide in there and not to come out until she tells her to. Someone has broken into their home. Zoe has to lay in that box as her mom and dad are murdered. Zoe watches as the killer shoots her dad.
Detective Amanda Steele is put in charge of the double homicide. I could see Amanda walking around the house looking for clues that could tell her what happened. Clues that could hopefully lead her to the murderer. Clues that could hopefully lead her to why someone would want to kill this husband and wife, this mother and father.
The murder victim’s six-year-old daughter Zoe is missing from the home. Where is she? Did she have a sleepover with a friend? Did the killer take her? I could just see Amanda standing in the doorway of the bedroom where the couple was found letting the room tell her its secrets, secrets that will hopefully give her a clue as to where the missing girl may be or at least a lead to her whereabouts. Zoe is Amanda’s key, silent witness to the case. Can Zoe help Amanda put the pieces together so they can find the person who killed her mom and dad?
I can just see Amanda standing there with her head cocked to one side. I know the moment she believes she just may have found the little girl. I can just see her racing over to the bench opening it and low and behold there she is right where her mother left her.
Zoe is scared and in shock at what she has witnessed. She is so traumatized that she isn’t saying a word. I would imagine at this point she doesn’t know who to trust. At this moment she is just trying to process what she saw and heard in her own little way. I was in tears at witnessing this scene, the moment when Amanda opened that bench and there was Zoe. Poor, poor child.
I have read the first two books in the Detective Amanda Steele series and loved them both tremendously but I do believe that I liked The Silent Witness way better. The Silent Witness had my attention from the first page and once I read that first page I was hooked. I was pulled in with all the mystery and suspense that just kept rolling out page after page. There were so many twists I didn’t know which end was up. I was pulled in deeper and deeper with each one of those twists. Twists that I never expected for one minute.
I can’t seem to get enough of the Detective Amanda Steele series and can’t wait for the next book in the series to make its appearance. The Silent Witness is going to haunt me for a long time to come. I would very much like to see the Detective Amanda Steele series on the big screen.
I would highly recommend The Silent Witness to all crime thriller fans! One-click your copy of The Silent Witness today for another epic edition of the Detective Amanda Steele stories!
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