Silent Scream
3.5 Stars

Two years ago, detective Olivia Sutherland and firefighter David Hunter shared an ignominious night together. Now Olivia and David must work together to solve a series of arson attacks that may or may not be connected to an extremist environmental group. Can the two resolve their personal issues to catch a malicious murderer?

Olivia and David have strong chemistry, but the lack of communication concerning their one night stand makes them seem childish and immature. This improves once they get over themselves long enough to have a conversation and the romance is satisfying overall.

The investigation into the fires is compelling and there are some intense situations for the characters. Unfortunately, the identity of the culprit/s is revealed early on and all that remains is determining the motivation. The eventual explanation comes somewhat out of the blue as there are few clues along the way and it all seems a little too contrived.

Nevertheless, Silent Scream is a fast paced and entertaining read with some bittersweet moments. The next book changes location and characters, so it will be interesting to see how it links into the ongoing series. ( )

Strong story line with meaty characters, environmental ecoterrorism goes awry amid a backdrop of revenge and family loss. Makes one think about the value of keeping personal information private and avoiding free-wifi. Innocuous coffee shop becomes the scene for hacking and blackmailing. ( )

This romantic suspense was just so-so. The suspense was okay but the romance dragged; over two years before discussing what happened one night. Hero wallowed in his guilt over past events not revealed until near the end. I skipped lots. Detective Olivia is assigned murder case in a fire that fire fighter David worked.
( )

Some authors you click with, some you don't.
I didn't with Karen....straight away I realised this book had lost me.
I don't like her breezy style, use of jargon though hthe premise sounded promising.
EDIT ..Wow what a difference a ?few years makes. Must have hung on to the copy as I've just read it in a few days.
This time round it took a few pages to get into it ( again ) but I was intrigued. Romantic mystery / crime like other reviewers isn't normally my thing and I probs wouldn't have picked it initially had I realised. But yes ..she knows her stuff. Kept me guessing and when we first are allowed a clue that buh bye made me freeze. A bit hard to keep track of the characters as I hadn't read the prequel . Her books are grouped according to the city in which she's based them and this is Minneapolis set . Says on her website she'd planned for 3 but swapped publisher so it didn't happen . So Olivia and David's story ends there.
2 character losses that were sad. Loved David's mum . Hope she and Glenn would have gotten together had there been a number 3.
Interest piqued enough to tweet Karen and ask her which city I should go to next ..

Read the first few pages but it was a non starter. ( )

Ein netter, kleiner, kurzer Kriminalfall für zwischendurch. Nur schade, dass "gut" und "böse" viel zu klar und zu eindimensional beschrieben sind. Große Überraschungen bleiben komplett aus und die Lebensmodelle aller Akteure scheinen schon ein wenig weit an den Haaren herbei gezogen. Aber - es ist kurzweilig zu lesen und solide ge- und beschrieben.

Man möchte meinen, der Stoff würde gut in einen traditionellen Sonntagabendtatort passen.

Wenn schon einen eindimensionalen Charakter zu Weihnachten, dann sollte es nach meinem Geschmack doch mehr ein John McClane sein ;) ... ( )