The Price Of Silence

This was an excellent mystery with two very strong (emotionally at least) female characters. Todd is the new editor at a small town newspaper in eastern (I think it was Oregon but could be Washington - only mentioned once and I'm not familiar enough with the cities to be absolutely sure). She is working with the matriarch publisher, Ruth Ann and learning to live in small town America. There are other wonderful characters introduced including Todd's husband, Barney, the local doctor, Sam, the publishers son, Johnny and a cast of much smaller parts, all of which enrich the story.

Two things are happening at once, a local girl, a young teen disappears and Ruth Ann has decided to dig into the somewhat murky history of this small town. When show more the two issues collide the town will never be the same.

I didn't see the ending coming at all - and love it when that happens. What fun to try and track the bad guy and still have no idea until the author decides to let you in on the secret! show less

"The Price of Silence" is the first book by Kate Wilhelm that I've read. Not a bad book, but not very good either. At 432 pages, the book is in dire need of editing. The narrative is pedestrian and flat at best. As many books as Wilhelm has written, I was surprised at the amount of 'telling' versus 'showing.'
The main character, Todd Fielding, gets caught up too much of the time in preachy, know-it-all dialogue, and many other characters are one-dimensional and uninteresting, simply floating in and out of occasional scenes, while Todd works up another head of steam.
One character I did like a lot was Todd's employer, 81-year-old newspaper publisher, Ruth Ann Colonna, as well as her live-in helpers, Maria and Thomas Bird. My interest in show more them is the main reason I kept on reading.
I wanted to like this book, and I was interested enough in the storyline to read to the end, but I wondered at times if I'd ever get there. Not recommended. show less

A nice "comfortable" mystery novel---just moves along well with the story and the characters. The audio version was perfect while you're busy doing something that doesn't require much thinking.

I listened to this as an audio book, and I have an unfortunate reaction to the reader's voice. she has a strident, forceful voice that is somewhat monotone and lacks both tonality and any subtlety. This is the same person who voices the Patricia Cornwall books, and her voice is too close to nails on a chalkboard to be able to become involved in the story.

A very enjoyable mystery novel. This will be going to Meshe who picked it out of the Mystery VBB at BookObsessed.