The Silent Dolls

Detective Ellie Reeves, Book 1

By: Rita Herron

Narrated by: Tanya Eby

Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Silent tears trickle down her cheeks as she curls inside the tiny cave-like space. She lies on her side, darkness all around her, rubbing her fingers over the little wooden doll he’d carved. He told her to be quiet, not to cry or scream. Not to be a baby. Her throat was raw, her eyes swollen shut. She wanted her mommy and daddy. She wanted to go home.

When Penny Matthews, a seven-year-old girl with blonde curls and a gap-toothed smile, goes missing in the Appalachian mountains, Detective Ellie Reeves is called straight to the scene. According to Penny’s parents, their daughter vanished after a picnic by the creek. All that’s left behind is a pink friendship bracelet etched with “Penny”.

Ellie knows all too well that the mountains’ endless miles of dark forest and winding rivers are the perfect place for a criminal to hide. Racing against the rapidly setting sun and a brutal winter storm on the horizon, she searches desperately for Penny.

Special Agent Derrick Fox is determined to join the hunt. His younger sister, Kim, disappeared in the same area 25 years ago - on the day he was meant to be watching her. He’s certain the cases are linked and that more than a dozen girls have vanished in the last decade. Ellie refuses to believe that their tight-knit mountain community could be home to a deadly criminal, but even she can’t deny the similarities in the cases. And when they discover the remains of a small body buried with a carved wooden doll, it’s clear they’re up against a deadly serial killer preying on innocent little girls.

As the temperature plunges, Penny’s life hangs in the balance. Most people who get lost in the woods never make it out alive. Can Ellie and Derrick defy the odds and find out the truth about all the stolen girls? Or will the mountain, and its twisted killer, claim another victim?

©2020 Rita Herron (P)2020 Bookouture

Great Thriller looking forward to next sequel.

Every chapter was exciting and kept me riveted to just keep on reading each chapter. The reader was excellant.

Terrible narrator

The narrator of this book sounds completely robotic! Can’t get past her voice to listen to the story!

So many twists and turns!

I liked that this book has so many twists and turns! As soon as you Think you have figured out who could possibly be the kidnapper/killer, you were proven to be wrong!!!!! I am definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series! If you are a huge fan of psychological suspense, mystery, and possibly unreliable narrator ‘s, this book is for you! That is all I will say Because I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone!

The ending was horrible

It took me awhile to get into this book because the narrater was really bad and the story itself started out slow. The main character sounded unintelligent and the narrater made her sound even more like this. The book got ok in the middle but then end should have been called “to be concluded” because it was almost like the author didn’t know how to finish it and really didn’t give the reader that satisfaction feeling of wanting more. It should have been in the free library.

Riveting!

This story was so good I really enjoyed the twists and turns and surprise ending I couldn’t guess. It took awhile to get over the computer sounding reader. They need a new story teller for the book then it would be perfect! Going to find other novels by this author.

Great book

I'm hoping that this writer keeps writing really good books This book was very good and had a lot of twists and turns wait To listen to the next one

It was fun but just ok

Too much in one story, making it unbelievable. Narrator was ok but the voice did not fit the character. Entertaining but there are better books.

Review

Word pronunciation is a bit hard to listen too.This book was great! I enjoyed it

Good story, poor performance

The performance bothered me. It didn't sound like they were talking, but rather read. Every a, and, and the was too pronounced. Also they spoke twice about a broken femur, then referred to it as the arm. Glaring error. The story was fine, but they never felt like real people.

You will never guess the ending:)

I 9/10 can figure out the ending of the book. I love a good mystery, suspense, & all around interesting story. This was it. I had no idea of the ending & im looking forward to the next book. Really glad I read this. Kept me entertained the whole time.