The Silent Girls

By: Eric Rickstad

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

Frank Rath thought he was done with murder when he turned in his detective's badge to become a private investigator and raise a daughter alone. Then the police in his remote rural community of Canaan find an '89 Monte Carlo abandoned by the side of the road, and the beautiful teenage girl who owned the car seems to have disappeared without a trace. Soon Rath's investigation brings him face to face with the darkest abominations of the human soul.

With the consequences of his violent and painful past plaguing him and young women with secrets vanishing one by one, he discovers once again that even in the smallest towns on the map, evil lurks everywhere - and no one is safe.

©2014 Eric Rickstad (P)2015 Tantor

Critic Reviews

" The Silent Girls is Vermont's own True Detective." (Steve Ulfelder, author of Wolverine Bros. Freight & Storage)

Warning: This is ONLY Chapter One

I should have been told that this is single part of a story. I HATE THAT. Don't leave a song or a novel unresolved. If I need to buy a series of books to satisfy the questions that arise in the earlier ones... Let me decide from the beginning if I want to invest that sort of time.

Frankly, after reading "The Silent Girls" - I don't.

This is not a novel, it is part of one. Fuhgedaboud it.

Struggle

I found it to be a struggle to finish this book. The voices of the two male characters were not different enough as well as the story line was not the greatest.

Too much contempt, not enough story

What disappointed you about The Silent Girls?

This author seems to have contempt for a lot of things: rich people, poor people, ugly people, fat people, teenage girls who have sex, men who have sex without an intention to commit, people who eat fatty foods, conservatives, and Christians -- not to mention housecats, which he really despises.

I think the author was trying to establish a "gritty" feel to the narrative by describing so many people (and cats!) with disgust, but it was wearying. (If you want to read this technique done right, read George R.R. Martin, who uses it more sparingly and with humor.)

The characters who were not evil were childishly volatile and a little slow on the uptake. Detective stories either need to wow the reader with the cleverness of the detective, or fascinate the reader with compelling characters. The main character here was a bit dense and not sympathetic, so it was hard to stick it out to the end.

Has The Silent Girls turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, there are plenty of better detective novels.

Would you listen to another book narrated by R. C. Bray?

Maybe. The narration was well done. But perhaps the contempt element of the story was overdone in the narration.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Silent Girls?

What was the point of including the parts about the backaches? And the ending was ridiculous! (spoiler:) A drifter turns into a clever criminal...how?

Any additional comments?

There is a scene where the main character sits in a Stickley chair in the office of a (ready, set, sneer!) rich person, and his back pain goes away.

Damn that 1%! They get to sit in comfortable chairs! The hero deserves a comfortable chair! Even though he ignores all his doctor's advice about his back! Because he's the hero! And he's not a rich person!

Good grief. A little homework would have helped here, aside from toning down the ham handed class struggle. Because Stickley chairs are not very comfortable.

Very good

Interesting story, like the main character, enough twists and turns to keep me interested, good narration, cliffhanger of an ending! Book 2 please!!

Really, really good

This is on my top-ten best listens easily. The narration was excellent, and the story really grabbed me and kept my interest the whole way through. I liked Rath, the main character, and the psychology of his past vs present was interesting to me. Highly recommend.

Low key narration great story

If you could sum up The Silent Girls in three words, what would they be?

Great narration~winding story~satisfying ending

Who was your favorite character and why?

I loved the main character! He is very "Boschesk"

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. As I listened hope there will be another with this story line.

Any additional comments?

Give this story more than one listen. It will start to grab you by the third chapter.

Wow

Thrilling and creepy. The ending ... I want more!!! Hope these characters become a regular series.

Like the characters

I liked the characters that made up this story. The narrator did a good job of bringing them to life. A girl is missing, a retired cop is asked to help find her. Meanwhile, other missing and murdered girls seem to fit in with this equation of his missing girl. Rath's own teenage daughter isn't answering her phone sending up another alarm. It's one puzzle piece at a time, that eventually fit together for a real edge of seat thriller. However, the ending was another story (namely a cliffhanger, Ugh!) "Lie in Wait" isn't the sequel, but the author commented in Goodreads that he is working on the sequel. So, you may want to wait on it before listening to this one, cause it's quite a big cliff.

Bleak no story arc

The protagonist, who carries the story, is a sorry lad who hurts in all possible dimensions, and his bleak life grinds on until it gets worse. He has (and we spend most of the book with him) absolutely no sense of humor. The story makes little sense, nothing is resolved, and it ends just on the point of dramatic climax, a kind of author's cowardice, showing the author's unwillingness to describe the final dramatic scenes.

Great book!

I found this book quite by accident and I am very glad I did! Loved everything about it - the narrative, the pace, the twists and turns. I will be on the lookout for this author's next book!