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.

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.

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!!

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.

A constant barrage of liberal ideology

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not really. Okay but not great.

What does R. C. Bray bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His narration was great as with all the other books I have listened to by him.

Did The Silent Girls inspire you to do anything?

Never listen to another book by this author.

Any additional comments?

All the political comments did not fit the main character and they just kept coming.

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!

Not a 5 star

It was good and kept me listening. Seemed to skip around a bit and had to rewind to be sure I didn't miss a spot . Good twists in plot. 4 stars but not 5

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.

Unrealistic murder mystery!

There are crazy people on both sides of the abortion debate. The Silent Girls attempts to politicize the issue even further by claiming that there are people out there who murder girls as punishment for seeking to get an abortion. Although some abortion providers have been murdered, there is no history of girls/women seeking to get abortion being murdered for that reason. This book is unrealistic, overtly political on one of the most divisive issues in our society, and it risks giving ideas to some mentally unbalanced people. I deserves NO stars.