DEADLY SILENT is the Fourth book in a new crime thriller series by best-selling author Ann Girdharry. Having read and loved the previous novels in the series, I was anxious to continue with the series. While this novel can be read as a standalone, I would recommend starting with book one for clarity and content. The series features Detective David Grant and a top criminal profiler, Ruby Silver. This police procedural is enhanced by providing the reader with greater insight into the mind and motive of a killer. This fascinates me, and I feel that this novel will be well received and appeal to a wide audience range.
Novels in the Detective Grant and Ruby Series Include:
1. Killer Motive (2019)
aka Deadly Motives (Read)
2. Deadly Secrets (2020) (Read)
3. Deadly Lies (2021) (Read)
4. Deadly Silent (2023) (Read)
This is my review of Deadly Silent.
In this novel DCI David Grant and his criminal profiler Ruby Silver, investigate when the body of a disturbed young woman, Phoebe Markham, is found after jumping from the ledge of an upper window of a Psychiatric Hospital. She had problems but was this a suicide or a murder to look like a suicide? There was no forensics evidence for a perpetrator. A killer in hiding!
It seems a clear-cut case of suicide but things are never what they seem. Lots of secrets.
As the team dig deeper, they uncover a dark web of silence and plenty of secrets around the death and the hospital.
Emma had met her best friend, Phoebe at the Psychiatric Hospital, while they were both in for treatment. Emma had lost her whole family as a child, they were murdered in their house, while she had been upstairs. She now suffered from post-traumatic stress since their death, but now was getting treatment as an out-patient. Phoebe had been sexually assaulted as a teenager, and when she heard that her perpetrator was being released early from prison, she panicked and had a relapse in public and was back in the hospital.
Emma was the last person who spoke to Phoebe at night, and told her she would be there in the morning to comfort her.
Time is running out and DCI David Grant and his team (DS Diane Collins, DS Tom Delaney) along with top criminal psychologist Ruby Silver race against time to find the killer.
I kept flip-flopping throughout the whole book, trying to figure out who the killer was, and I was in the dark right up until the final reveal. I like how this novel kept me guessing until the very end.
This is a fast-paced plot with lots of twists and turns. The characters are relatable and believable, and DCI Grant interaction with his team is totally engaging with the characters coming alive on the page.
The story was really enjoyable and well written. Highly recommended! Many thanks to the author for my digital copy.