Silent Words

Tyler Jones #2

by Joan M. Drury

After her dying mother suggests that she rattle the family skeletons, Tyler Jones, a feminist lesbian writer, returns to the Minnesota shore of Lake Superior, where she discovers unknown and missing relatives, a family history of rape, illegitimacy, and imprisonment, and someone who will kill to keep the closet doors closed

Genres: Mystery

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Joan M. Drury is an American writer and former publisher of the lesbian feminist press Spinsters Ink. She has served as an editorial reader and advisor for the lesbian literary magazine Sinister Wisdom. Drury lives in Grand Marais, MN, where she is the owner of the independent bookstore Drury Lane Books.

Reviews

[Yj · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did I not discover this amazing author earlier?!?

I stumbled across Silent Words - which turned out to be the second in a trilogy of mysteries headlined by Tyler, a feminist, lesbian author.
Happily the plot was completely understandable even though I haven’t read the first book and I am now awaiting the arrival of first book and third which I ordered the same day I started reading this one because I knew I would want more.

Silent Words is fairly laid back for a mystery. I suppose it would probably be classed as a “cozy mystery”.

After the death of Tyler’s mother, Tyler heads back to Minnesota settle matters for her mother’s estate and to follow her moms instructions to “ shake the family skeletons”.

Great cast of characters. Beautiful prose. Fantastic descriptions of Lake Superior and the surrounding area.

[Linda Spyhalski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well written mystery but what most impressed me was the wonderful discriptions especially of the lakeshore and lake. I could just see the beautiful Up north of Minnesota even though I haven't seen it for years. I could just picture sitting and looking out to enjoy the beautiful water and endless sky. It was so awesome to hear the folks who friended Tyler even though some of them knew about her being a lesbian. This was small town USA. The mystery and interactions with her family and neighbors made the story good enough that it was hard to put down.

[G Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been missing Joan Drury, wishing she could see the bookstore thriving now, and the publishing landscape expanding to include more diverse voices...
So I picked up her North Shore mystery, and it was like listening to her sit in the bookstore rocking chair to rant and rave and give her wise opinions on everything.
This is a fun book if you love the North Shore, she captures it well. The mystery is secondary to the woman's journey, which is fine with me. A fun plot and satisfying murder. Being a lesbian is a central theme, it shows how far we've come since 1998!

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book came recommended and since it is set on the North Shore of Lake Superior in MN, I was interested. It's a favorite area to visit. The book starts out as a mystery in the sense that the main character is looking to uncover buried secrets in her family's past. That was interesting enough but later it turned into a murder mystery tied to those family secrets. A good read, especially if you are familiar with highway 61 in MN.

[Betharie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summer read, takes place on North Shore. Coming to terms with your past and finding home.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Tyler Jones, a lesbian writer, digs into her family's Minnesota roots and discovers missing relatives, rape, and someone who will kill.

[Paulette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy summer read. Set on Minnesota's North Shore.

[Megan]

A couple of years have passed since Tyler’s first adventure. She has turned 39 and her dog Aggie has turned from a border collie into a golden retriever. Tyler is still writing a syndicated column for her newspaper and still owns her house in California. She has finished her book about violence against women and become fairly well known in feminist circles. As the story opens, she has just suffered the loss of her mother, and is deeply affected by it. When she finds out that she has been willed the family property in upstate Minnesota—property that her mother has told her contains hidden family secrets—Tyler decides to take leave from her job and drive to Minnesota to check things out.

Like the first book in this series, this book is feminist in nature. But it is not a clichéd feminism, like we find in, say, Valerie Miner’s Murder in the English Department, but a well-thought-out agenda. Tyler, although she has no qualms about instructing people about politically incorrect language (“I’m not a lady.”), seems to come out of her shell a little in Minnesota. She is much more convivial, more gregarious than the virtual hermit she was in California. Ad she cries a lot over one thing or another, which is kind of unexpected in “a majestic Amazon” so outwardly strong and mentally capable.

Freed from the task of volunteering at a women’s crisis center, she is able to actually enjoy the beauty in nature as well as the joy and hard work or restoring her grandmother’s house as she asks questions of the locals about her family’s history. She is befriended and helped by the owner of the local grocery, and her cousin—once a snooty belle—who has become a feminist organizer and mother or foster mother to mixed-race children. Tyler—who broke up with her last lover ten years before—even gets a crush on her. But all is not as idyllic as it appears. When her handyman is found dead in her back yard, Tyler realizes that some of the questions she has been asking have hit someone too close to home and she begins to fear for her own life.

And like the first book also, this one is intricately plotted. Just when you think that things are getting resolved, another major event takes place. Think of Drury’s style as a cross between a feminist Agatha Christie and Mary Stewart (think The Moon-Spinners) with lots of interesting characters and plot twists. But Silent Words is not just a thriller, it is a very well-reasoned-out family novel that squashes the idea that the reputation of a man takes precedence over the life of a woman. And hey, this novel has—not by accident—one of the best feminist endings ever. Even better than the first novel in this series. Another well-earned 4 stars; maybe even a 4.2.

I’m hoping that in the third and last book in the series, which I have put on my To Buy list, Tyler finally gets a girlfriend.

Note: I read the first Spinster’s Ink printing of this book.

Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to The Other Side of Silence finds protagonist Tyler Jones in her maternal hometown in Minnesota. Urged by her dying mother to "shake the skeletons in the closet," Tyler heads to the family home she's inherited on the shores of Lake Superior. Though far from her native San Francisco, Tyler quickly forms a bond with the rural community she finds. (Best moment—when she finally meets Hank and Ellie, an older pair of sisters everyone's been telling her she'll love, and realizes that they're both lesbians: "My god, I thought, have I got a couple of old-time dykes living right next door to me?") Surrounded by newfound friends, Tyler begins to unravel her family's mystery, a historical drama reaching into the present. As with the previous novel, the book doesn't run under the tagline "Feminist Mysteries" because its protagonist is a woman; Drury makes clear the plot's relationship to misogyny and male power. Given that context, I'm not sure why Tyler makes the occasional odd reference to her dog and herself as a "slut" for being friendly / speaking multiple dialects. Kind of jarring moments, tbh. A satisfying read overall, and I'm curious what the final installment in the trilogy has to offer.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the author's store - Drury Lane in Grand Marias, MN - and I have never read a "lesbian mystery". I quite enjoyed it. It has an entertaining disconnect between the mystery genre and it's cast of laconic MN north shore denizens.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 2 out of 5]

A feminist-lesbian mystery dealing with family secrets and men's control of wimmin. Worth reading, but, really, pretty slack in the suspense department.

[Rhonda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the setting of the story, Lake Superior's North Shore

[Leora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pedestrian writing, and certainly not the greatest mystery, but if you want to read a book with a lesbian heroine, with unusual feminists, and a highly unlikely murderer, this is the book for you.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are every in Grand Marais, MN visit Joan's bookstore on the East Bay of Lake Superior.