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Silent Stranger
Michelle Bowman leads a contented life, teaching in a one-room school on her parents’ remote Wyoming ranch. But her world turns upside-down when she discovers a “wild man” in the mountains. Starving, filthy, and unable to communicate, he fears everyone. She manages to gain his trust, but as she washes away the filth, she is shocked to discover horrifying scars. It appears that he has been the victim of long-running torture. Michelle is overwhelmed with questions. Who is this silent stranger? Where did he come from? Who would abuse him like this and was it someone in her small, closed community? And so begins a long journey for both of them. Michelle sets out to nurse him back to health and teach him to rejoin humanity. She calls him Phillip, because he has a way with horses and it means “lover of horses.” The lives of Michelle and her family will be changed forever as she unravels the mysteries surrounding the silent stranger.
250 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 10, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 24, 2022
Silent Stranger by Paula F Winskye.
For me after I finished reading this book in June 2022, I am still bewildered by the plot and the tone of the book considering the topics that were mentioned in this book. This book was first published in 2009 according to Goodreads and it seems to be set in that timeframe. A strange tale, and if you can put your mind in neutral, overlook peculiarities in the plot and just go with the flow of the story, this is a good read.
Spoilers ahead:
The main character Michelle is a woman in her early twenties who was (sexually) assaulted (but not raped) a few years ago when she was 19. She was on a date and her date expected her to put out after paying for the meal.
As a result of that experience, Michelle has difficulty getting close to men who are not family, lives in a small house on her parents' ranch with her other siblings who all have their own houses on the property and is homeschooling her nieces and nephews. Along comes the stranger in the title of the book wandering onto their property, who as a result of being kidnapped, tortured and starved has lost his ability to speak, is unable to communicate, has to relearn the most basic of tasks of how to function and at times reacts like a frightened, feral child. Michelle assists him to relearn how to be a decent human being.
Then comes the part where the stranger is reunited with his wealthy family, we find out his name is Randy Mckay, he is in his late twenties and he is an arson investigator. After weeks of caring for him at her parents' ranch, Michelle accepts the paid job of carer, goes with his family to their ranch to live for a year to help him with his recovery.
His mother is obsessed with getting a male grandchild from her only son, to carry on the family name and to eventually take over the family businesses (regardless of the grandchildren she already has from his 2 older sisters) and a truly bizarre scheme is set in place, that would not be out of place in a historical romance novel, but seems strange in this setting in 2009.
At this stage of his recovery, he is like an innocent teenager in a man's body and behaves as such, with Michelle being the responsible adult with romantic feelings for the man he is re-discovering himself to be, one tiny step at a time.
This part of the book, in my opinion, was cringe worthy, unnecessary and crossing the line in so many ways. In the mental state he was in, he was in no condition to give consent and be aware of the consequences. At this part of the story, this was not a relationship between 2 equals. Reading this in June 2022, it was very uncomfortable.
I found it ironic that Michelle was claiming the high moral ground earlier in the story by exposing the gold digger ex-fiancé for wanting to pursue their previous relationship.
There is a happy ending with the birth of a son, a marriage and the silent stranger recovering all his mental faculties, remembering the chain of events that led up to his kidnapping, puzzling out who wanted to do him harm and finding his voice.
I found out after I finished this book that this is book 1 in the Randy Mckay Mysteries series and one of the first books by this author that was published.
For me after I finished reading this book in June 2022, I am still bewildered by the plot and the tone of the book considering the topics that were mentioned in this book. This book was first published in 2009 according to Goodreads and it seems to be set in that timeframe. A strange tale, and if you can put your mind in neutral, overlook peculiarities in the plot and just go with the flow of the story, this is a good read.
Spoilers ahead:
The main character Michelle is a woman in her early twenties who was (sexually) assaulted (but not raped) a few years ago when she was 19. She was on a date and her date expected her to put out after paying for the meal.
As a result of that experience, Michelle has difficulty getting close to men who are not family, lives in a small house on her parents' ranch with her other siblings who all have their own houses on the property and is homeschooling her nieces and nephews. Along comes the stranger in the title of the book wandering onto their property, who as a result of being kidnapped, tortured and starved has lost his ability to speak, is unable to communicate, has to relearn the most basic of tasks of how to function and at times reacts like a frightened, feral child. Michelle assists him to relearn how to be a decent human being.
Then comes the part where the stranger is reunited with his wealthy family, we find out his name is Randy Mckay, he is in his late twenties and he is an arson investigator. After weeks of caring for him at her parents' ranch, Michelle accepts the paid job of carer, goes with his family to their ranch to live for a year to help him with his recovery.
His mother is obsessed with getting a male grandchild from her only son, to carry on the family name and to eventually take over the family businesses (regardless of the grandchildren she already has from his 2 older sisters) and a truly bizarre scheme is set in place, that would not be out of place in a historical romance novel, but seems strange in this setting in 2009.
At this stage of his recovery, he is like an innocent teenager in a man's body and behaves as such, with Michelle being the responsible adult with romantic feelings for the man he is re-discovering himself to be, one tiny step at a time.
This part of the book, in my opinion, was cringe worthy, unnecessary and crossing the line in so many ways. In the mental state he was in, he was in no condition to give consent and be aware of the consequences. At this part of the story, this was not a relationship between 2 equals. Reading this in June 2022, it was very uncomfortable.
I found it ironic that Michelle was claiming the high moral ground earlier in the story by exposing the gold digger ex-fiancé for wanting to pursue their previous relationship.
There is a happy ending with the birth of a son, a marriage and the silent stranger recovering all his mental faculties, remembering the chain of events that led up to his kidnapping, puzzling out who wanted to do him harm and finding his voice.
I found out after I finished this book that this is book 1 in the Randy Mckay Mysteries series and one of the first books by this author that was published.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2023
This is a unique story that I couldn't put down. I found the premise fascinating.
Read
January 3, 2011I got a signed copy of this book for Christmas, since it's written by a North Dakotan. It was not at all what it purported to be on the back... much more of a romance type of book. We'll leave it at that. :-)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews