Silence on Cold River

by Casey Dunn

On a run through the woods outside her north Georgia hometown, defense attorney Ama Chaplin encounters a mysterious hiker and recognizes him, too late, as a sociopath she successfully defended when he was a teenager. In the intervening seventeen years, Ama changed her name and moved to Atlanta, anxious to put her past behind her. Michael Walton, her young client, grew into a ruthless and inventive murderer. And now that he’s caught her, he can put a twisted, years-in-the-making plot into motion.



Neither of them knows that someone else saw her go into the woods alone: Eddie Stevens, whose daughter Hazel vanished on the same spot a year ago. The police think she ran away. Eddie believes the truth is much worse. Grieving and desperate, he’d planned to kill himself to return attention to his daughter’s cold case, but he can’t shake the feeling that something happened to Ama, the runner he saw disappear into the trees. When she doesn’t come back out, he heads into the woods with a loaded gun to check on her.



Meanwhile, the local police department’s newest detective connects the dots between two cold cases and begins to suspect he’s dealing with a serial killer—but time is running out to save Ama, and he’ll need to make some unlikely allies to face down the dangers lurking in the woods.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2020

About the author

Casey Dunn was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Her grandfather, nicknamed Casey Jones at a young age by local law enforcement for his habit of hopping trains, would sit with her and spin tales of a girl who survived alone in open country. These stories would stay fresh in her mind long into adulthood. The need to spin tales of her own followed wherever she went.

Casey is the author of Silence on Cold River, which was compared to Silence of the Lambs by Booklist and picked as a book of the month for the Southern Book Review. She also wrote The Hightower Trilogy, published under pen name Jadie Jones (Parliament House Press.) The first book in the series won the Best Equine Fiction award at the 2018 Equus Film Festival in NYC and was a finalist for the 2015 Frank Yerby Fiction award.
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Casey is represented by James McGowan of BookEnds Literary Agency and is currently working on several southern-set suspense projects. She lives on a farm in Southern Oregon with her family and too many animals to count. To keep a promise to her young kids, she finally wrote a book she'll actually let them read: Golly Molly and The Perfect Pony List.

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is a good idea but it's told in 5 alternating perspectives which is really 3 too many...and that makes it a hard to fit the pieces together. It does have some things going in it's favor but also some in the negative. On the positive side...it’s fast-paced...it has decent twists and consistent tension...the characters all have big personalities and equally big flaws. The entire book can best be described as just "mindless" fun and we can all use a bit of that. On the negative side...many of the characters are just "out of character"..For example:... The killer was warped by his mother and he now feels "misunderstood"..and get this... he thinks that his “art” (AKA torture) will someday make him famous and prove his mom was wrong about how worthless he is. Then we have a drug addicted police officer who thinks no one notices that he's high. Then we have the defense attorney that is all guilt ridden because she has allowed guilty people to go free and just knows that she has locked innocent ones up. Lets have a drum roll for the stupidest one of all ..she confronts the killer all on her own hoping to get him to confess. It was beyond entertaining to actually watch these TSTL people fumble around. This would make a a fantastic television crime/comedy series.

[Renae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Told in 5 alternating perspectives, Silence on Cold River is an ambitious, tropey thriller that lacks complexity, particularly in characterization. Basically, it's not good. (Also, the author doesn't know squat about lawyers.)

That being said, I do think this book will cater to certain readers. It's fast-paced, with decent twists and consistent tension. The characters all have big personalities and familiar (dare I say cliche) flaws. Without at all poo-pooing potential readers: Silence on Cold River is mindless fun. And we all need some of that. I get mine from vaguely racist/misogynistic whitebread romance novels; others may get that fun from books about deranged serial killers with mommy issues. It takes all kinds.

Yet entertainment value aside...Silence on Cold River is pretty bad. Let's look at the "main" protagonists (as mentioned, there are 5 narrators in this book, which is about 3 too many.)

First, we have the killer: a delusional torturer whose issues all stem from years of systematic abuse at his mother's hands. Not only is this misogynistic, it's a tired trope, and Casey Dunn doesn't even attempt to make this aspect of the plot exciting or fresh. The killer was warped by mommy dearest, and he now feels misunderstood; he thinks that his "art" (AKA torture) will someday make him famous and prove his mom was wrong about how worthless he is.

How many times have we seen a character like this? Boring.

Then we have the killer's nemesis-slash-muse: an extremely famous defense attorney who is haunted by the fact that she regularly lets guilty people walk free. Firstly, what the fuck? If you go talk to an actual defense attorney, they'll tell you that they DO NOT CARE whether their client is guilty. It is literally IRRELEVANT to their practice of law. But, naturally, this character is very bothered by this. She's a closet alcoholic (of course). Also, she went into defense because her father was "falsely" sent to prison as a fall guy for a crime organization that trafficked drugs and little girls. Gonna bet he wasn't that innocent, but okay, sure. This character was annoying and unrealistic in the extreme

There are some other characters, the most important being a drug-addicted police officer who's divorced, bitter, and obsessed with a particular cold case. Definitely seen him before.

The "thrilling" plot of this book was more or less stupid. Entertaining, but stupid. The lawyer character decides to confront the serial killer on her own, in spite of the fact that she's injured and has no idea what she's doing. She didn't even bring a gun to this meet-up. It seems that her plan was to find the guy, convince him to take her back to his Murder Lair...and then what? Hope that the police (who she did not consult with prior to this feat of idiocy!!) would track her GPS device quicker than the villain could send her to the never-ending dirt nap?

Seriously???

Casey Dunn's writing itself is...okay. She relies a lot on overused cliches and metaphors, which tended to make the story feel very amateurish. (Think "airing dirty laundry," "bigger they are, the harder they fall," "skating on thin ice," etc.) Not great writing, but not horrific.

But to return back to lawyering. I practice criminal law. Casey Dunn clearly does not. Silence on Cold River relies a lot on common stereotypes surrounding the US criminal justice system in general and the personas of defense attorneys in particular. They're familiar portrayals, but they're not realistic.

Honestly, the book lost me the second Casey Dunn told her readers that an defense attorney's job was to "provide the most thorough defense money could buy so if the defendant was found guilty, there would be no room or cause for an appeal."

Um...???

That...that shows such a complete misunderstanding the purpose of criminal appeals, it caused me to question all of Dunn's credibility. A defense attorney's job is to provide the most thorough defense money can buy and preserve issues during the trial stage so that there will be a clean record on appeal. Like??? If you're found guilty of a crime, you don't just throw up your hands and say "oh well, guess my trial attorney covered everything, so I'll just sit in prison now..." NOOOOOOO. Appeal that shit and hope your trial counsel was competent enough for the reviewing court to have something to work with.

Jesus fuck.

Anyways. Yeah, don't write lawyer characters if you don't understand how the game works.

Same goes for the police characters violating people's constitutional rights in the middle section of the book, but you know, whatever. (They had a suspect that they didn't want to arrest due to lack of evidence, so they just...locked him in a spare office in the precinct while they did more investigating??? Also, this is rural Georgia, and the suspect is Black. WTF.)

Overall, Silence on Cold River felt like an episode of your typical, highly sensationalized crime show. There was no subtlety whatsoever, and realism was sacrificed to make space for whatever would make the most dramatic, flashy impact on readers. As I've said several times: this book was entertaining while it lasted, but to my eyes, it was very far from even a basic definition of "good quality" fiction.

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[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will update this more later. 4.5/5 stars.

[Candace · Rating 3 out of 5]

It kind of drives me nuts when characters won't let anyone help them when they're in danger or are trying to solve something, etc. Other than that particular part of the plot, I did enjoy this book.

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty creepy book in setting, serial killer, kidnapping, etc. Liked the way the author headed each chapter with WHO was telling that chapter, DATE of it, TIME taking place in that chapter and WHERE they are. It successfully gives you different points of view. So many authors skip around with their chapters and you're not sure who is narrating or if it's in the past or present. Does take place in the mountains north of Atlanta, GA and two of the main characters are female. One is a successful defense lawyer and the other a teen ager. The two main male characters are a police detective and the father of the teen ager.

[Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐

love short chapters but don't love how little i cared about these characters

[Rebecca Hemphill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perfume but with music instead of scents. It totally did not work.

[Katy Gawne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aren’t you supposed to “write what you know”? If you know absolutely nothing about music, law, or police work you might enjoy this book.

[Christine Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for fast reading, suspense, and for a unique serial killer trope.

I will admit that the shifting from character to character, at times, felt too fast and too rapid. I finally stopped trying to look at dates/times at the top to track timelines and let myself just figure it out from the action in each chapter.

But, the structure reminded me of The DaVinci Code or another Dan Brown type structure, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Lots of shifting characters/chapters that drew the reader through the action that never seemed to stop or slow down. It was definitely a book that pulled the reader through the action, and I had a hard time putting it down once I started. And the bad guy? Well, he's got a unique fetish--that's for sure.

I would have liked a little more character development of Ama and Hazel earlier in the novel. The back story of the killer was clear enough, and I'm glad the writer resolved his issues with his mother before closing the novel, but some of the other characters had clear character flaws with little explanation of what really drove them. We finally get some information about Ama's character near the end, but for the majority of the novel, she's not a particularly likable woman, and she engages in some difficult to understand behavior.

The story resolves many of the issues raised, but I was left wondering what happened to Ama in the end--did the issues that were raised around her profession and her father get resolved because of the events of the book? I could guess at it, but I would have liked just a little bit more.

So 4 stars-- a wonderful beach read that will keep you turning pages.

[Can · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great either, 2.5 or 3 stars, haven’t yet decided.

I love reading about the twisted minds of psychopaths, and while Michael sure was a psychopath, his perspective chapters bored me to death!

I agree with other reviews - 5 perspectives is far too many, if anything I think Detective Martin and maybe Michael’s perspectives would have sufficed. I remember seeing in another review that Ama does not act like any defense attorney the other reviewer has ever seen and/or read about - and good lord were they ever right. Also the whole plotline surrounding whether her father was innocent or not… I don’t see how that was relevant, especially see as we never got an andwer to that!

The ending was about as perfect as it could get, all the characters had endings in which I think were warranted. It made for a quick read, which has been hard to come by for me these days!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a riveting mystery that I couldn't put down. What I enjoyed best about the story were the unpredictable turn of events. A serial killer returns to his home town whose population believes had died years earlier. The intriguing aspect of this serial killer is his motive for killing, which is unlike any other motive I've heard of or read about. The author makes unpredictable connections between characters, which for the most part are believable. A few details in the novel require a leap of logic, but these didn't impede my enjoyment. I'd definitely recommend Silence on Cold River if you're looking for a captivating mystery and not necessarily fantastic writing. The writing is really quite good, but the best part of this book is the mystery.

[Sienna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars

The first one hundred pages I felt were great. We knew who the murderer was but I was so ready for when he abducted her and took her into the woods that the entire book would be her being dragged to wherever, being tortured, screaming, and other awful stuff, and the third man hunting the killer. I didn’t think we would leave the woods. I thought she would maybe escape and then from prey to hunter, she would take control of his woods ending him. A hundred pages in it changed course from what I expected and in the mood for into something else.

But it does remain fast-paced and constant with tension.

However, this book suffered from too many POVs. I don’t think we needed the daughter, or the cops, especially the one who is high all the time and thinks no one notices (he’s the cliche bitter divorce obsessed with cold cases). I think it should have stayed just following three people.

The story also had heavy flashbacks from the past from the killer and it is trying to explain the whys and for us to sympathize with him but I just didn’t care or feel an excuse for this. I wanted to be scared of him and what he was doing instead I just got a life story. How he is so misunderstood and on his way to being famous from his muses music (screams) and how when that happens his mother will love him.

This book played with the idea of fate in threes and it was cool at first but to the extent, it put that in our face it lost its appeal in driving the story.

The author does show a lack of knowledge or research effort in the beginning and explaining a defense attorney's job. Specifically court appeals.

Cops also disregard a suspect's constitutional rights. They had no right or evidence to hold him but they locked him in an office while they investigated. They could ask him to come in and question him for a few hours but to hold him again was a no-no. Why does the only black character have to be the first prime suspect? Can’t we get a helpful side character instead?

However, what I couldn’t look over is the protagonist is injured but saved and at the hospital where she can get multiple people to help find this child missing for a year and a murderer she fakes amnesia so she can get a confession from him herself. I want a mystery where people fucking work together. Is that so hard to ask? Like she just uses this tracker thing where no one with the ability to help knew until she was already taken again.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a lot of thrillers and thought this was one of the better ones. Some books that tell the story from different points of view can be annoying for me but the layout with the clear short changes of voice was easy to follow. Is it just me or are woods, national parks and dark forests full of underground hollows the subject 'de jour' for thrillers?!

The characters aren't explained in any depth. Just enough for you to know as the story moves along. There are some tantalising suggested side stories that are under developed but the main 'baddie' and his family are well developed and so nasty they deserve what comes to them in the end!

[Tempe Public Library]

Lives overlap in the small town in rural Georgia, and once a well-known defense lawyer, Ama, goes missing in the woods, we find out that the past does not forget. This book also takes you up close and personal in the mind of a killer, and we see how the trauma he endured as a child followed him and let him to Silent River where fate has intervened time and time again. With the help of a father who also lost his daughter in the woods, local police try putting once-buried secrets together and find more than they bargained for. The chapters are short and sweet, which makes this book another quick read for those who want to be held in suspense throughout a book.

[Valerie Peek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A makes-me-have-to-forego-sleep book you MUST read.

From the first page to the last word, Dunn pulls you entirely into a world entirely captivating. The characters are honest, flawed people who pull you into their realities and allow glimpses through their eyes. Fast paced and unpredictable, this was a book I literally could not put down. It was absolutely worth every lost moment of sleep.

This book should hold a place in any reader's shelf. If you love a good story, Dunn will NOT disappoint!

[Rie Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow start, but once it got going, man, this got going. This book is about belief and the price we pay to cling on to it, and being carried in Michael's head the whole time really made that apparent. I'm kind of mixed on the five POVs--on one hand, it was a LOT. On the other hand, it was kind of cool to see them all connected, especially while resonating (pun intended) on the same theme of belief and how they all interacted with it.

Ultimately, this was a beautiful story that really delivered. Well done, Dunn. (ha.)

[Mandy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio Review: 4.5 stars. The 5 POV really work in audio format. I loved the narrators, and they really brought each character to life. Their voices matched age and personality perfectly and it’s rare that happens. Each POV allowed you to know that character better. While the main POV were from the serial killer and his attorney, and then 3rdly the detective. It flowed well and is very easy to follow. I had to keep listening to find out what was gonna happen next.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I bought the audiobook, it only had 25 reviews and they were all near 5 stars. I usually don't go for books with such few reviews, but I'm glad I did! There are 4 narrators and each does a great job, fully suited for the character they represent. The story unfolds nicely and the pace is pretty fast. I love most serial killer books and this one goes on a top shelf. Looking forward to more from this author.

[Moira · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 because the premise of this was so interesting but I felt like the author revealed the whole mystery in the first third and the second third was just begging the characters to clue in. A structure that worked great for The Fall because it was The Fall but not in this book. There was too much going on here that didn’t get tied up or was wayyyy to convenient, I kept reading to see if we got some satisfying reveal but we really didn’t.

[Gianaclis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, well written debut! The author shows great skill at character development and plotting. Can't wait to see what her next book is like! One suggestion for readers on this book, pay close attention to the titles and dates of each section as they change rapidly. It was the publisher's choice, I'm sure, to make them so small, but you'll be glad if note them early.

[Megstr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder mystery thriller. Quick read! It was actually a good story. A few too many narrators but overall satisfying end to a story. It’s set in north Georgia in a town that had an old plant but it reminds me of Sweet Water creek which is on the south side of Atlanta. Fate was definitely the main character of this book.

[Stephen Bonebrake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this on my daughter‘s recommendation and blew right through it. Beautifully planned thriller, apparently the author’s first. I want more. Really strong characters and compelling outdoor environment.

[Benjamin Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is so carefully constructed, so well written, so suspenseful, and so moving, it's not an exaggeration to call it a masterpiece. If you enjoyed Gone Girl, you will absolutely love Silence on Cold River!

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t believe the naysayers about too many perspectives. That’s what I loved the most about this novel. 100% will reread. The writing and imagery are magnificent. This needs to be made into a movie. I hope Casey Dunn will write MANY more novels. This has been my favorite read of 2023.

[Carole T. Beers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A shocking and atmospheric story told in layers as thick and shifting as river fog. Multiple POVs tend to distance one, but suspicions and pulled-taught fear pull one forward. Dialecy and regional details infuse the story with realism. Read it with doors locked, blinds pulled and lights on!

[Katie Gonsoulin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. The time-shift chapters were almost frustrating (in the best way) because I was SO INTO THE STORY!! There were a lot of convenient coincidences and connections between characters that kind of made me say "well of course," but overall it was a fun journey!

[Mary Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thriller with an uneven pace and some confusion due to abrupt switches between five narrators. Gruesome and disturbing but I read right through to the end.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars! This was a wild ride, such suspensive story, I just couldn't stop reading.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super good thriller! Read in one afternoon.