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A Kim Aldrich Mystery #2
Silent Partner
Kim Aldrich once again proves that she deserves a promotion to investigator for her firm, when her Alpine ski vacation turns into a dangerous game with kidnappers, murders, and drug smugglers. Suspected herself, she must, with the help of big, handsome Jim Whitcomb, unmask the real criminals before more lives, including her own, are lost-- in SILENT PARTNER.
210 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
19 people want to read
About the author
Jinny McDonnell
5 books4 followersPen name used by Virginia B. McDonnell for this series, who also wrote books in the Nurses Three series from 1963 to 1965 and several of the books in the Trixie Belden series.
She is also the author of other books as Virginia McDonnell (without the middle initial), including volume six of The Waltons.
She is also the author of other books as Virginia McDonnell (without the middle initial), including volume six of The Waltons.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 9, 2022
Plot:
Kim is taking a vacation at a ski resort in the Austrian Alps. She has become friendly with the young man in the room next to hers. He is Jim and with him he has a 12 year old boy named Roby who clearly adores him. Kim is intrigued by these two as Jim is too young to be Roby's father. Both of them have an interesting quirk of staring at her attentively when she speaks.
While they are all out on the slopes one day Kim is taking some home videos when she ends up capturing an intentional, and fatal, ski accident. That night she finds someone has been in her room and stolen the film out of her camera. Unfortunately for them Kim had changed film and the evidence of the crime is still in her possession.
Kim questions Jim about his relationship to Roby he tells her a sad story; Roby's father is a famous skier who owns the resort they are currently staying at. Roby's mother passed away in a car accident while pregnant which caused Roby to be born post-mortem via a c-section. The situation led the hospital staff to believe Roby was mentally disabled and his father rejected him, having him sent to an institution for the mentally disabled. When Roby was 8 Jim came to work for the institution and correctly suspected that Roby wasn't mentally disabled but deaf. After teaching him sign language Roby began to flourish and was transferred to a school for physically disabled children, with Jim getting a job there to continue taking care of the boy. Jim had brought Roby to the Alps for two main reasons; to show Roby that, with his lip reading ability, he can live a normal life without people stigmatizing him as disabled, and with the hope that they will run into his father and he will either accept the child or allow Jim to adopt him.
One night after putting Roby to bed Kim and Jim see two men in the resort lounge secretly using international sign language. After they return to their rooms they find Roby missing. Mixed up in some nefarious goings-on the two are unsure how to proceed, do they call the police and risk Roby's safety? And what about the film that shows the crime, what good can it do if they are unable to get it developed. While discussing their next move Jim tells Kim that he'll need her to be his ears which makes Kim realize Jim is also deaf...
You can read the rest of this review on my blog: vintagegirlsbooks
Review:
- Religion is weirdly shoved into this text, it doesn't feel natural at all. The only natural inclusion was when Jean Paul and his wife give Kim and Jim a sleigh ride home and stop at a sermon which has a special meaning since it was the first one since the murder which hung heavy over everyone at the resort.
However [redacted because of spoilers], Kim getting offended anytime Jim uses an expression with "god" in it, Kim saying her wedding would be "in a church, of course", and Jean Paul insisting Roby be raised Catholic even tho he refuses to accept him as his child and tells everyone he has no children were all awkwardly forced into the text. The last book didn't so this so I'm not sure why this one was so focused on Kim being a believer.
- I'm not sure the author was really aware of what sign language looks like because in the scenes where the men are secretly using international sign language in the lounge it is described more like morse code. A man is tapping his fingers on a book he is reading and another man replies by tapping his fingers on the fireplace mantel. If you've seen sign language you know that's just not accurate.
The rest of my review contains spoilers. Check out my blog to read it.
Kim is taking a vacation at a ski resort in the Austrian Alps. She has become friendly with the young man in the room next to hers. He is Jim and with him he has a 12 year old boy named Roby who clearly adores him. Kim is intrigued by these two as Jim is too young to be Roby's father. Both of them have an interesting quirk of staring at her attentively when she speaks.
While they are all out on the slopes one day Kim is taking some home videos when she ends up capturing an intentional, and fatal, ski accident. That night she finds someone has been in her room and stolen the film out of her camera. Unfortunately for them Kim had changed film and the evidence of the crime is still in her possession.
Kim questions Jim about his relationship to Roby he tells her a sad story; Roby's father is a famous skier who owns the resort they are currently staying at. Roby's mother passed away in a car accident while pregnant which caused Roby to be born post-mortem via a c-section. The situation led the hospital staff to believe Roby was mentally disabled and his father rejected him, having him sent to an institution for the mentally disabled. When Roby was 8 Jim came to work for the institution and correctly suspected that Roby wasn't mentally disabled but deaf. After teaching him sign language Roby began to flourish and was transferred to a school for physically disabled children, with Jim getting a job there to continue taking care of the boy. Jim had brought Roby to the Alps for two main reasons; to show Roby that, with his lip reading ability, he can live a normal life without people stigmatizing him as disabled, and with the hope that they will run into his father and he will either accept the child or allow Jim to adopt him.
One night after putting Roby to bed Kim and Jim see two men in the resort lounge secretly using international sign language. After they return to their rooms they find Roby missing. Mixed up in some nefarious goings-on the two are unsure how to proceed, do they call the police and risk Roby's safety? And what about the film that shows the crime, what good can it do if they are unable to get it developed. While discussing their next move Jim tells Kim that he'll need her to be his ears which makes Kim realize Jim is also deaf...
You can read the rest of this review on my blog: vintagegirlsbooks
Review:
- Religion is weirdly shoved into this text, it doesn't feel natural at all. The only natural inclusion was when Jean Paul and his wife give Kim and Jim a sleigh ride home and stop at a sermon which has a special meaning since it was the first one since the murder which hung heavy over everyone at the resort.
However [redacted because of spoilers], Kim getting offended anytime Jim uses an expression with "god" in it, Kim saying her wedding would be "in a church, of course", and Jean Paul insisting Roby be raised Catholic even tho he refuses to accept him as his child and tells everyone he has no children were all awkwardly forced into the text. The last book didn't so this so I'm not sure why this one was so focused on Kim being a believer.
- I'm not sure the author was really aware of what sign language looks like because in the scenes where the men are secretly using international sign language in the lounge it is described more like morse code. A man is tapping his fingers on a book he is reading and another man replies by tapping his fingers on the fireplace mantel. If you've seen sign language you know that's just not accurate.
The rest of my review contains spoilers. Check out my blog to read it.
October 20, 2023
Kim Aldrich, is not the typic sleuth you read about, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Connie Blair, etc. all teenagers, although not directly mentioned, Kim does appear to be older, (20s?).
She’s lives with her widowed FBI agent father, along with her brother, (a Vietnam Vet/commercial pilot) and sister, (traveling nurse with the Red Cross. Kim is the youngest of the 3 Aldrich children and lives with them in their fathers luxurious Manhattan Apartment. Throughout the series, her family is frequently away and she is left to fend for herself.
Kim Aldrich in book 2, has still remained the beloved secretary for WALCO as in book 1, and her eagerness to one day be an insurance investigator has not dampened.
As a reward for a job well done in book 1, kim is given some vacation time, instead of the promotion she so hoped she would receive. She decides to take her vacation all the way to an Austrian town to do a bit of skiing.
As in the last book she quickly meets her love interest for this book, Jim Whitcomb. Jim, who’s traveling with a 12 year old boy, whom we don’t know is his guardian until 1/3 of the way through the book. We find the reason for their visit is the boys father, who subsequently has disowned the boy for being the result of his wives death, (or so he uses that excuse). We later find out the boy is dead and so is Jim, the two communicate in sign language, and Kim eventually seems to warm up to their disability. This is ends up being a subplot. The main story takes place when Kim is skiing with her new found friends, and while filming their adventure, tragedy strikes. Another skier is hurt, while ski patrol takes away the injured party, the actors aren’t done yet. The ski patrol, and the injured person end up at the bottom of the mountain deceased. The instigators try again and again to get the footage from Kim, the little boy is kidnapped. What can all this mean? And how will they get to the bottom of it?
Kim successfully solved another mystery and like its predecessor, her love interest doesn’t make it to the next book. This book is better for teens, who haven’t entered the more r realistic stage as adults. This book contains murder, drug runners and kidnapping. Nothing graphic.
Although the book is unrealistic it is still a good read.
She’s lives with her widowed FBI agent father, along with her brother, (a Vietnam Vet/commercial pilot) and sister, (traveling nurse with the Red Cross. Kim is the youngest of the 3 Aldrich children and lives with them in their fathers luxurious Manhattan Apartment. Throughout the series, her family is frequently away and she is left to fend for herself.
Kim Aldrich in book 2, has still remained the beloved secretary for WALCO as in book 1, and her eagerness to one day be an insurance investigator has not dampened.
As a reward for a job well done in book 1, kim is given some vacation time, instead of the promotion she so hoped she would receive. She decides to take her vacation all the way to an Austrian town to do a bit of skiing.
As in the last book she quickly meets her love interest for this book, Jim Whitcomb. Jim, who’s traveling with a 12 year old boy, whom we don’t know is his guardian until 1/3 of the way through the book. We find the reason for their visit is the boys father, who subsequently has disowned the boy for being the result of his wives death, (or so he uses that excuse). We later find out the boy is dead and so is Jim, the two communicate in sign language, and Kim eventually seems to warm up to their disability. This is ends up being a subplot. The main story takes place when Kim is skiing with her new found friends, and while filming their adventure, tragedy strikes. Another skier is hurt, while ski patrol takes away the injured party, the actors aren’t done yet. The ski patrol, and the injured person end up at the bottom of the mountain deceased. The instigators try again and again to get the footage from Kim, the little boy is kidnapped. What can all this mean? And how will they get to the bottom of it?
Kim successfully solved another mystery and like its predecessor, her love interest doesn’t make it to the next book. This book is better for teens, who haven’t entered the more r realistic stage as adults. This book contains murder, drug runners and kidnapping. Nothing graphic.
Although the book is unrealistic it is still a good read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2020
This was an okay follow-up to the first Kim Aldrich mystery, MISCALCULATED RISK. It's sad, though, when one of the highlights of the story is two characters making peace with God while in a life-or-death situation; I was happy that the author added those moments as it is something that added realism to the deadly avalanche.
June 30, 2022
Jim is an overbearing jackass and I just can’t with that this week.
2.5 stars
2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews