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    The Silent Girls
    The Silent Girls
    The Silent Girls
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Silent Girls

    Written by Eric Rickstad

    Narrated by R.C. Bray

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Frank Rath thought he was done with murder when he turned in his detective's badge to become a private investigator and raise a daughter alone. Then the police in his remote rural community of Canaan find an '89 Monte Carlo abandoned by the side of the road, and the beautiful teenage girl who owned the car seems to have disappeared without a trace.


    Soon Rath's investigation brings him face-to-face with the darkest abominations of the human soul.


    With the consequences of his violent and painful past plaguing him, and young women with secrets vanishing one by one, he discovers once again that even in the smallest towns on the map, evil lurks everywhere-and no one is safe.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 12, 2015
    ISBN9781494582418
    Author

    Eric Rickstad

    Eric Rickstad is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of The Silent Girls, Lie in Wait, and Reap, novels heralded as intelligent and profound, dark, disturbing, and heartbreaking. He lives in his home state of Vermont with his wife, daughter, and son.

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    Reviews for The Silent Girls

    3.5/5

    132 ratings14 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The story was between a 3 and 4. Pretty standard murder mystery formula. Wasn't the most unoriginal but not anything great either. I liked the lead guy, he was probably pretty boring as far as detective personalities go just because he didn't have this huge over the top complex. The narration though.... was more like a 1. The guy has a great gruff detective like voice but I couldn't hardly tell who was supposed to be talking because everyone sounded the same. Especially the 2 male detectives.
    • 3/5
      Entertaining with an annoying and gratuitous ending.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this one in its entirety! Great story! On to the next.
    • 3/5
      Has a lot of potential,but got a little bogged down with guilt trips.
    • 3/5
      For some reason, I found this book a little hard to get into at first. It was a good book and eventually kept my attention enough to finish it out. I would recommend it if you are needing something to pass the time.
    • 3/5
      Young women are disappearing and they are trying to find the connection. Once they do things get crazed and scary for the main character and his daughter.
    • 4/5
      It started out to be a thrilling journey to a very dark place...but toward the end the whole climax seemed rushed. It didn’t exactly take anything away from the story but I was just expecting a slower journey after the great beginning. I’m going to give this author and the series another try. I believe there is promise there and I already have another book by this author.
    • 1/5
      Oh, my. I didn't like this book for a variety of reasons. I'll explain, and then you can decide for yourself whether my opinion matters.I picked up this book on a whim while out shopping. Nothing on the cover, the back copy, or the inside title page mentions this being the second book in a series. The series title is nowhere to be found. And so I was confused when I started reading and found there was little to no character development. I felt like I was somehow supposed to know more about the main characters. And then I popped online to write my review, and I saw the series information, which explained a lot. That being said, the story stands mostly on its own, so you can read it without having read the first, if you don't mind the shortage of character development.The characters are not likable. Well, at least I didn't like them. They're shallow and stereotypical, like chess pieces there only to advance the plot. An ex-cop bordering on a drug addiction, a detective with anger issues, a female cop trying to push against the male-dominated system, etc.The writing style strives for a literary feel. Sometimes the author hits the mark, while other times he tries too hard and it shows.We have too many plotlines and, consequently, too many directions in which to focus, so that the content feels scattered.We spend a whole lot of time on irrelevant activities and introspection. For instance, I don't even want to count the number of times we had to endure lengthy looks at and details about bloody deer carcasses. I got that Rath hunts. Enough already. We also have three-quarters of a page on the best donuts in town, way too many pages about a minor character's obsession with running and how it's ruining her marriage, and a whole lot of personal reflection and childhood reminiscing. None of that adds anything to the story. Add in snide comments and political commentary (rants), and sometimes I forgot the point of the story was supposed to be a missing girl.The opening scene is vivid and gruesome. No details are spared. This works to get our attention, and would have been a perfect opening had the story retained focus and the pace remained consistent. It didn't. Instead we have lulls of tedium punctuated by explicit scenes.The author's tendency to separate words with periods, most noticeably the word 'but', drove me nuts. This would have worked had it been the speaking style of one character. But. Every single character spoke this way. But. The technique was also liberally used in the exposition, so that it was clearly the author's style rather than a particular character's. All those periods to force stops. Just. To. Annoy. Me. I think. Then about halfway through or so, the pace finally picks up and things start to happen. Unfortunately, it also takes a wide turn into the zone of absurdity and becomes a political statement of sorts. I'm okay with political statements, when the plot is well executed and believable. That's not the case here.And, finally, this book ends with one of my pet peeves - the dreaded cliffhanger. I'm not a fan. Whether part of a series or not, I prefer stories to have an ending. I don't like threads left dangling like bait to get me to pick up the next book. Which I won't do. In this case. Clearly.
    • 3/5
      Well written and suspenseful, this is a great summer mystery read. Frank Rath is a private investigator who formerly wore a detective's badge. The setting is rural Vermont. And, what I liked best about this book is the very detailed description of the area, and those who live there. There is a mixture of those who are poor, with little social skills, and sadly are eeking out a living. And, then there are transplants who like the beauty of the countryside.When the car of a young girl is found without the girl anywhere near the vehicle, she is judged missing. Rath makes it his mission to discover what happened. Working with a team of others, there is tension between the team regarding how best to proceed. Soon, the fact that many girls have gone missing within specific radius, the hunt is on to find the link between these very dis-similar individuals.Rath is rough, and he is likeable. When he sister and her husband were brutally murdered at the hands of a sociopath, Rath then adopts his niece. And now, he worries more about his young college-aged daughter, knowing how quickly something can unfold and harm.A quick read, I'll give this one Three stars.
    • 1/5
      By a third of the way through this book I was ready to give up and move to something better. I struggled with it either being bad narration or bad writing: I decided on both my particularly the writing. Long sequences of things like: I hit Dad. Dad hit me. I kicked Dad. Dad punched me. .... Purple hair said...., so I said to Purple Hair. Then Purple Hair grabbed my wrist, I told Purple Hair to let go.....and on and on. Made me want to hit mute or wish for the ability to skim. The whole book seemed to be going nowhere fast and when it got to the "surprise" ending all I could do was yawn. That "shocking twist" could be seen from space. So obviously I had finished the book and am now happy to move along to something better, which shouldn't be too hard. I did not realize this was part of a series, but I won't be following up with any others. Lessons learned.
    • 4/5
      A girl goes missing and Frank Rath is called in to solve the mystery. A former police detective who quit to raise his niece after his sister and brother in-law were found murdered. Now as a side activity he helps solve crimes the police can’t. As he investigates the missing girl he realizes this case is much deeper than it first appears and involves more than one missing girl; a string of girls that all have one thing in common despite many other differences. His problem now, finding who did it and where the girls are being kept. Intriguing story of how one selfish act can alter another person for life and sometimes create a psychopath.
    • 2/5
      Frank Rath, ex-detective turned private investigator, is drawn into the intriguing mystery surrounding Mandy Wilks, an emancipated sixteen-year-old who is missing. As the investigation progresses, several other girls are added to the “missing” list, but Frank can see no obvious connection between the young women and the elusive “why” that would link the girls remains unknown.Despite considerable distracting personal baggage, Frank remains focused on the investigation, doggedly searching for answers in the desperate hope of finding Mandy alive.The increasingly-complex plot involving the missing girls easily draws the reader into the story, and this decidedly creepy tale probably has more than enough twists and turns to satisfy aficionados of the genre. However, the unrelated and unnecessary Ned Preacher subplot detracts from the missing girls storyline; similarly, both the lack of plot resolution and the reveal regarding Mandy’s disappearance are particularly unsatisfying. The author’s exquisite descriptions are richly drawn, providing the reader with an authentic sense of place. But the annoying overuse of expletives and religious/political viewpoints masquerading as storytelling are likely to be extremely offensive to many readers. In addition, the unexpected, out of left field no-ending-ending is decidedly off-putting, apt to leave frustrated readers feeling as if they have been cheated.
    • 4/5
      Starts with a very strange and horrific murder. Frank Roth has seen his share of the horrific, the murder in the past of his sister and her husband, a murder Frank for which Frank feels a great deal of responsibility. Their daughter at the time was a young child and Frank has raised her as his own. Now as an free lance investigator Frank fins himself embroiled in a missing persons case. One tied to a friend of his still on the force. The investigation will lead to a radical anti-abortion group.Loved the twists and turns as the plot lines are brought together. At the end a psychopathic murderer will gain parole, a murderer with strong ties to Franks past. Good storyline and strong characters, and of course by the way the book ended it looks like their will definitely be a follow-up.ARC from Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      The Silent Girls is one of those stories that grabs you from the beginning and keeps you wanting more. A very creepy murder mystery. Young women are missing and turning up dead which is bad enough but Frank Rath is tormented with these deaths. Why? His sister and brother in law were murdered many years ago and the case had not been solved. He took in and adopted his little niece who was in the house when the murders occurred. Abortion is always a touchy topic and I think the author took on this topic with empathy and used as the underlying plot of the story is admirable. I loved the pace of the story and just the way it was written reminded me of a good British mystery, even though it was not. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a great story with believable characters and settings.