Dead Silence review

Dead Silence
Kimberly Derting
16th April 2013
Headline

Violet thought she’d made peace with her unique ability to sense the echoes of the dead and the imprints that cling to their killers…that is until she acquired an imprint of her own. Forced to carry a reminder of the horrible events of her kidnapping, Violet is more determined than ever to lead a normal life. However, the people who run the special investigative team Violet works for have no intention of letting her go.

When someone close to Violet becomes a suspect in a horrific murder, she finds herself pulled into a deadly hunt for a madman with an army of devoted followers. Violet has survived dangerous situations before, but she quickly discovers that protecting those closest to her is far more difficult than protecting herself.

Dead Silence, while not being my favourite of the Body Finder series, was great. The tension is amped up and it's as creepy as ever, as well as revealing some things that we about the team that Violet's a part of and  her own ability.

The main reason that I think I didn't quite enjoy Dead Silence like I had The Last Echo was because I was just sort of expecting more. It's the last book in the Body Finder series, but it didn't really feel like it at all. I like the fact that all of the mysteries in the books are separate, but for the final book I was expecting something with way more oomph, like some sort of conspiracy-murder thing going on with the actual team. The series of murders that were in the books were really interesting and exciting and horrifying, but I think that they would have been better earlier on in the series while something even more central to Violet's life happened than what did actually happen at the end.

I still enjoyed the murderer's chapters, though, as always. Well, maybe enjoyed isn't exactly the right word... But you know what I mean. It's like when you get to see flashbacks of the crime happening in CSI or something. Just makes the books that much more interesting, on top of the whole Girl-who-can-find-dead-people-with-psychic-powers thing. Let's not forget about that. But yeah, the killer in this book is seriously damaged. Like, there may have been a little bit nearish the beginning where I was like, wow your life has really sucked, but that soon changed. It was just so uncomfortable to read about him and his 'family' and his need for control. Seriously, I don't know how Kimberly Derting does it, but I'll be damned if she doesn't write a good psychopath. Okay, that's probably not the most PC way I could've put that, but it is true!

Ah, Violet. And Jay. They were both great in Dead Silence, too, and I still love them together. They're alright as a fictional couple because sometimes when people get together they are just all over each other all the time and it's gross, but Violet and Jay are pretty great and not Too Much around each other. Also, Violet learns a lot more about her ability in this book as the result of her reading her grandmother's diaries (the one who had the same powers as her) and of her discovering a particularly gruesome crime scene. I thought that the developments were interesting and it was nice to get some more information and what it is she can actually do, as well as seeing how she responded to that information. 

Going to just keep this one short because I don't want to reveal too much about what happens, but Dead Silence is a solid final book and while I wish that the mystery had been a bit bigger or that there had just been more to it, as well as a less open ending, I enjoyed it a lot and I'll miss the Body Finder series and it's characters muchly.