Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Eric Rickstand: The Silent Girls

Eric Rickstand takes readers on a journey of missing teenage girls that will take the readers to a place that they least expect:

Frank Rath thought that he was done investigating murders when he handed in his detective badge after the murder of his sister and her husband by a serial killer many years ago. He has since focused on raising his daughter. When the police find an abandoned vehicle that belonged to a teenage girl who seems to have disappeared without a trace, Rath is brought in to help, as one of the detectives believes that there is more than one missing girl across the counties. Rath embarks on an investigation that takes him along a path he never thought he would encounter again and the missing teenage girl may not be at the end of it alive.

I struggled to finish this book as it was not able to really intrigue me, therefore it could not hold my attention and for the most part just fell flat. I found there were too many side stories that the main mystery suffers. I also think that there should have been a book before this one that has Rath chasing The Preacher who was responsible for killing his sister and her husband. I not only think that would have been an interesting read but it possibly could have set things up for this book better.

The second half of this book better than the first, as things finally started to unfold. In the second half of the book Rickstand was able to find his stride as he started to really focus more on the mystery of the missing girls and not Rath's personal life. That said I found the police and private investigator work really ho-hum; I guess I'll look over here for evidence/information, oh nothing there, oh maybe I'll look over here; Oh I feel like I am no longer close to my daughter so I'll tell her the details of the case to see if she can think of anything. I know that the police and Rath are supposed to work together on this case but they never do and keep information from each other which hinders everything, which is funny because Rath is a former police officer and on good terms with the force. It actually seemed that the police were more forthcoming with information than he was. I will say that I was surprised who the bad guy was in this book, and that does give this book some bonus points but not really enough for me to enjoy the book overall.

While I like the main character I felt like I never really got to know him, other than he is a really good family man as an over protective father of his grown daughter, but I think there are a lot of Dads who are especially when they leave for collage. He is a very closed off character because of the events from the past that have happened to him, but he also felt closed off to the reader as well. As I said before I felt like there was a book before this one that shaped Rath as a character and he would have made more sense in this book because of it (I have checked and there is not a book before this one).

If you would have asked me part way through this book if I would read another book by Rickstand I probably would have said No; however, the ending of this book had me really intrigued as it was events outside of the missing girls that it pertains to.

Cheers!!!
Instead Of This,
Check Out These Books:
http://j9books.blogspot.ca/2011/01/kathryn-fox-malicious-intent.html  http://j9books.blogspot.ca/2015/03/sara-blaedel-forgotten-girls.html  http://j9books.blogspot.ca/2014/02/jefferson-bass-carved-in-bone.html

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