Silent Island: Dana Perry

                Silent Island: Dana Perry

Life takes on many shades of light and dark as Abby Pearce will understand. Mass murders are not common on this silent island of Martha’s Vineyard where people leave their doors opened and never fear that anything will take away their freedoms and more.

Called to the scene of a multiple murder of the Lavelle family, what she uncovers and sees will take her into the darkness of the present and the even darker of the past. Thomas Lavelle was a prominent heart surgeon, his wife a powerful lawyer and three children. Who was the fourth in the hotel room? The scene was filled with blood and Abby and her partner Teena must decide how to proceed but first they need to find out who the teenager is that is in the room, why she is there and claims to have no idea who she is or why.

Martha’s Vineyard attracts rich and well to do people and celebrities and Albert Ruggerio a mobster was hold up there but learning more about the murders they had do delve into Lavelle’s patient list and Ruggerio was one of them. Belonging to a mob and quite powerful would he be behind the murders? The author reminds us as Abby recalls and remembers her partner Tommy Ferraro and she calls on Vic Gelman to help uncover some answers and learn more about the family that was killed. Abby remembers the day that he was shot and that the shooter and got away. Richie Briggs the name and his memory would come back to haunt her before this case was solved.

The case gets complicated, and the Chief just wants answers, a suspect and getting it solved but Abby has her own process, and she won’t stop until the missing pieces are solved. But first who was the young girl in the room and why was she there? Placing her in the hospital under police guard worked for a while. She questioned her as did her partner, but she gave away nothing. How did she finally escape the police guard and where did she go? Her name is Susan Kirwan and why was she there and did she have something to do with the murders? Contacting the parents of the murdered family they come to the hospital and when they see the teenage girl they have no idea who she is. Where is Karen Lavelle the daughter of this family and was she involved or was she taken by the killer? Karen and her parents had many fights but in this case they promised her to take her to a special place that would explain her interest in oceanography and learn more about the ocean and sea life. Officer Bowers was the man who found her in these small police force in Cedar Cliffs and although he took his job seriously she manages to mess up quite a few times. Questioning the girl, they get nowhere, and they talk about Karin Lavelle hoping that she will remember something. It is only when they get the videos from the few cameras that they realize just what the link might be and why this young girl was there as the DNA they sent to the lab identifies her and from this point on it gets interesting.

Under pressure she hooks up with the reporter that she met in the last book Lincoln Connor, but we get the feeling that there is something he’s hiding but right now the case comes first and her relationship with him seems on point but is it really? Abby is bold and decides that she is going to confront Ruggerio but what she gets is his bodyguard and is up against a brick wall. But all signs lead to the fact that he might be involved but when she does finally see him she learns that he is grateful to the doctor for saving his life therefore destroying what the Chief says in a press conference linking him to the cause of the mass murders and there are more to come. Susan Kirwin is 16 years old and a year older that Karen but what is her link? They learn that her parents died in a fire did she set it? Just how evil is this teen and watching a video of her enlightens her even more as to what her link might be to what happened to the Lavelle’s? Added in there is much more intrigue as Ruggerio is murdered, the bodyguard left for dead and Susan Kirwin the final victim. How did she escape police guard and why kill her?

Links to Nancy Lavelle, her job as a lawyer and we learn that Susan was placed in foster homes and foster care was she a foster child of the Lavelle’s? Heated discussions, pressure from all sides and then she uncovers some clues to what might have happened and just why Susan was involved and how. The Lavelle family showed up on their vacation but who set up the reservation and who paid for it? When confronting Ruggerio before he was killed he denies having anything to do with the reservation or even paying for their stay. Then things get even more tense when Abby learns that the hotel was really the one owned by her father under a different name plus she learns that Mark Ellis the boy who took her to the prom and his father are the president and CEO of this hotel. One saying sticks with her as the world NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE was written in the victim’s blood and one that Tommy would say before he died each time on the streets of New York. What is the strange connection or whatever was it between her father’s old restaurant The Vineyard Guard and the Beach House?
A picture of Karin Lavelle and that of Susan Kirwan were shot  and Susan was at the crime scene what is the motive for the murders and where is Karen? Albert Ruggerio and Susan Kirwan were two main suspects why where they murdered and then  her house  is broken into, and the killer sends her a message that will give her and you the reader chills. Who is after her? Why is Abby the target of this killer? Added in the bodyguard has his own story to tell how does he fit into this complex plotline?

A teenage girl is missing, a mass murder, a mob boss is dead and another teen at the scene of both crimes and his now dead. Added in the saying or phrase No On here Gets out Alive and her team works with her to figure out who is behind it you won’t believe what she finally uncovers. Linking it to the murder of her partner, learning what happened to the killer and then she realizes what caused the killer to act and how it comes back to her and her past. Will she get the killer in time before this person strikes again? How will she stop what someone has put in place? Added in she learns a harsh reality about Lincoln will she act upon it? An ending that will leave you stunned as once again Author Dana Perry hits high marks with this unexpected ending, twists and revelations that will keep you wondering what is next for Abby and will she continue working on this SILENT ISLAND? Issues of family loyalties, understanding, deceptions, unexpected betrayals and someone’s link to the mob that she never saw, Detective Abby Pearce is one detective you want on your side.

Fran Lewis: Just reviews