Broken Silence (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

Broken Silence

I really enjoyed this book, and found that it was difficult to put down after I started reading it.

The book is primarily centred around Whitley Bay, and the author paints a very grim picture of life in that small north east town, close to Newcastle Upon Tyne. Indeed, there is nothing really positive about life in Whitley Bay. So, when a murder happens, the Police aren't expecting to obtain a result due to the local people there. The victim is a young school girl, who is an exceptionally well mannered and dutiful child to her parents. But her parents have no idea what she really is like.

Who murders this young girl? All the clues are forthcoming throughout the book, and it appears that a Police Officer may be directly involved in the death.

The investigating officer - Detective Inspector Brady - is a close colleague of the suspected Police officer, who goes missing. As Brady investigates the murky criminal underworld of Whitley Bay, he knows that facts which will emerge may just further implicate his colleague.

It is the Brady's first case when he returns from being seriously injured many months' ago, and his senior officer would like to see him removed from the force, and replaced by one of the junior members who he favours instead. Brady has to use all his skills to investigate this horrific crime, as well as keep his job, and to try to find out whether his colleague is involved or not.

Danielle Ramsay has created a brilliant novel, which is fast moving, full of detail, and with lots of excitement. A very enjoyable read.

There is a lot to enjoy in this book but I think Danielle Ramsay has tried just a bit too hard to make an impression with her first Jack Brady novel, so that it suffers rather from overkill both in plot and prose style.

Good things first: it's a very decent story, well plotted and paced. I thought the killer's identity was well and quite fairly concealed until late in the book and the denouement was believable and well done. It is much to Ramsay's credit that she spares us an implausible Cornered Killer Climax; the interview scenes in which the truth finally emerges are among the strongest in the book and provide a gripping climax of their own. I certainly think that there's enough substance here to warrant a second book and possibly a series.

My reservations have been mentioned by several other reviewers. Firstly, in her keenness to give us an interesting detective, Ramsay lays on the personal complications with a large trowel. As well as having a monumentally complex and dysfunctional personal life, Jack Brady seems to be emotionally or professionally compromised (sometimes both) in his relationship with almost everyone involved in the case: a major suspect, the suspect's wife and daughter, the defence solicitor (his recently ex-wife, for heaven's sake), his sidekick, his boss, an arrogant sergeant, the local mafia boss... and so on and on. It really did get a bit much and I began to wonder whether a character would ever appear with whom he hadn't slept or fought or shared a shady past.

Secondly, the style (he coolly introduced). Ramsay cannot just let characters speak for themselves (he briskly stated) but has to pile on the adverbs (he firmly asserted) and clumsy synonyms for "said" (he curtly attacked). After 100 pages or so I found the cumulative effect of this incredibly irritating and it really distracted me from the narrative. Mercifully, in the climactic interview scenes this almost disappears and they are tense, tightly written and really engrossing, showing that Ramsay is able to write really well when she allows herself to flow in an unaffected way.

I think Danielle Ramsay just needs to relax and tell the story, and I hope she will do that in future books. I couldn't in all conscience give this book four stars, but I hope it will be the start of a more mature series, which has the potential to be very good.

The story itself wasn't bad, but it was just so badly written. Predictably the hero of the book is riddled with personal problems (his wife left him and he's now a heavy drinker hell bent on destruction), in fact he drank so much throughout the book I'm surprised he could even stand up straight let alone solve a crime! He grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and his best mate from childhood is now the local gangland boss, and to top it all he likes classical music - hints of Morse there. His boss can't stand him and would rather one of the university entrants replaced him, rather too like Frost.

The style of writing was, for me, too descriptive and explanatory. I felt that when she ran out of ideas she just threw in a load of adjectives to pad it out; I particularly found the product placement style of wrting annoying (he didn't just pick up his phone, he picked up his Blackberry - he didn't open the fridge door, he opened the Smeg fridge door) - unnecessary and annoying. And what is her beef with Whitley Bay? Yes, every town has it's dark side, but I've been to Whitley many a time and didn't recognise it from the descriptions in this book. Overall it was a disappointment and I won't be looking out for any more in the series. Sorry.