This was a real edge of your seat thriller, with so many twists and turns, you wont know which way is up! Fantastic and gripping read!

A good storyline and likeable characters. Enjoyed figuring out the mystery as the book progressed. Thanks for the opportunity to read.

Gripping and so tense. I read it in one evening as I was so hooked. Good twists at the end. Can't wait to read more from the author.

Thrilling plot which I could not put down. Brilliant characters, and twists and turns. Highly recommend to other fans of this genre!! Loved it!

I haven't read the first two books of this one but wow what a book, certainly kept me reading and I now want to read the first two.

This is the third book in a series and once again is a fantastic read.
This book is so fast paced and makes you feel as though you are a character of the book.
A must read

I need to read the first 2 and try again.
I didn’t engage with this and didn’t follow it. It was good enough to prompt me to source books 1 and 2 though

This was an easy to read thriller thaylt kept my attention all the way through! Lots of twists and surprises I didn't see coming. Very good, would recommend!

A Deathly Silence by Jane Isaac is about a mutilated body of a police officer found in a derelict factory, which shocks the Hamptonshire police force is shocked to the core.

DCI Helen Lavery returns from injury leave and is immediately plunged into an investigation like no other. Is this a random attack or is someone targeting the force?

As the net draws in, Helen finds the truth lies closer than she could have imagined, and trusts no one.

But Helen is facing a twisted killer who will stop at nothing to ensure their secrets remain hidden. And time is running out...
I enjoyed this British mystery. It was full of intrigue and twists and turns. It was well-written with very defined characters. I will be looking for Jane Isaac’s next book. Thank you to Net Galley for providing an ARC for a review.

A Deathly Silence

by Jane Isaac

Detective Chief Inspector Helen Lavery has been recuperating from work related injuries when she gets called back by the horrific death of a young woman. Helen, a widow and the mother of two boys, was fast-tracked into her current position and leads a team of investigators in Jane Isaac’s A Deathly Silence which is a police procedural on steroids.

This mystery details the dangerous investigation that leads Helen and her team to examine evidence, interview suspects and witnesses multiple times, attend autopsies, engage in stake-outs, create timelines, and gather to brainstorm theories. The clues become even more muddled as a leak appears and Helen and her team wonder who they can trust. One death seems to lead to more, and even the gang that previously sidelined Helen comes under suspicion. A Deathly Silence is a top-notch mystery and police procedural. Helen is a likable main character, but the plot is the show stopper in this book that will set you up to want to read more in this series. The murder is a surprise as is the motive.

I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Legend Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery, General Fiction (Adult)

Notes: As #3 in the the DCI Helen Lavery Novel Series, this book can most definitely work as a standalone; I was not aware it was part of a series until I prepared to write this review.

Publication: October 15, 2019—Legend Press

Memorable Lines:

He was in a tailspin, a swirling vortex of emotions, his heart fighting to burst out of his chest.

Teamwork existed on trust and the very idea that one of her people had betrayed that trust was like a fishbone lodged in the back of her throat.

There were always more casualties than the dead in a murder investigation.

"He tried to commit the perfect murder. Only the perfect murder didn't exist."
A Deathly Silence (DCI Helen Lavery #3) is another fast-paced thriller by Jane Isaac. It hooked my interest from the very start! Although this is book three in the DCL Helen Lavery series, you will not feel lost as you read A Deathly Silence. Two pre-teen boys decide to explore an abandoned factory and stumble across the recently deceased body of a woman. They are frightened and run away, vowing to tell no one what they have seen. A man walking his dog sees the boys leaving the building and calls authorities about the apparent break-in. When the police arrive they discover the body of PC Sinead O'Donnell, one of their own. The case suddenly goes to DCI Helen Lavery. and she needs to know if this murder is connected to a previous case. This book kept me guessing and trying to solve the clues leading to the murderer.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A Deathly Silence sees the return of Jane’s original protagonist, DCI Helen Lavery in this, her third outing, and what a welcome return it is!
Two children playing in an abandoned warehouse find the body of a dead woman, and it’s clear that she’s been tortured. To make matters worse, the victim was a police woman, as is her husband, now a widower. This is DCI Lavery’s first case after a short period of sick leave following injuries she herself sustained on a previous case.
I’ll say no more about the story/plot, but will briefly mention the story-telling. Which, if you’ve read any of Jane’s novels, you’d be under the expectation that it will be good. And if that’s what you’re expecting, you won’t be disappointed. Jane has a brilliant knack of writing police procedurals that are character-driven, and never get bogged down in procedure. And she always creates such realistic characters, whether it’s Will Jackman, Helen Lavery, or any of the supporting cast.
The story has plenty of twists and turns and finishes with a satisfying (if shocking) ending, which makes this a crime fiction novel you will not want to miss. Although it’s Helen Lavery’s third outing, you can easily read this as a standalone.

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and author, for allowing me to review this book. Ms. Isaac never disappoints. This story kept me interested. My favorite part of this book was the narrative. It almost doesn't matter what the story will reveal or how it will be resolved, I love the writing style of the author. One of my new favorites for sure. I look forward to reading more from this author.

A cracking good mystery.

A Deathly Silence is book three in a series where I've not read books one or two. I rarely do that, because there's often backstory that either doesn't make its way into a later book cleanly (i.e., the author does big infodumps) or the later books cannot be read as a standalone (i.e., it's just a continuation of a cliffhanger in the previous book).

I'm quite happy to say that this can be read as a standalone, and Jane Isaac has a deft hand at including enough information from previous happenings to let us know what went on before and how that shapes the current book.

DCI Helene Lavery, currently on leave to recover from incidents in the previous book, where she was injured and a fellow officer killed, is called back early to work a case. A young woman - and a police officer, at that - is found murdered in an empty factory/warehouse, tortured before a fatal slit of the throat.

Questions abound: why her? Why here? Who had access?

There are a lot of people in this book. If you're not good at keeping track, it might be helpful to jot a couple of notes here and there. Those include: two boys, playing in the factory, who found the body but didn't report it. Their mothers - and in the case of one boy, his sister as well, plus their father (who is in prison, and who is named but never appears in the book). A next door neighbor who recently went through cancer treatment and who exchanged a lot of texts with the victim, as well as her husband. The victim's husband, also a police officer. His ex-girlfriend. The victim's friend who is possibly more than a friend, and her brother. An ex-con with sadistic, sexually driven tendencies. Plus all the assorted officers in homicide, management, medical examiner and technician, and the crew who monitors the organized crime outfits.

The story is great. There isn't a lot I can give specifics on, for spoilery reasons, and that's one of the reasons the story is quite a good read. There is a great combination of action and thinking/conversation, and the clues (bar one that only makes an appearance at the end) are spun out, gathered by the reader as the police work the crime and the associated crimes that arise after it.

The only thing I'd have to nitpick about would be some curious sentence constructions, where a sentence rings a bit oddly because it should have been part of the sentence before it. Instead, it's a bit of a dangler, completing the thought of the sentence previous to it. But that and the clue at the end are very, very minor things: the former because the thought still comes across, and the latter because we know by that point toward the end (or way earlier, in my case) who the killer is.

Overall: five stars, not a rating I use often.

Now I'm off to get the first two in the series.

The third in A series of intricately plotted British mysteries, this is a smart, classy one.with acutely observed characters, sharp writing and a thorough command of the genre.

Well written and captivating from page one.
Well developed storyline, fast paced, with strong characters.
I was into it right away and didn't want to put it down.
The kind of crime thriller I love. It keeps you guessing and intersted until the last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

It’s been quite a while since I read a dedicated, full blown police procedural and having already read “Beneath the Ashes” the second in the DI Will Jackman, the other series by Jane Isaac, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed.
“A Deathly Silence” is the third in the DCI Helen Lavery series and although part of a series, I didn’t have any issues reading it as a stand-alone. Though now I’ve read and took to the characters, I’d happily go back and read the first two.
If it’s a police procedural you’re looking to read you’d be hard pushed to read much better then Jane’s books as they have good, solid, likeable and very believable characters that you immediately endear to. What I liked best about this book, was the fact there was one main thread to the plot and you were able to follow it through without any complications or having to back track to try and understand what’s going on. No fillers or padding or unnecessary detail just a concise and clear plot.
Superbly written, I thought the empathy shown by the other officers after the brutal torture and murder of one of their own very well covered and you could tell there has been an admirable amount of research carried out for the author to make everything feel authentic.
Classy, entertaining and a truly brilliant read, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend any of Jane Issac’s books and will certainly be reading more by her in the future.
An easy 5 stars!

DCI Helen Lavery is on a training course when she’s called back to work early. A body has been found in an abandoned factory. The female victim is handcuffed to a radiator, has been badly beaten, tortured and her throat has been slit. She’s been identified as PC Sinead O’Donnell. Helen and her team struggle to find any motive for the young police officer and mother of two’s murder. She had little family and when not at work spent her time with her husband and two young children and visiting her mother, who suffered with dementia, in a local nursing home. Sinead seemed to have few friends and was an extremely private person.

Fantastic read - couldn’t put it down. Thoroughly enjoying this series.

Thanks to Netgalley, Legend Press and Jane Isaac for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

A Deathly Silence is the third book in the DCI Helen Lavery series by Jane Isaac. Released 15th Oct 2019 by Legend Press, it's 288 pages and available in ebook format. This is a well written modern procedural and although the third in the series, I read it as a standalone and had no problems following the characters or keeping the plot straight in my mind. I fully intend to go and pick up the previous 2 books in the series as soon as I can.

The author is an adept writer. The pacing, dialogue, plotting, and entire story arc are precisely controlled and well paced and presented. I found the plot engaging and twisty with a surprising and satisfying denouement. This is a solidly entertaining and enjoyable read especially for fans of modern British procedurals. The language is PG rated, nothing too graphic or over the top. The slang and spelling are British (torch, lift, flat, etc), but nothing out of the ordinary or unintelligible in context. There is a fair bit of brutal description of previously occurring torture, including a murder of a police officer, used in context and having happened previous to the narrative.

The plot revolves around a single main plot thread with a very few supporting subplot elements, so it's a satisfying book to sit and read without being distracted by a story which is all over the place.I was impressed with how realistic the investigation seemed, and how believable the internal politics were, with different departments making the process of murder investigation more difficult than it needed to be because of bureaucracy.

Well written and satisfying. Four stars.

Another excellent book in this series. Although I had read the previous books I found that I needed to revisit the earlier books in the series to back track on characters and story lines that were referred to in this book.
Intriguing features in the story made one wonder if these things really happen in the life of our police officers or were they story lines that were far from the track of reality.

Didn't predict the ending until I was nearly there. A good read and I am now awaiting the next book in the series.

Thank you to Net galley and the publishers for an ARC.