With an opening chapter that would chill any mother to the bone I knew I was in for an intense read. The descriptive writing made it feel like I was in the cabin with Alison and Hazel, watching on in horror at what was sure to come.

Then we are sat in the car with Special Agent Kay Sharp, an FBI profiler, as she returns to her hometown Mount Chester. With her brother in jail after a bar fight and what looks like a serial killer on the loose targeting women, she is brought in to assist local detective Elliot Young.

I always go in to a series knowing that the characters will grow with you as the series progresses, but Kay felt so fleshed out I liked her straight away and I loved the developing relationship between her and Elliot. Her past was an interesting sub plot and not only did it show why she became the woman she is, it also gave a welcome breather from the intensity of the main plot line.

This is dark and disturbing at times but shows a well researched insight in to profiling and catching serial killers. This serial killer in particular made me question the why more than I have previously, seeing how his mind works and his motivations. I can’t wait to read the next book and hope there are many more to come in the series.

After escaping an abusive father, Kay Sharp becomes an FBI profiler and then leaves that job to return to her hometown after her brother Jacob is arrested. She is not there to help his case, but just to look after his home while he’s in jail for six months. Once she arrives at Mount Chester, she is caught up in the ritualistic serial killings that are taking place. Her skill as a profiler and a forensic psychologist are desperately needed to try to find a young mother and her little daughter before another victim is buried for cadaver dogs to find. The plot was well-developed as were most of the characters. The points of view are from Kay, a younger Kay and the killer. This book depicted disturbing violence that was shocking and hard for me to read at times. The plot was complex but riveting. The killer was twisted and a worthy match against the knowledge of Kay and the local police department. This is a good start to a new series, but I honestly don’t know if I can take this level of violence again. I enjoy a good thriller, but parts of this book were really hard for me to stomach. I give it 3.5 stars and hope that Kay Sharp will continue in her quest for justice although I may not read the next one.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bookouture via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

A young woman and her 8-year-old daughter are being held captive.  They had driven to the Pacific coast for a vacation.  The woman knows the evil man is going to kill them.

Dr. Kay Sharp is headed home to the Pacific cast from her job as a special agent for the FBI in San Francisco profiling violent crimes.  She had not been home in many years but is planning to stay because her usually easy-going brother, Jacob, got into a bar brawl earning him a six month prison sentence.  She will look after the family home where Jacob has been living.  Their parents are both gone.

When Kay reads about a young woman found murdered, she is determined to find out more.  Detective Elliott stops by and wants to learn more from her about her experience with serial killers.  That’s when she offers to help the local police department for free.

As things escalate with more women disappearing, Kay and Elliot, using her vast experience begin to zero in on the killer.

We also learn about Kay’s past in the town and some secrets that she herself is keeping.

This is a truly gripping and compelling thriller that kept my interest all the way through the book.  I think that mystery/thriller lovers will want to be sure and put this book on their lists.  It’s not to be missed.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

At the end of last year I decided that I was going to cut back on starting any new series so I could catch up with the ones I had fallen behind in. Then waltz’s in Bookouture with this new series from Leslie Wolfe and I was powerless to say anything other than yes to join in with the blog tour, after having read the blurb. It was like a magnet pulling me in and I just had to read this book and I am so glad that I did. What a sensational read this is!

With a summary to this book that reads in part like beautiful poetry, Leslie Wolfe’s ability to make the mundane sound so beautiful, creates a stunning contrast to the horror of the killer. Now Detective Kay Sharp has to catch them before it is too late for the shattered peace of Mount Chester to be regained.

I have so many female characters on my favourites list that I didn’t think I could fit anymore on it but, it would be remiss of me not to include Detective Kay Sharp to this list. What a brilliant strong and resilient woman she is but, one who is also damaged and puts everyone at arms length. Escaping her childhood home but unable to bury the horrific memories of what occurred there, it is a wonder she is able to function at all.

An author with an impressive bibliography behind her, Leslie Wolfe is a new author for me and one who’s work I am so glad to have been exposed to. I connected immediately to her writing and found it so hard to tear myself away from this book when life rudely got in the way.

The Girl From Silent Lake is an extremely dark, intense and thrilling read that will have you enthralled right from the get go. From the writing, to the structure, its characters, the lightening speed pace that it moves at and the story itself, which has been masterfully executed, I am really excited to read more from Leslie Wolfe and this series going forward. It was a pleasure to read and review The Girl From Silent Lake, which I highly recommend.

Thank you to Leslie Wolfe, Bookouture and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of The Girl From Silent Lake, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Detective Kay Sharp has returned to her hometown .. something she swore she'd never do. But a phone call from her younger brother sends the FBI Profiler back to a place that holds no good memories.

It's a small community and she's asked to help solve a crime. A dead woman has been found by Silent Lake under the dew-covered Fall leaves, her hair braided and her body wrapped in a blanket. Kay warns the local police that they have a serial killer in their midst.

And that's not the only body that will be found in the same exact condition. There's no seemingly connection between the women found .. and the one still missing. One was white, one was black, one was Asian. Some had children ... children that disappeared with their mothers .. one or two didn't.

So what's the connection? How is this killer finding his victims?  Where is he keeping them ... temporarily?

Kay needs to move fast .... before a horrifying secret is discovered .... and before Kay becomes the next victim.

The intricate plot is full of twists and turns, swirling around credible characters. Page-turning action starts on page one and doesn't stop until the explosive conclusion.

Many thanks to the author / Bookouture / Netgalley for the digital copy of this addictive new crime thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Gripping and absolutely thrilling. A pacy, fast paced addictive read from.an incredibly brilliant author. I was completely absorbed. Love this book and this author. Very highly recommended.

A great start to a new series. 
Kay leaves her job as a FBI profiler to return to her home town, as her brother has been sent to prison. She is far from happy to return but feels she has no choice. 
With both their parents dead, Jacob is all she has.
Kay is shocked at the state of the house but soon gets stuck into putting it right until she is approached by local Detective, Elliot. 
He knows she’s a great profiler and asks for her help with a murder case. Kay jumps at the chance to help and soon gets stuck into it. 
Throughout the book we have chapters from the killer and also flashbacks from Kay’s past, and we find out what made her leave home. 
As they discover more bodies they realise they need to catch this killer quickly as he just won’t stop. 
This is a gripping crime thriller that had me hooked. 
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The Girl from Silent Lake is the first book in a new thriller/mystery series by Leslie Wolfe. Due out 19th Feb 2021, it's 373 pages and will be available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

The author is adept at her craft. The book is well written technically, all the parts work the way they're supposed to. The action and plotting are engaging, and the majority of the dialogue is smoothly written and not clunky. Nevertheless I had a hard time reading this book. I just don't enjoy reading "kidnapper serial killer" thrillers and that is what this one is, top to bottom.  

The language and content are explicit and difficult to read in some places. I found it a gruelling and depressing read. For fans of the subgenre (serial killer kidnap mysteries with flawed protagonists with a hidden tragic past) this will be a four star read. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The Girl from Silent Lake is the first instalment in the Detective Kay Sharp series, set in her hometown of Mount Chester. Former FBI Agent Dr Sharp is no stranger to family trauma and this has had profound implications on her life going forward — she moved away from her childhood home to escape the haunting memories and the abuse that happened at the hands of her father. Having left the FBI, where she had been employed as a forensic psychologist involved in criminal profiling based out of San Francisco, when her younger brother, Jacob, is incarcerated for a term of 6 months on a trumped-up charge after a bar fight in which he punched someone but that resulted in no one getting hurt, Kay returns to the beautiful Northern California mountain terrain to houses it at his residence until he is released. While there she can't help but hear of the previously missing young woman who had just been found buried in the area but any guidance she's given police of late has fallen on deaf ears. It doesn't take long before she receives a visit from Detective Elliot Young from the Franklin County Police Department who requests her expertise in the most recent murder, presumably out of desperation. Reluctantly, she agrees and as she assesses the information she's been handed her formidable instincts tell her that the most recent killing is the work of a seasoned professional who has both murdered before and will do so again. 

The series of murders and abductions of women have been on Kay’s mind recently and she believes they will not cease until the ruthless, evil serial murderer is caught and punished. It will take the whole of the local police’s resources and Kay’s continually updated analysis of the killer's traits to put a stop to the terror that has enveloped the rural town. Little does she know that in doing so she will reveal links to her past. This is a compulsive, compelling and unbelievably twisty as well as twisted storyline and moves at rapid-fire pace giving you barely a moment to catch your breath. It shifts between developments quickly keeping the action moving without ever a dull moment and you lose yourself in the pages as you're immersed in the fascinating main thread regarding the murders and abductions and the equally interesting minor threads exploring Kay’s personal life and family. Kay is a strong, fierce and independent protagonist just trying to make her way in life whilst also trying to look out for those she loves. It is told from the perspectives of present-day Kay and that of the past as well as including the killer’s thoughts and motives, and the way the timeline shifts is carried out seamlessly, addressing her awful and deeply-affecting childhood years and later it is also revealed that she has a secret which I presume will come into play in upcoming instalments. I loved that we get a full backstory of the killer including how he became who he is today which made for intriguing reading. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this new thriller. It's the first in what promises to be a great series. The characters are interesting and much deeper than they first appear. I really liked Kay. I'm on the fence a bit about Elliot. At times I really liked him and others I thought he was an idiot. I really look forward to seeing these two develop as the series progresses. 
The mystery is dark and intense. The parts from the killers perspective made me alternately feel sick and sorry for him. I guessed quite early who it was. Not all the details or why, but the who. However, it doesn't take anything away from the story. I can't wait to see what comes next.

“Nothing but silence met her agony”. 
--------------------------

Can my past destroy my present? 

“The Girl from Silent Lake” plays with this premise.

The book starts with a woman called Alison. A man has kidnapped her together with her little girl, Hazel. 

The man looks clean, his clothes are expensive, his manners educated. Damn, he even looks handsome…However his behaviour is quite out of the ordinary. He is braiding her hair! 

On the other hand, the police side, we meet Special Agent Kay Sharp who has quitted her FBI job as a very successful serial killer profiler to go back home in Mount Chester. The reason for such a big change in her life is because his little brother Jason is in prison for a street fight. 

Jason has been given quite a long sentence, which Kay thinks is just too much. There is something fishy…Furthermore, she has to take care of her family house while he is in prison, and keep it away from loiterers, especially the garden…

However, she is not happy about the idea of returning home. Last time she was there was 10 years ago for her mother’s funeral. So she would have to deal with a lot of dark, sad memories she had better brushed under the carpet.

However, Kay wants to help the local police as bodies of women start to appear buried in quite exceptional circumstances around Silent Lake. 

The bodies seem to follow some ritualistic method used for burials in various Native American tribes. 


THE STORY

These are the two sides of the story. On one hand we have the point of view of the killer and the victims and on the other hand the point of view of law enforcement embodied in Detective Sharp and Detective Elliot Young from the Sheriff’s Office. 

It is quite heart-wrenching to read about the feelings of the victims, what they think and feel during the time they are tortured by the killer. In my opinion this gives a lot of credibility to the story and makes you feel at least a small percentage of the fear and the anger they must have experienced during those awful moments. 

Specially interesting is the fact that some of them have been kidnapped together with their sons and daughters. This gives a whole new dimension to the agony, because they don’t only feel for themselves but for their offspring. 

KAY SHARP & SERIAL KILLERS

I think liking or not liking the main character is quite important when it comes to enjoy a book or not. For me, Detective Kay Sharp is a very attractive character. She is a very successful woman, very intelligent, and has a quite dark past.

However, she tries very hard to hide this awful past as it would interfere tremendously which what she actually does for a living. If the incident that happened when she was a teenager were to come to light, her world would crumble. For this reason, she tries to keep herself separated from everyone, even from people she likes, like Detective Elliot Young.

Furthermore, the author Leslie Wolfe gives us a lot of information about serial killers and how the profilers work to try to catch them.

As a fan of true crime TV shows, I find it fascinating how these people try to gather together all the info they have to try to capture the killer. In the book there is quite a lot of information about profiling serial killers and I have learnt a lot with it. So the writer has really done a superb documentation job.   

FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT “THE GIRL FROM SILENT LAKE”

I can say I recommend this book very much. The story line is not so quick as in other thrillers but this helps the book in my opinion. It gives you time to think about what is happening, about all the facts, and reach your own conclusion.

The elements related to Native Americans are fascinating, as I don’t know much about them unfortunately. The fact that Kay has a very strong relation to a Native American family gives the story an added value.

All the police procedure explanation, the forensic information and the serial killer profiling serve beautifully to finish up the story. 

Being able to learn about what motivates these people to do the things they do is something that has always interested me. Because of their brutality, I have always wondered what could have possibly gone wrong at one time in their life for them to commit those horrendous crimes.

The question I always make myself is the following: Is someone born a serial killer or are the circumstances around that person solely responsible? I have found no answer for that…

My only complain is the many detailed descriptions of the tortures applied to the victims. I found them sometimes hard to read and made me at times quite sick.

Furthermore, another small complain is perhaps the fact that the main story line of “a female detective haunted by her past tries to catch sadistic killer” is not a novelty. We have all read a similar story for sure…That is the reason for my four stars. 

In addition, I want to mention the elegant style in which the book is written. Wolfe’s writing is very classy and although he is sometimes describing horrible things, the language he uses is very rich and tasteful.    

So, all things said, I will happily read the next instalments in the Detective Kay Sharp series.  
-----------------------------------
Thanks to the publisher, Bookouture, the author Leslie Wolfe and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of “The Girl from Silent Lake” in exchange for an honest review.

Detective Kay Sharp left home after unforgettable family trauma. A Special Agent with the FBI, Kay has become a renowned criminalist and also has a psychology degree. Coming back home is the last thing Kay wanted to do, but her brother Jacob has gotten himself in trouble, and is being jailed for a short duration. Kay feels responsible for Jacob and his house, so she leaves her career behind and goes back to home to a place where she is haunted by terrible memories.

It takes but a minute for Kay to step foot in the small town when she realizes they have been rocked by the murder of a woman. The murder carries a very specific signature of a serial killer that is currently serving multiple life terms in prison. Is there a copycat at play, and if so, how many more victims will there be?

Kay's expertise is not always welcome, but once she recognizes that a child is missing, she puts her all into the investigation. By so doing, her own past hits her square in the face. Meanwhile, Kay has had a secret for years and if she is not careful, that secret will be exposed.

What a fabulous first book in what will no doubt be an excellent series! Leslie Wolfe is a new name for me and I was ecstatic to be able to read the first book in a new series. I love how she developed Kay's character, as well as how the plot and the conflict played out. In fact, I am excited to read the next book in the series, Beneath Blackwater River, which is set for release April 23rd. I love Kay and cannot wait to see how she handles her next case. 

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

An Unputdownable roller coaster. The characters in this book just grip you. They are so well developed and relatable. The plot is unique and the story is fabulously written . Once you start reading you simply have to keep going to find out what is going on. One twist after another and when you think you know what’s going on there’s another twisted turn. This book described some brutal violence and parts were fairly graphic, however I love me a good, gritty horrifying read. This one gets two resounding thumbs up from me.

This was a fantastic thriller that had me hooked from the beginning. I have read many of Leslie Wolfe's novels and enjoyed them tremendously. This is gripping and twists throughout will keep you turning the pages. 

I received a copy of this from the author in exchange for fair and honest review.

This book has a good plot and writing, the characters explained through their past with the atmosphere adding to the flavour. The investigation and the unravelling of the suspense are handled deftly. The violent aspect could be tamed down to make it more enjoyable.

The Girl from Silent Lake is one of those books that make the most of violence toward women.  The kind of thriller that likes shocking torture and abuse.  Of women.  

I'm tired of reading this kind of thriller, especially when the author is capable of writing a good mystery/thriller without concentrating on the torture and abuse.  It isn't that I don't enjoy some books in this category, but they must make the investigation more important than the details of psychopathic behavior.

I read this one last month and debated about reviewing it.  Most reviews are positive, but it annoyed me more than entertained me.

NetGalley/Bookouture
Thriller.  2021.  Print length:  373 pages.

Kay is a FBI profiler who "resigns" from her job and moves to her childhood hometown, Well, when she gets there, there are crimes that she needs to investigate and one of them is very personal...

I've not read this series before but you can read it as a  standalone although I think I would have got more from it had I read the earlier ones. I will do that now. Series is a good one and an intriguingly fresh main character is very good.

The title and cover are particularly intriguing!

This is the first book I have read by this author.  The book is vividly written so the reader is totally enmeshed in the world of Mount Chester.  The characters are succinctly developed and give amazing insight into their thought processes.  I read a lot of mystery-thriller-suspense type books and this one threw me for a loop.  I promise you will not see the end coming.  The story is horrific at first blush and quickly becomes terrifying.  I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to be unbelievably compelled to keep reading in order to find out what happens next.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of The Girl from Silent Lake, the first novel to feature former FBI agent Dr Kay Sharp.

Kay returns home to Mount Chester in the mountains of Northern California to house sit when her brother is incarcerated. While home she becomes fascinated by the murder of a young woman whose body has recently been uncovered. She is asked by the local detective to use her profiling skills to help identify the killer and in doing so finds links to her past.

I quite enjoyed The Girl from Silent Lake because it has a twisted plot told at breakneck speed. There is so much to keep up with it’s hard to find time to breathe, but the downside to this is that it’s fairly superficial and the developments come easily. To be fair, not much more is required in a thriller and it does its job well.

The novel is told mainly from three points of view, Kay, her past and the killer. Kay is the main plot propellant as it is her insights that push it forward. That she seems omniscient by the age of 30 is just something the reader has to accept. The novel also skips back to her childhood and eventually explains why she has returned to Mount Chester. It’s a secret she intends to keep and I can see it playing out in future novels. The killer is unnamed until the denouement but his past is fully examined over the course of the novel. I found it totally unrealistic and skim read much of it. 

This is a novel that follows the tried and tested formula of a feisty female detective with secrets who hunts for a twisted killer with childhood and personality issues. It is an entertaining read but offers nothing new. 3.5*

I was given an ARC of this book for an honest review. Thank you Net Galley for this opportunity. 
I really enjoy crime stories of all kinds. I am glad this is book one of a series because I truly enjoyed it. I actually felt sorry for the killer in the beginning it was really heartbreaking how his poor life started out. That being said you can’t keep that frame of mind when he starts killing. Kate arrives on the scene by accident because of her brother being in prison she quits her job as FBI profiler to come back to her hometown. She can’t help but get involved and the hunt begins and the excitement too !  This is a real page turner I couldn’t put it down . Can’t wait for the next book ! If you like crime stories I highly recommend.