Judge Sampson has a prestigious job, two healthy kids, a loving wife and a happy routine. For example, every Wednesday afternoon, Judge Sampson leaves the courthouse early to pick up his six-year-old twins for swimming. On one particular Wednesday, his wife, Alison, texts him that she will get the kids from school instead because of a forgotten doctor's appointment. Sure, this is out of the routine but the judge doesn't question it. Not until Alison comes home at 5:52 p.m. without the twins and insisting she never sent the text. So where are Sam and Emma?

What happens next changes the Sampson family's lives: a kidnapper calls. Sam and Emma are being held until the judge rules exactly how he is told in a high-profile case. He's been compromised! Besides following the instructions of the kidnapper, Judge Sampson and his wife are instructed to say nothing or they will never get the twins back. So begins the game of blackmail, suspicions, politics and corruption.

Sometimes it is hard for me to think of the right adjectives to describe a book. Especially when the book is really bad or really, really good. From page one to page 448, Say Nothing had one word going through my mind while reading: unputdownable. Seriously. This book captured me like one of its characters and didn't let go until it was through with me. Say Nothing was the type of novel that I held in my hand while walking, eating and right before sleeping. This is no ordinary kidnapping story.

This is my first novel read by Brad Parks and I am impressed (so much so that I downloaded his first published novel that received multiple awards). I thought the story would drag out since the book was nearly 500 pages long but Say Nothing was very well-paced. And unlike other long novels, none of the characters annoyed me. No unnecessary wording. No mindless dialogue. No distracting side plots. All interesting and relevant.

Like any good mystery, I tried to figure out whodunnit. I questioned which character was guilty or innocent, which character was truthful or a liar. Some of the actions of the main characters got a side-eye from me. Would I have really said nothing if I were the Honorable Judge Sampson or his wife? Would I have kept secrets hiding my involvement? Would I have done more than comply with instructions while hoping for the safe return of my children? I would certainly have reacted differently to some of the events but that's what kept me interested. Far as who did what, when and why, I was partially right but still surprised at the ending. And when I say "ending," I mean until the very last pages. What a suspenseful ride!

Happy Early Pub Day, Brad Parks! Say Nothing will be available next Tuesday, March 7..

LiteraryMarie

The beginning of this book really grabbed my attention. I thought the writing was strong. It wasn't until the kids were kidnapped and the parents reacted by doing absolutely nothing that I felt it just didn't ring true or realistic. They went to work and got through their days and I just felt that the author was saying they were upset and stressed but their actions didn't connect with that. It was a case of too much telling. I just couldn't really buy into the fact that they told their family but didn't seek the help of any law enforcement. And for Scott as a judge to risk breaking he law on top of it, I couldn't buy it. By the middle I my attention was waining and I found I wasn't that interested in the outcome. I'm not sure if it was a case of just too much detail and not enough character building? Overall, this wasn't a story I really ended up enjoying

3.5 stars

A federal judge's twin children are brazenly kidnapped. It turns out someone wants to fix a lawsuit that's on the judge's docket. They give it a test run and the judge comes through beautifully so he is rewarded. Then the major case comes up. What will the judge do this time?

There were a lot of implausibilities in this book for me. I have a hard accepting a federal judge would not involve law enforcement no matter what the kidnappers threaten. I find it hard to accept that an armed patrol of his wife's family would be what he selects. Why would they confide in the wife's family and not law enforcement? He lies to the head judge and faces impeachment. His friend, the senator from Virginia, goes over and aboard to help with out knowing anything.

The writing gets a little saccharine and over the top too. He says, "If I had known ...that it would end with the worst agony imaginable." Alison, the wife, won't let him contact the authorities in case they cut off the children's fingers by saying, "I grew those fingers." "Death was creeping closer."

Parks writes a great, humorous series of mysteries with Carter Ross. I really recommend you try one of those. There's a nice homage to Ross in this book that was my favorite part.

What saves this book is the ending. The outcome comes out of nowhere and yet was totally honest and fit. I was shocked to my core. The ending brought the rating up for it. It is a real page turner but it's not the best of Parks' work.

My thanks to Net Galley for this book to review.

Scott Sampson is held in high esteem as a judge and is well-liked in his working life. He is a family man, he dotes on his twins, Emma and Sam, and on his wife, Alison. For the past four years, they have lived in secluded farm house alongside the York river. You could say his life is pretty much perfect. That is until one day he finds out his children have been kidnapped.
This book was full of secrets and little twists so that every time I thought I knew who was behind the kidnapping something would come along and make me question everything I thought I knew.
“Their first move against us was so small, such an infinitesimal blip against the blaring background noise of life, I didn’t register it as anything significant.
It came in the form of a text from my wife, Alison, and it arrived on my phone at 3.28 one Wednesday afternoon:
Hey sorry forgot to tell you kids have Dr appointment this pm. Picking them up soon”,
Judge Sampson is disappointed because he normally takes his 6 -year- old twins, swimming on a Wednesday afternoon.
“I looked forward to it in the same way I cherished all the weekly rites that had come to define our family’s little universe. Friday for example, was Board Game appaloosa. Sunday was Pancake Day. Monday was Hats and Dancing, which involved, well, dancing. With hats on…I have come to believe a good routine is the bedrock of a happy family, and therefore a happy marriage, and therefore a happy life.”
His devotion to his family is clear to the reader from the beginning and his life seems idyllic.
“So I would have told you, all things considered, I had it pretty damn good, with two healthy kids, my loving wife, my challenging – but -rewarding job, my happy routine.
Or at least that’s what I would have said until 5.52pm that Wednesday.
That’s when Alison arrived home.
Alone.”
At first Scott doesn’t realise what is happening, but then when Alison has no idea where the kids are either he knows something is wrong. I suddenly know what it must be like to sit on a beach when all the water mysteriously rushes away, as happens just before a tsunami. You simply can’t imagine the size of the things that’s about to hit you.
Shortly after Alison arrives home the kidnappers call and inform him that if he wants to see either of his children again he needs to rule the way they want in an upcoming drug sentencing: United States VS Skavron
‘You will not go to the police,’ the voice continued. ‘You will not approach the FBI. You will not notify the authorities in any way. Your children remaining alive and unharmed depends on you going about your business as if nothing is wrong. You will do nothing. You will say nothing. Do you understand?...If we even suspect you’ve spoken to the authorities, we’ll start chopping off fingers. If we know for a fact you have, we’ll do ears and noses.”
Immediately after the kidnapper hangs up Scott starts thinking about contacting the police but Alison is adamant that they shouldn’t.
‘What do you want to do? Test them to see if they’re really serious? They’re serious okay? We have to assume they’re out in the woods.’ – She pointed in the direction of the approximately ten acres of forest between our house and the road – ‘and the moment they see a cop car, marked or unmarked, they’re going to start carving. I don’t want pieces of my children sent to me in the mail.”
Immediately the impact on Scott and Alison’s marriage is clear as they fail to comfort each other and each retreat to separate areas of the house.
“I thought of Sam. Brave, lovely Sam. Alison and I have done our best to eschew gender stereotypes in how we raised our children. Yet Sam is still one hundred per cent boy. There’s a certain amount of energy he simply has to expend each day. And if he doesn’t? Woe to all furniture, walls and human beings in his path. Sometimes in the late afternoon, when his rambunctiousness is about to overwhelm all of us, we’ll send him to run laps around the house.
Then I thought of Emma. Sweet, thoughtful Emma. She also has her share of energy, except she expresses it emotionally, rather than physically. She is incredibly perceptive. If Alison and I have a loud conversation – even if we aren’t disagreeing about something, just talking boisterously – she’ll go ask us to stop fighting. One the rare occasions I’ve had to reprimand her, I had learned to do so gently, beginning with assurances that I loved her endlessly and forever. Otherwise, one cross look could make her burst into tears and end all hope of discourse.”
As suspicions form over who orchestrated the kidnapping, old jealousies arise and Scott and Alison begin to keep secrets from each other.
I really wanted to include more thoughts on the book but I don’t want to include any spoilers. Suffice to say that you will need tissues for the ending.

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Since his debut novel, Faces of the Gone in 2009, I've considered myself a Brad Parks fan -- but when I heard that he was going to step away from his series for a stand-alone, I got a little nervous. Maybe I wasn't a Brad Parks fan -- maybe I was just a Carter Ross fan. Honestly, the parts of the Carter Ross novels that he doesn't narrate aren't my favorite. Also, we all know all too well that for every Suspect or Mystic River, series writers can give us a The Two Minute Rule or Shutter Island -- maybe grabbing this book was going to be a mistake.

Thankfully, it wasn't.

While working on this post, I saw this from Sue Grafton talking about Say Nothing: "Terrific book. Truly terrific. Tension throughout and tears at the end. What could be better than that?" I'm a little annoyed by this, honestly. That's pretty much how I was going to sum up things for this post. Frankly, I wish Grafton would focus her efforts on finding another 5 letters between X and Z rather than preemptively stealing my lines.

We meet Judge Scott Sampson a few minutes after the biggest crisis of his life has started -- and a few minutes before he leans about it. Once you get to learn Sampson a little, you'll see that the bar for biggest crisis for him is set a little higher than for most. He's informed that his twin children have been kidnapped and is provided some pretty compelling reasons to believe that he's under surveillance (and will soon be given even more reason to believe that). Basically, the message he gets is this: if you want to see you children alive and well, you will do what we tell you to with a case. There are a few tests he has to pass to demonstrate his compliance -- tests that may do lasting damage to his career. But Sampson is eager to prove that he will do whatever he's asked for his children, consequences notwithstanding.

This isn't going to be an overnight escapade -- in fact, for Sampson and his wife (how have I failed to mention Allison?), this is an ordeal of indefinite duration. The stress, the worry, the intense reaction to this situation begins taking its toll almost immediately. These pressures test their individual ethics, bring secrets to light, expose and exacerbate problems in their marriage, and generally bring them both to the breaking point. They are also both driven to discover their inner-Liam Neeson in order to get their daughter (and son) back -- neither, really possess a particular set of skills fitting this goal, sadly. These attempts just make their personal and interpersonal woes worse -- and their lives continue spinning out of their control.

There is a relentlessness to the pace that's a pleasure -- and a drain. Jack Reacher gets a good night's sleep and enjoys coffee (and the less than occasional romantic interlude), Harry Bosch has jazz to relax him, Elvis Cole has that cat and Tai Chi -- as intense as things may get, by and large these guys get a break. But for Scott and Allison -- their children don't stop being kidnapped, and whatever solace they might find in alcohol, sleep or family -- it's a temporary band-aid at best.

This doesn't mean that it's not an enjoyable read -- Scott is a charming character and you will like him as you learn more about his life and family. You will not approve of every move he makes here (I guess you might, but I hope you don't), but on the whole you will understand why he makes them and won't judge him too harshly. Whoops, I was talking about tone here -- I had fun with this, even as I was feeling a shadow of the pressure Scott and Allison are under, I even laughed once. There's a real sense of peril when the narration focuses on the children -- but it never feels exploitative.

Like most readers will, I had a couple of pretty compelling theories about who was behind everything (and why), and focused on the correct one pretty early on. Which didn't stop me from being taken aback when it Parks revealed it -- he really handled that well. Another weakness comes in the last couple of pages where Parks ties up a few loose ends, and a couple of them feel too tidy. But it's instantly forgivable, and you want these characters to have something tidy after all they've gone through. On the whole, however, the characters and situations are complex and real (if heightened) -- Parks nailed this whole thing. I think this will hold up to at least one repeat reading -- the second read might even be more rewarding since you can appreciate what Parks is doing without being distracted by wondering what'll happen.

The tears that Grafton mentioned? Yeah, she got that part right, too.

This is a thriller filled with real people and situations that you can believe. You'll run the emotional gamut a time or two while reading this and will wish you could read faster just so you can make sure these kids make it home. I think I like the Carter Ross books more than this, but it's in Say Nothing that Parks finds his stride as a crime fiction writer. Really well done.

By the way, It turns out that I am a fan of Brad Parks. Phew.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Dutton via NetGalley in exchange for this post -- thanks to both for this, although my Primary Care Physician probably isn't crazy about what it did to my blood pressure .

I can't believe that Brad Parks has escaped my notice until now. This was a great book! I felt like I was actually in the story and it was a memorable time. I won't forget Say Nothing for a long time.

Life is great until the a judge and father of twins arrives home to discover his children have been kidnapped. They will be returned in safety only if he an his wife agree to "say nothing." What would a father do to secure justice - and the safe return of his children?

Brad Parks' suspenseful standalone strays so far from his Carter Ross series that the only break the reader gets is when the judge gives a PI Carter's name as a pseudonym.

Parks leaves Ross's newspaper setting to write about a judge with a perfect life, a perfect wife and two perfect children. On page one, someone kidnaps the children to gain leverage in a high profile court case the judge is hearing and the parents' hell begins.

Using short chapters and lots of surprises, the book never slows down until it ends. Parks gives Harlan Coben a run for his money in this genre.

Brad Parks new thriller about a judge and his wife whose twin children have been kidnapped grabs the reader immediately and pulls you right into the story. It's an interesting premise, the "what if" factor high, in my opinion.

I enjoyed how Parks deftly weaves the threads of his novel together into a knot so tight, it feels like one will burst until there is a resolution. A must read for thriller lovers.

I have a very divided opinion about this book. I enjoyed the face paced complicated plot. It was fascinating and I enjoyed the narration by the beleaguered judge. The efforts to manipulate the stock market and the incredible rewards reaped by hedge funds certainly made an original motivation for this thriller.

BUT, I hate the use of children in the plot to manipulate emotions and create tension. This is where I found one of the flaws. However, the greatest flaw lied in the simplistic, facile and saccharine ending that had the brave and noble mother giving up her life for her child, but OOPS, it didn't matter since she had terminal cancer anyway. This was more like one of the cartoonish internet stories that are passed along FACEBOOK than the end of a mature and complex thriller.