cover image The Whisper of Leaves

The Whisper of Leaves

Craig Smith. Southern Illinois University Press, $14 (368pp) ISBN 978-0-8093-2480-4

In Craig Smith's The Whisper of Leaves, which has been revised since its U.K. publication under the title Silent She Sleeps (1997), a serial killer stalks a southern Illinois college town. When Professor Josie Darling returns to teach at Lues State 20 years after her mother's murder, she must contend with a lot more than the usual academic battles in this dark, cat-and-mouse thriller.