A Dangerous Silence

Palmer (A Town Called Hope; Finders Keepers) departs from her usual genre of Christian romance for this character-driven suspense novel. Cowley County, Kansas, with its unpredictable, merciless weather patterns, is home to Big Ed Morgan, an ancient tower of a farmer whose tendencies toward extreme severity match his surroundings. Independent and stubborn, Morgan relies on no one until one backward step off a barn loft sends him tumbling into nothingness. The injured Big Ed has to ask his estranged eldest daughter, Marah, a well-coiffed young pediatrician in St. Louis, for help running the farm. Marah, whose own simmering bitterness toward her father has been well honed, finds the idea of temporarily running the farm as distasteful as re-entering the world she fled 18 years earlier. Still, Marah and Big Ed have more on their minds than just getting along; mysteries surround an Indian burial site located on Morgan's land, and questions about Marah's mother's death 25 years earlier contribute to a murderous tangle that ties the past with a haunting present. Palmer's contemporary thriller reads plausibly and sweeps readers into the story, pairing deep emotions with numerous suspenseful scenes. Palmer certainly doesn't preach, yet spiritual truths come part and parcel with the story. Balancing her characters' flood of negative emotions with their spiritual reawakening is difficult, but Palmer succeeds admirably. Fans of Dee Henderson's fast-paced Christian thrillers will find Palmer's novel just as riveting. (Apr.)