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Martha Powers published her fourth mystery novel, Conspiracy of Silence in 2008. It shared the bronze award for Genre
Fiction at the 2008 Florida Book Awards. As in her previous novels, this story
takes place in the Midwest. The subject matter of Powers’ other mysteries told
the stories of child abduction, pedophiles, and murder. In Conspiracy
of Silence Clare Prentice discovers from her family doctor that she has
been adopted. Her adoptive mother,
Rose, has recently died. Clare has no one to ask for answers, and she has no
memories of her childhood prior to Rose. Instead she has some possibly forged
documents and a class ring from Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
Conveniently, Clare’s boss sends her to Grand Rapids from
Chicago to interview author, Nate Hanssen. With a little snooping and skullduggery, Clare finds that her
mother was murdered. No one wants
to talk about it, and Clare has her doubts about the police findings. As she snoops more, her memories begin
to return, and Clare fears the worst.
Powers does an incredible job of setting the scene and
describing Grand Rapids. I found
myself wanting to move to Grand Rapids.
Setting the scene is one of Martha’s strengths. In all of her books, she describes this
great little town were everyone wants to live, and then the evil slips from
underneath the rug or Chicago.
Overall, Conspiracy of
Silence is a good book. It has
a good plot; her description of the town and characters is great, and it had
plenty of suspense. The story had
some technical difficulties early in the book. Some minor points did not quite add up, but they did not
cause problems with the story line. The librarian’s back-story and age didn’t
fit the rest of the story. She was
old enough to be Rose’s mother, but had a brother younger than Rose. The librarian asked Clare if she took
milk in her ice tea. Minor items,
but they interrupt the reader, and they bothered me.
Bruce G. Smith 11/10/2009
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