Sins of Silence

Currently 0/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

You may use the stars on the left to rate and leave feedback for the current article. No registration is required. Waiting for 5 votes

Sins of Silence

by Valerie Wilcox

Publisher: Berkley Books, Prime Crime, 1998, Paperback, 322 pages
ISBN: 0425163962

A murder mystery may be an unexpected place to find a melange of adoption issues, but that's just the venue chosen by Valerie Wilcox in her first novel, Sins of Silence. Adoption, the search for birth parents, and adoptive family relationships mix it up with amateur sleuthing and the salty tang of the sea.

We meet our protagonist, sailing instructor Kellie Montgomery, as she discovers a double murder aboard the yacht of her marina neighbors: the attorney who handled the adoption of her daughter twenty years earlier, and his wife. It's not quite clear why or how Kellie becomes such a major player in solving the mystery, but solve it she does.

What makes the book particularly interesting from an adoption standpoint are the interactions that take place between Kellie and her daughter who has decided to search for her birth parents. Tension between the two erupts in some very human dialog reflecting the differing positions of triad members, and the rights of each.

If writing based on personal experience is the key to success, Author Wilcox should be headed in the right direction. She is an adoptive parent, was living aboard a sail boat while writing the book, and is a long-time resident of the Pacific Northwest - all mirrored in her new addition to the roster of amateur detectives, Kellie Montgomery.

Sins of Silence is a good, if slightly predictable, read, with romantic interest, great sailing scenes, and a slew of adoption-related shadows lurking in the background, including black market adoptions, illegal search, and birth parent vulnerability.

Sins of Silence is the first in a three-book series featuring Kellie Montgomery. It will be interesting to see how author Wilcox develops what appears to be an ongoing adoption-related theme in the next two books.

Add Your Comments!

We want to know what you think. Your comments are important to us and the other readers. You are what makes this site special.