DEAD SILENT a gripping detective thriller full of suspense (Calladine & Bayliss Mystery Book 2)

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A really good read . . . the perfect balance of investigation versus personal drama for the lead.’ Linda B. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Rachel McLean, Kimberley Chambers, Damien Boyd, Rachel Abbott, Patricia Gibney, D.S. Butler or Mark Billingham. The setting is the village of Leesdon, but the author has taken some artistic liberties to enhance the novel. The writing is exact, taut. She has breathed life into her characters. DI Calladine is dealing with personal problems, as well as work problems. He has a girlfriend, of sorts, that he's trying to break up with. His elderly mother is in a home and is having some health problems. His second in command DS Ruth Bayliss makes a great cop, but she doesn't take any guff off him. Tom's commanding officer is incompetent. And then there's the beautiful news reporter who wants an exclusive.

DCI Rachel King. Mother of two teenage daughters and a toddler son. Divorced from Alan. She lives in the Cheshire village of Poynton — about ten miles from central Manchester. She is good at her job, gets results but can occasionally make mistakes. One of them was getting involved with a budding villain in her teens. A decision which continues to haunt her.The estate is well described & you get a real sense of the hopelessness & resulting violence that flourishes in an environment of poverty & lost dreams.

Alice knows this case is a poisoned chalice. Not least because she has a new team to contend with — who don’t like being bossed around by a woman.

There are a couple other situations happening at the same time ... the death of Calladine's mother, an old girlfriend reappears, Bayliss is having her own problems...mostly person with a man she's been dating who is having a real hard time being delegated to third place, after her job and her stress-relieving bird watching. I had an inclination as to who the culprit was, but to be sure, I just had to read to the end as you get left in doubt with your suspicion now and again saying "am I wrong? am I right?" A case that was solved early in the book seemed to have little impact and no mention of repercussions, so why was it included? Was it simply to make the team appear overwhelmed with cases? DS Ruth Bayliss was as close as ever to Calladine, but they are just best friends. She seemed to be more of a sounding board and a conscience telling him what to do in his personal life. Bayliss also has her own personal issues. Both were a bit repetitive.

Is this the start of a drug war on this impoverished housing estate...or is there something more sinister going on? I've had this on my TBR mountain for quite a while now, but when I noticed that an audio version is now available AND it was read by Jonathan Keeble (whom I discovered and whose narration I fell in love with last week while listening to A Tapping at my Door), it moved straight to the top.This is a totally gripping twisty turny book with plenty going on: an abducted child, murder of a witness and the dead/missing young women. Given that Calladine is short a detective and his DCI is ineffectual the team have their work cut out trying to juggle everything so the last thing Calladine is expecting is to have Pandora's box delivered from the grave. Whilst all this is going on his personal life is still a mess and he gains an unexpected relative or two. His so called cousin is awaiting trial for all his viscous crimes and one by one he is having the witnesses taken out of the equation, one of those on the list is Callandine!!! Dead Silent by Helen Durrant is this month’s read over at the Kindle English Mystery Club on Goodreads. This is book 2 in the Calladine and Bayliss series. I have not read Book 1 so this is my introduction to the characters. The main protagonist of Calladine is a good character with conflicts occurring in his love life, in his relationship with his adult daughter, in the impact having a criminal relative is having on his career and in dealing with the death of his mother and her deathbed revelations. All this and a missing child and mysterious, horribly tortured body found at the scene of an auto accident.