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A review by kimdavishb
Splintered Silence by Susan Furlong
5.0
I’ve been a longtime fan of Susan Furlong, known for her cozy mysteries. I was anxious to read SPLINTERED SILENCE, her first foray into suspense and was captivated by her page-turning story introducing readers to the Irish Travellers. Ms. Furlong creates a vivid picture of a subculture that I’ve never heard about. She uses her deeply emotionally scarred protagonist, Brynn Callahan, to effectively delve beneath the surface of the tightly knit community, known as the Bone Gap Travellers. In addition to Brynn suffering a grievous event in her young life, she went on to suffer traumatically while serving as a Marine overseas. She returns to her community, bringing her equally injured service dog, Wilco, with her. Not only do they both have physical injuries, they both have PTSD. Ms. Furlong treats this heartbreaking subject with a deft touch, never minimalizing it. She writes with an emotional rawness that draws the reader in, bringing a realistic look at what the protagonist experiences.
The mystery surrounding the body that Wilco finds in the woods has many twists and turns. I found it interesting that the people of the Bone Gap Travelers have a deep-seated mistrust of the townspeople and the town has an equally deep-seated loathing of the “gypsies” as they call Brynn’s people. This distrust persists despite many, many decades of living next to each other. As such, Brynn doesn’t feel like she can rely on the town’s law enforcement to find answers. She is pulled into the investigation, drawing on her and Wilco’s training as a human remains detection experts. It is fully apparent that Ms. Furlong has spent many hours researching the procedures involved and I was intrigued by the insights she provides about training dogs for military and police use. It adds to the authenticity of the story. The suspense builds as you turn the pages and it was difficult to put the book down. I look forward to reading more about Brynn Callahan and applaud Ms. Furlong for an exciting foray into the suspense genre!
I was provided an advance copy via Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The mystery surrounding the body that Wilco finds in the woods has many twists and turns. I found it interesting that the people of the Bone Gap Travelers have a deep-seated mistrust of the townspeople and the town has an equally deep-seated loathing of the “gypsies” as they call Brynn’s people. This distrust persists despite many, many decades of living next to each other. As such, Brynn doesn’t feel like she can rely on the town’s law enforcement to find answers. She is pulled into the investigation, drawing on her and Wilco’s training as a human remains detection experts. It is fully apparent that Ms. Furlong has spent many hours researching the procedures involved and I was intrigued by the insights she provides about training dogs for military and police use. It adds to the authenticity of the story. The suspense builds as you turn the pages and it was difficult to put the book down. I look forward to reading more about Brynn Callahan and applaud Ms. Furlong for an exciting foray into the suspense genre!
I was provided an advance copy via Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.