A review by readaholicliv
With Silent Screams by Steve McHugh

4.0

I finished my drink of water and placed the glass in the sink. Normally, I would have answered him first, but since he'd been rude to me, he could bloody well wait.

Be advised that before going any further that this book, at least at the time of this review, is available on Kindle Unlimited to read and listen to for free. This was the medium I chose to read/listen to this book.

In my review of Born of Hatred, I had voiced concerns about the fact that there was only one character reoccurring from the first book, Crimes Against Magic, to the second. However, a sturdy foundation of character and location development has been made for reoccurring characters and locations in this book.

An old friend has been killed with a pointed message left at the scene for Nate, leaving him to want answers, and more importantly, vengeance for the death of his friend. Knowing Nate’s relentlessness, I’m sure you can colorfully guess the ways those involved will pay.

The third guard kicked out at me, hoping to catch me unaware, but I kicked out at the other leg and broke his knee. He collapsed to the floor like a felled tree, writhing in pain until I kicked him in the head.

I enjoyed this book more than the first two combined. I like that Nathan isn’t necessarily a good or a bad guy, just someone whose willing to do what he thinks is right no matter the cost. He’s colossally made the wrong call numerous times and has a hot streak a mile wide, but when he screws up he’ll do whatever is necessary to remedy the situation accordingly.

Nate winds up working with a headstrong FBI agent, Caitlin Moore. At first I internally sighed, thinking this was going to be yet another flirtatious sex interest for our lovable main protagonist. I was glad when that turned out to not be the case. Nate undoubtedly gets laid more frequently than James Bond does, which is probably my biggest qualm against the guy—not that he gets lucky so often, just how unrealistically easy it occurs.

"...One last thing. If you're lying to me and you try to escape or you hurt anyone, I'm going to find you and I'm going to make that stab wound look like a splinter. We clear?"

Caitlin has close ties to the case and ends up being a character I enjoyed seeing have screen time as the story progressed. She’s stubborn in (mostly) the right kind of ways and has enough quips to go head-to-head against Nate's, leaving for humorous interactions between the two.

I liked so many people in this book that if I dedicated a small paragraph explaining why I liked each of them, this review would be massive. Without going into too much detail, I really liked Leonardo, Rean, Rebecca, King Galahad, and even liked the big bad villain, Simon, himself. Of the listed, Simon and Galahad were my favorites.

Simon was more heinous than the previous villains put together, with a mind more screwed up than pairing pickles and peanut butter together. Galahad, on the other hand, was an absolute marvel who I hope to see more of in the future; he and Nathan have some serious history, too, that would be cool to see possibly unravel more in future books.

"Thank you," he said and hugged me. "This is a manly hug, right?" he asked after a few seconds. "It was until you started whispering in my ear," I pointed out and he released the hug, which made us both laugh.

I hope to see more of Tommy, Hades, and Galahad in future books, as each has known Nathan a long time, therefore has massive amounts of history with him in their own unique way. Each time any of the three has popped up, something new is uncovered about Nathan—even smaller, seemingly insignificant stuff. Those are the tidbits in a book that I love, being able to learn more about characters vicariously through their relationships with people.

If you read the previous books in this series, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a read or listen to. If you haven’t read the prior books, definitely start from the beginning book, Crimes Against Magic, rather than jumping into this one. There are a lot of little innuendos and context that would be missed otherwise.

On that note, I’m going to crack open and start listening to the fourth book!

"Boy, I don't know who you think you are but—“ “Shut up," I interrupted. "Just so you know, if you call me boy again, I'm going to punch you in the jaw. Now, let your daughter talk..."