Silent Scream by Karen Rose

He knows your secrets.

When a teenage girl dies in a suspicious fire, Detective Olivia Sutherland is assigned to track down the arsonist. Then she discovers something more sinister: a vicious blackmailer who preys on young people and murders without hesitation. Making her work even harder is sexy firefighter David Hunter. He's not only sharing the case, but sparking memories of their long-ago night of passion, when feelings were left unsaid and hearts were broken.

He hears your pain.

David has his own ghosts, and a million regrets. But while he and Olivia try to face the wall of pain between them, a diabolical puppet master is pulling strings to make a group of twentysomethings do his bidding. Soon Olivia and David are scouring the city for a calculating criminal who seems tantalizingly close--and is moving in for the kill.
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Like so many others, I couldn't wait to read David Hunter's story. It was beautifully done. I loved how honest David was, and how he and Olivia fought for their relationship. Suspense aside, the rest of the story was a beautiful romance and also a great friend story. Rose excels at that, in the midst of spine-tingling suspense.

David and Olivia spent a night together back in Chicago 2 years ago. Unknowingly, David called out someone else's name (the heroine from Nothing To Fear, with whom he fancied himself in love at the time). Understandably upset, Olivia left without a word while David was sleeping it off. The experience had a huge impact on them both.

I liked that once Olivia told him what he'd done, he owned up to it and apologized and worked his butt off to make her see how much she meant to him. And that Olivia, after some time and space, was willing to let him back in.

I liked that Olivia and David had friends, and they were woven into the story seamlessly; not to highlight anything in particular in the story or to forward any plotline, but just as one would expect: these two characters have a life. Have friends. And yes, given that they work in similar careers, and come from families that have close ties, they know some of the same people.

As for the suspense: Rose uses certainly one of my biggest fears in order to propel her villain. While, as she frequently does, the villain is revealed to us somewhat early on (maybe halfway through?), his motives certainly are not. You come to care about most of the teenagers in this story, and what happens to them is shocking as they become unwitting villains enmeshed in something far bigger than themselves. Definitely another winner from Rose.

If I had one niggle, it was with something that I doubt anyone else would catch unless they are Jewish. One of the characters is an Orthodox Jew, and when he dies, his family speaks about how he was a good boy, he worked for charities, and he went to Temple. I've never heard an Orthodox Jew refer to Temple as 'Temple'. It's either 'going to synagogue' or 'going to shul'. The reference was made only twice, but the first time, it really knocked me back. Also, a bit of space in that chapter was dedicated to Olivia telling the family that Joel would want to do teshuvah; which is a word that essentially means repentence. Which isn't quite the way I'd say it anyway, and it's a term I've really only used in association with the High Holy Days and Yom Kippur. I could be wrong, but while sitting shiva may be an experience a homicide detective may be familiar with (dealing with the aftermath of a death), I had a hard time believing that a police officer in Minneapolis would be familiar with teshuvah. New York City, maybe, but certainly not Minnesota. However, it wasn't a huge part of the book, and likely nobody else would catch that. Otherwise, I thought Rose handled the religious aspects of the character very well, and those little bits didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.

ETA: OK, I stand corrected. Apparently there is a large Orthodox community in Minnesota. Hubby's co-worker mentioned that he's from Minnesota, and he happens to be an Orthodox Jew. He noted there was a really large community there. So my apologies to Ms. Rose. But really, Minnesota? Who'da thunk it?!

So now, I wait for Tom to finish growing up. Because his story? Bound to be freaking fantastic!