Dead Silence

Gr 9 Up—After being kidnapped and forced to kill her captor in The Last Echo (HarperCollins, 2012), 17-year-old body-finder Violet Ambrose must try to move on despite the murderer imprint now clinging to her. Her friends and boyfriend are there to help her adjust to "normal" life, but soon Violet's psychic abilities lead her to another gruesome discovery—a family of three murdered in their own home. With the killer's trail quickly growing cold, Violet and her team of psychics set out to find and protect a missing fourth family member—a teen about Violet's age. Dead Silence is a fast-paced paranormal thriller that will delight fans of the series as well as readers unfamiliar with it. Told partially through Violet's grandmother's journal entries as well as the killer's point of view, the book delivers a few intense action sequences and plenty of nail-biting suspense. Violet's ability to sense connections between dead bodies and their killers will appeal to teens who love Lisa McMann's "Wake" trilogy (S & S) or Libba Bray's The Diviners (Little, Brown, 2012). The murder discovery scene is quite bloody and may disturb sensitive readers, especially since one of the victims is a young boy. Dead Silence is rumored to be the last in the series; however, a few loose ends remain, as does the potential to continue Violet's story.—Leigh Collazo, Ed Willkie Middle School, Fort Worth, TX