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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780778323389
ISBN number: 0778323382
Label: Mira
Manufacturer: Mira
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 432
Printing Date: August 01, 2006
Publishing house: Mira
Sale Popularity Level: 303446
Studio: Mira
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Disappearances. Murder. The Price of Silence in a Small Town.
In dire need of a job, Todd Fielding accepts the offer to work at The Brindle Times -- even if she has to move to the lackluster town of Brindle. As she settles into her new home, Todd is fully prepared to adapt to the boredom of small-town life, but her preconceptions of Brindle are completely shattered when a local girl disappears. Even more shocking to Todd is the town's sheer indifference to the incident. No one -- not ever the police -- appear particularly concerned.
When Todd looks deeper into the story, she discovers that five other girls have 'run away' from Brindle under strange circumstances over the past twenty years. As she sets out to uncover the history of a town that has cloaked itself in secrecy for far too long, evidence of manipulation and cold-blooded murder begin to unravel. And Todd may be the subsequent victim to pay the deadly price of silence.
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Rated by buyers 
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Caught in corporate downsizing, Todd Fielding was out of work and desperate. Todd and her husband Barney had spent lavishly never expecting the paychecks to stop. In the month's since her layoff, Todd heard the same thing over and over again, she was over qualified. When she received a call from the Brindle Times, Todd was over the moon. Okay, so the job was on the other side of the mountain and Barney had to say put in order to finish his dissertation. They would find a way to work it out.
Todd's job was two-fold. She did the editing, layout and any computer troubleshooting that was necessary, as well as helped Ruth, her boss, with a special centennial edition of the newspaper. The special edition would choreograph the history of Brindle. During her research, Ruth had uncovered the truth behind a fire in 1888 that killed four people and wanted to publish it.
While working for the paper, Todd learned of a series of teenaged girls that had disappeared over the years and recently, a fourteen-year-old named Jodie Schuster had disappeared. When she started writing articles about the disappearances, no one wanted to hear it. The residents of Brindle didn't believe that there was a predator living among them.
When Ruth provided a similar, but much older pattern of disappearances, the two women start investigating. With the help of a ghostly presence, they uncover the truth. A community icon was kidnapping girls that reminded him of the love he couldn't have. He cared for them for a time, but they invariably died. He would bury the girl and then start looking for a replacement.
The Price of Silence has a little bit of everything, dysfunctional families, complacency, ghosts, kidnapping and murder, courage, truth and love. It is an excellent psychological mystery and well worth reading.
Rated by buyers -
I am a big fan of Kate Wilhelm's Barbara Holloway books, but have not always been as impressed with her others. I had a difficult time getting started with this book, but eventually became snared by the remarkable character development: Ms. Wilhelm, who appears to be in the middle stage of her life, has written very convincingly about two women who are at opposite spectrums. Todd, the main character, is young, multidimensional, ambitious, capable and confident. Ruth Ann is nearing the end of her life, and is also portrayed as energetic, intelligent and attractive. I was charmed by the relationship between Ruth Ann and Maria, her longtime companion/housekeeper. The book resolves a little too conveniently, but I have to say I enjoyed reading it. Her descriptions of the central Oregon desert are lyrical, and I especially appreciated Todd's comment about a sunset being difficult to capture in art or photography "because it is a process, not an event." So true. As a former Oregonian, I loved reading about Oregon's beauty. Good read. Karen Knapp
Rated by buyers -
This is a subtle, walking pace novel that's really about conscience and what tension does to a small town.
If you are looking for a rip-roaring thriller with twists and turns, this is not it.
The setting is beautifully described, as are the characters in this book. It is nicely drawn, and explores the parts of the mind that work when we aren't paying attention.
It's an old fashioned novel; a good book for contemplating.
Certainly not for everyone, but a good read none the less.
Rated by buyers 
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Oregon, home of and a favored setting for author Wilhelm, is the background for this dark tale of murder, hypocrisy, and lies. Brindle is a small town that appears on the surface to be a haven of peace and quiet. It is quite the opposite as Todd Fielding soon discovers.
Todd has come to Brindle to work for the local newspaper while her husband, Barney, pursues his doctoral degree in a nearby university town. Newspaper owner Ruth Ann Colonna is planning a special edition of the paper featuring Brindle then and now. So, Todd busies herself becoming acquainted with her new community.
The superficial serenity of Brindle isn't interrupted by the sudden disappearance of a young girl. This sets Todd to wondering - she does more than wonder when she discovers that five other girls have mysteriously vanished during the past two decades. What is even stranger and rather frightening is that no one seems to care about the whereabouts of the girls.
Newcomers to any place who start probing are seldom welcome, and Todd fuels a fire that threatens to get away when she decides to write about the girls' disappearance. Ruth Ann seems to be her only ally, and Barney is often miles away.
Voice performer and Audie Award winner Anna Fields successfully captures the outrage, fear, and determination of Todd as she seeks to uncover the truth. A more than satisfying listening experience!
- Gail Cooke
Rated by buyers -
Wilhelm is an excellent writer, and a master of psychological suspense. This book is no exception. However, I found it a little less satisfying than her best; a couple of the characters didn't quite ring true.
The plot is one Wilhelm has used a couple of times before: an attractive and intelligent young person who is at loose ends as to what to do with herself, and not quite sure of her life's direction, winds up through chance circumstances in a small town where something is deeply wrong, and no one wants to talk about it.
That's part of the problem I had with this book, though; while in past books such as "Skeletons," the secret has had to do with the past and is hidden by an older generation, in this book, the problem is ongoing and yet people are still ignoring it. Teenage girls keep disappearing - and no one pursues them or suspects them of anything other than running away. While that might have been the case half a century ago, in these days of entire organizations built around missing children, and pictures of missing children on every milk carton, and TV shows about searching for missing people, it just didn't seem likely to me that in a single village, 5 or more teenage girls would disappear and no one would be raising a stink, not even their parents, until our protagonist appears. And that in a relatively small town, no one prior to her would have noticed the similarities between the girls, nor figured out what other things were going on right when the disappearances started.
It also seems unlikely to me that the kidnapper could be doing the kinds of things they are doing, and not have other abnormalities show up in their behavior or personalities, that no one else would ever think that there was anything odd or unusual in the way this person behaves or things they say. (I'm not giving away who it was; that's why I'm avoiding saying she or he.) I think that people who are this sick show signs of the sickness in more than one way and generally aren't able to completely compartmentalize their lives. It's one thing if the person is a loner and doesn't associate with their neighbors at all, so that no one ever talks to them much; it's different if the person has a regular job and talks to many people every day and goes to social events: some other sign that something is WRONG with this person would show up. So I found the characterization of this person a little unrealistic, and the behavior of the neighbors a bit unbelievable.
Nonetheless, it's a well-written story and lots of action for our heroine and her husband. And I know that many people like this kind of suspense and think that there ARE completely hidden monsters among us, and those people won't have the reservations I had about the realisticness of the villain.
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