In Silence
MIRA Books
May 1, 2004
ISBN-13: 0778320375
Available in: Paperback (reprint)
To the outside world, Cypress Springs, Louisiana, is a postcard-perfect town where moral, decent citizens lead safe, wholesome lives. But outsiders, it seems, don't fare so well....
When journalist Avery Chauvin returns home to Cypress Springs, Louisiana, after twelve years, it's as if time has stood still. Yet for her everything has changedher mother died a year ago and now her father is gone. Devastated by her father's suicide and her inability to save him, Avery has taken a leave of absence from her newspaper job to come back and put his affairs in order. But in truth, she has come looking for answers. How could her father, a physician who dedicated himself to preserving life, have taken his own?
As Avery begins the heartbreaking task of cleaning out her parents' home, she discovers a box of fifteen-year-old newspaper articles covering the same eventthe brutal murder of a young woman in Cypress Springs. Why, she wonders, did her father keep the clippings?
Then Avery meets a newcomer to Cypress Springsa woman looking into her brother's sudden disappearance and into whispered rumors of strange happenings in town. Soon the events of the past and present take on a terrifying new meaning for Avery. A woman is found savagely murdered. An outsider passing through town vanishes. Neighbors go missing in the night.
Determined to get to the truth, Avery soon discovers that each layer of deceit she exposes is somehow linked to that long-ago murderand to her father. Could he have been murdered?
Uncertain where to turn and whom to trust, Avery must face the fact that in this peaceful Southern town a terrible evil lives, protecteduntil nowby the power of silence.
Erica is a USAToday, New York Times extended, Waldenbooks and amazon.com bestseller. In 2002, her novel BONE COLD won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence. An RWA honor roll member, she received a Kiss of Death award for her novel FORBIDDEN FRUIT and is a three- time RITA award finalist. In 1999 Publishers Weekly awarded the audio version of her novel SHOCKING PINK a Listen-Up award, naming it one of the best audio mystery books of 1998. Erica and her husband--a man she describes as funny, handsome and way too sassy--met in art school and have been together ever since. They have two sons, born nine and a half years apart. Erica makes her home just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, although she originally hailed from Rockford, Illinois.