I do like Kendra Elliot's books very much, I like the familiarity of her characters and enjoyed another chance to catch up Ava and Mason and all of their friends and family.
This story was personal to them both and it was good.
Like others, I wasnt keen on the thoughts in italics though, I found it distracting and I lost the flow several times.

Looking forward to the next book.

Ruben Braswell is found brutally murdered in his home and while at the scene Detective Mason Callaghan discovers a folder on his desk containing written rants against law enforcement and conspiracy theories but shockingly there is a set  blueprints of the local courthouse and a plan to blow up the courthouse that very afternoon and FBI Special Agent Ava McLane (Mason’s Fiancée)  is mentioned on the papers too !!!! 

Meanwhile as Ava is leaving for work the guy who her troubled twin sister Jayne ran away from Rehab with eight months previously, shows up at Ava’s door saying that Jayne has gone missing and while normally as this wouldnt be unusual for Jayne and wouldn’t concern Ava too much, when he tells her that Jayne told him to contact Ava if she ever went missing rings alarm bells for Ava!!!! 

I’ve read and loved all if Kendra’s books to date and loved them all but I would recommend reading them all in order as Jayne’s story is explained much in depth in previous books in the series so you get more of a feel for her character by knowing the back story even though kendra does a very good job here filling the reader in too it just makes the series even more enjoyable!  This is another cracking read and written in Kendras inimitable style that hooks me every single time and kept me guessing the whole way through!!!! 

Thank you to NetGalley, Montlake and Kendra Elliot for the ARC of The Silence my review is honest and unbiased,

Wonderful as always. Keeps you guessing all the way, have always enjoyed the authors work. This is a connected series lowly connected, and you should totally check them out too.

This is a addictive murder/thriller/suspense/romance, centered around a mass shooting of police, other individual murders  and missing weapons, plus the disappearance of Ava's drug addict sister. It's very light on the romance as this is all about the story, but you can feel the connection between Ava (FBI agent) and Mason (Police Detective). I've read all their other stories in order and in this one, their wedding is looming near. You could read this book as a stand alone, as the investigation and back story is contained within this book, but I find it's much better to read the series from the beginning, so the characters are fleshed out more. This book is well written and I had to keep reading to find out what happened. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My thanks go to NetGalley and Montlake Romance for gifting me an e-ARC in return for my honest opinion. 4.5 stars rounded up.

A dead conspiracy theorist is found setting off a chain of events, including mass murder and kidnapping. Detective Mason Callahan and Special Agent Ava McLane once again find themselves working together to catch the culprit…all whilst planning their wedding. But, things get personal when Ava’s troubled twin sister Jane gets caught up in the plot.

Kendra Elliot is one of the authors responsible for getting me into thrillers and mysteries. And, the one series that really gripped me was her Callahan and McLane series, it had romance, murder and mystery and I quickly raced through the books. So, seeing that The Silence featured one of my favourite crime fighting duo’s had me very excited and eager to start. And, as predicted…I loved it. It was fast paced, exciting with an intriguing plot that had me eagerly (and fearfully) waiting to see what would happen next.

What I love about this book, but, what could also make it difficult for a reader who hasn’t read Elliot before is how interconnected all her series and characters area. I think I will preface what I am about to say next with; although this is book 2 in the Columbia River series, the story itself is completely separate and can be read as a standalone. The connections come through the characters that pop up to assist Callahan and McLane, for example Mercy Kilpatrick, she has her own separate series by Kendra Elliot (which, I highly recommend you read) but makes an appearance in this book. Then there is Callahan and McLane our couple. They also have their own separate series, again, you don’t need to have read it to understand this book, but I found that knowing their background, how they got together, the traumatic experiences they have gone through really helped deepen my enjoyment of this book.

But, lets talk about the story itself, it was fast paced with lots of different threads and angles. I really enjoyed seeing our couple, with the assistance of some great side characters, untangle the sinister web of murder and conspiracy. If you are after a solid procedural thriller/mystery book The Silence is a great place to start.

This was a really enjoyable read, I loved being with Ava and Mason again and seeing how their relationship has developed. At heart, I am a romance reader and seeing them live their HEA, even though they do it fighting crime and dealing with family drama, really appeals to me. Another winner from Kendra Elliot and I can’t wait to see what she brings out next.

This book has more twists and turns, highs and lows than a rollercoaster, keeping the reader on the edge of her seat until the very end. Detective Mason Callahan and his fiancée, FBI special agent Ava McLane are looking forward to their soon to be wedding. But a violent, gruesome murder lures agents and men in blue to a bomb threat, which was just a terrorist trap for a mass shooting. If that is not enough, the murder victim was one of Ava's informers and her troublesome, identical twin sister, Jayne, resurfaces, to disappear again. Great characters and masterful writing make this book very hard to put down.

I read an ARC from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.

As always, this was an excellent adventure. Kendra Elliott is a superb author and I highly recommend all of her work.

A great story the brings Detective Mason Callahan and his fiancee FBI agent Ava McLane together to solve the murder of an conspiracy theorist. With so many twists and turns, it was extremely difficult to guess the killer.

Thank you to Netgalley and Montlake Publishing for providing a copy of this book for review.

Fantastic read, hooked fairly quickly. Not sure what I was expecting from this book but enjoyed it! Just could not put it down! Found myself having to force myself to sleep as I just wanted to continue!

Another enjoyable procedural in the Columbia River series. Kendra Elliot always delivers solid characters and engaging plots, and The Silence was no different. Ava and Callahan have great chemistry, and are both equally accomplished and effective professionally. A solid read all around.

In Kendra Elliott's the Silence, the second installment in the Columbia River romantic suspense series,  this shocking and twisted storyline picked up where the Last Sister left off, months later. It all started for Mason Callahan when he was called at the grisly scene of a disfigured man in his home. They identified him as Reuben Braswell, who was Ava's CI for one of her cases with the FBI. But while her twin sister Jayne's gone missing, she searches for her and recalls her last meeting with Reuben. Then hell had broken loose when there's a shooting at the courthouse when law enforcement officers and federal agents were attacked under assault by deadly weapons. Was the shooting working alone or had a partner? Mason's partner, Ray, was one of the officers who were shot and taken to the hospital. As the manhunt heats up for Ava and Mason, they unravel Reuben Braswell's life and why he was so anti-law enforcement. When tragedy hits close to home for Ava, she needed a closer look to find Jayne and see how she fit into the equation. In the end, while she prepares for her wedding day to Mason, they learn the ice-cold truth on who was the real shooter and why he targeted her family in a life-and-death matter with a standoff in the end.

As with all of Kendra's books, The Silence is very well written book with an intriguing myster/supense story.  

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read another good book!

We are back with the second novel in the Columbia River series; The Silence by Kendra Elliot. Callahan and McLane’s cases collide when a grisly murder leads them to a mass-shooting. You won’t want to miss this heart-pounding story.

FBI special agent Ava McLane is having a morning. Her twin is missing and Ava fears she is up to her old tricks. Then one of her informants has been brutally murdered and Detective Callahan, her fiancee’ has the case.

A mass shooting shakes things up and leaves Callahan’s partner injured and other officers dead. Callahan wants justice. He must be content working the Braswell murder case and looking for links there.

The FBI assign Ava to the mass-shooter task force. She and her partner are clever, and the two are soon chasing down leads.

Elliot is brilliant at weaving both the personal and case aspects of her stories together. This allows the reader to become immersed. Her characters are developed and often flawed. Ava and Callahan are both skilled at their jobs and completely likeable. Their romance felt genuine and strengthened our attachment.

There is a lot going on and Elliot had me flipping the pages. I knew the author would slowly weave all the threads of the cases together into one heart-pounding, action packed tapestry. It was brilliantly done while keeping things grounded and believable.

Ava and Callahan make a great team on and off the clock. Their chemistry, mutual respect, and unwavering support for each made the relationship feel genuine.

Elliot is quickly becoming a must read for me with her compelling cases and realistic characters.

REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Kelly
NUMBER OF HEARTS: 4 1/2
Like all good suspense stories starts with a murder and a who done it. 
But The Silence adds in so many twists, turns and surprises that I was on the edge of my seat wondering if I was on the right path and like always Ms. Elliot surprises me!!!  I love when a suspense book keeps me guessing!!
Another excellent book from Ms. Elliot. It was great to see how Mason and Ava were doing. I am very much looking forward to the next book in this series. 
If you are looking for a great suspense series I would highly suggest picking up one of Kendra’s books!! 

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley & Montlake Romance in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion and not a paid review.

This is a great story.   I've been looking for a new author to read and Kendra Elliot has fulfilled all my hopes.  Interesting (at times quirky) characters and a story line that keeps your interest.  My only regret is this is not the first book about Mason and Ava so will have to go back and read the back story.  IYou stay engaged throughout the book, building on a great interesting story.  If you are looking for someone new to read try Kendra Elliot - you won't be disappointed.

The Silence is book two in Kendra Elliot’s Columbia River series, but I don’t think I missed out on anything in terms of the plot by not reading the previous book, The Last Sister.  Although the two principals in this story have featured in other books by the author – they’re an engaged couple – the mystery plot is completely self-contained, so you’d have no problems reading this as a standalone.

Detective Mason Callahan of the Oregon State Police is called to the scene of a particularly brutal murder at a house on the outskirts of Portland.  Rueben Braswell was killed with a blunt instrument and his body was mutilated – the face bashed in, most of the fingers cut off and strewn around – which, if not for the fact that he was found in his own home, would normally have indicated that whoever killed him was trying to conceal his identity.  Officers are carrying out a routine search of Braswell’s home when one of them finds a folder on his desk containing pages of anti-law enforcement rants and conspiracy theories – and blueprints of a building, the local courthouse, that indicate a bomb is set to detonate there that afternoon.  As Mason gets on the phone to alert others to the threat, he and his partner notice one particular name among Braswell’s papers – that of Special Agent Ava McLane.  Mason’s fiancée.

Ava isn’t having the best day either.  She’s just about to leave for work when a young man she doesn’t know arrives on her doorstep and introduces himself as Brady Shurr – the man her troublesome – and troubled – twin sister Jayne had left a local drug and alcohol rehab centre with eight months earlier.  Ava’s history with her wayward sister is complicated – it’s probably more detailed in the books in the Callahan and McLane series, but the author includes enough detail here for new readers to be able to catch up quickly. Basically, Jayne is selfish, conscienceless and manipulative – but she’s still Ava’s twin and no matter how much Ava wishes she could simply wash her hands of her… she can’t.  Shurr tells Ava that Jayne has disappeared, and while Ava is intensely sceptical and is inclined to believe it’s yet another instance of her sister’s cruel and careless behaviour, when Shurr tells her that Jayne had told him to contact Ava if she ever disappeared, alarm bells start ringing in Ava’s head.

Things go from bad to worse when she arrives at the office to find out about the bomb threat and about Braswell’s murder.  Braswell had been an informant of hers, although she’d quickly realised he had a huge chip on his shoulder about law enforcement and that he really just wanted someone to vent to.  He’d insinuated he was associated with various anti-government factions, but most of their few meetings had yielded nothing useful; and at their last one, Braswell had crossed a line by grabbing her, and she’d walked away.  Now Ava asks herself if she’d been too hasty – but she knows he never mentioned anything about a bomb.

When Mason and Ray arrive at the courthouse, the place is heaving with LEOs.  They’re wading through the crowd when suddenly, shots are fired, chaos erupts and Mason realises the truth – there IS no bomb; the warning was a ploy to draw out cops and kill as many of them as possible.

Ava is given permission to work as part of the task force looking into the court house shooting, and I appreciated that the author addresses the potential conflict of interest by making it clear she’s on board under special circumstances; so often in novels like this, things like that are handwaved away.  Mason’s investigations into Braswell’s murder reveal he had a brother he didn’t get along with – yet his car was seen parked in his driveway just days earlier.  Could Shawn Braswell have killed his brother?  Could he have been responsible for the shootings?  Or are the two cases completely unrelated?

There’s a lot going on in The Silence, but the story never feels rushed or cluttered, and Ms. Elliot crafts a complex and fast-paced thriller as she juggles her various plot threads and begins to skilfully weave them all together.  The investigations into the murder and shootings are nicely balanced by familial storylines, which provide some depth to Ava’s character, and the whole thing is slick, well-paced and engaging.

On the downside,  I have to admit to feeling just a little bit disappointed because Ms. Elliot is generally billed as an author of romantic suspense, and the romance in this story has already happened (in the Callahan and McLane series), so it’s a kind of tying up of loose ends for the central couple.  I liked Mason and Ava, but this is a plot- rather than character-driven story, and I didn’t feel as though I actually got to know either of them that well.

Those quibbles aside, The Silence was a suspenseful and entertaining page-turner with plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing. It’s the first book I’ve read by Kendra Elliot, but I will definitely read her again.

A well-paced thriller, The Silence, is book 2 in the Columbia River series. I was on the edge of my seat consumed by this well written suspense not able to put it down until it was over. A must read for lovers of this genre and an author I will be recommending and reading a lot more of.

Although this is Book 2 in the Columbia River series, it’s a Callahan and McLane novel, and if you haven’t read those books, you’re going to be left wondering about a lot of the background to these characters. The protagonist of pretty much every other book the author has ever written gets a cameo appearance here as Mason Callahan and Ava McLane prepare for their wedding while dealing with murders, domestic terrorism, missing family members and more.

I’m not actually sure where the title of this book comes from… it didn’t seem to have any relevance to the story - and I’m really not a fan of these crossover stories where characters from every other book make an appearance. This would be a fascinating story WITHOUT all those other appearances, because Elliot really does know how to write an intriguing procedural suspense thriller. If you’re a devotee of her work, you might well enjoy all the little Easter eggs, but I found them annoying and a bit exclusionary… like telling ‘in’ jokes newcomers won’t get. It’s one thing to need to have read the first in a series to comprehend everything that’s going on, quite another to have to read an author’s entire backlist. For that reason, though the storyline here is really good, I’m knocking this down to four stars.

The Silence is book two in Kendra Elliot’s Columbia River series, but I don’t think I missed out on anything in terms of the plot by not reading the previous book, The Last Sister.  Although the two principals in this story have featured in other books by the author – they’re an engaged couple – the mystery plot is completely self-contained, so you’d have no problems reading this as a standalone.

Detective Mason Callahan of the Oregon State Police is called to the scene of a particularly brutal murder at a house on the outskirts of Portland.  Rueben Braswell was killed with a blunt instrument and his body was mutilated – the face bashed in, most of the fingers cut off and strewn around – which, if not for the fact that he was found in his own home, would normally have indicated that whoever killed him was trying to conceal his identity.  Officers are carrying out a routine search of Braswell’s home when one of them finds a folder on his desk containing pages of anti-law enforcement rants and conspiracy theories - and blueprints of a building, the local courthouse, that indicate a bomb is set to detonate there that afternoon.  As Mason gets on the phone to alert others to the threat, he and his partner notice one particular name among Braswell’s papers – that of Special Agent Ava McLane.  Mason’s fiancée.

Ava isn’t having the best day either.  She’s just about to leave for work when a young man she doesn’t know arrives on her doorstep and introduces himself as Brady Shurr – the man her troublesome – and troubled – twin sister Jayne had left a local drug and alcohol rehab centre with eight months earlier.  Ava’s history with her wayward sister is complicated – it’s probably more detailed in the books in the Callahan and McLane series, but the author includes enough detail here for new readers to be able to catch up quickly. Basically, Jayne is selfish, conscienceless and manipulative – but she’s still Ava’s twin and no matter how much Ava wishes she could simply wash her hands of her… she can’t.  Shurr tells Ava that Jayne has disappeared, and while Ava is intensely sceptical and is inclined to believe it’s yet another instance of her sister’s cruel and careless behaviour, when Shurr tells her that Jayne had told him to contact Ava if she ever disappeared, alarm bells start ringing in Ava’s head.

Things go from bad to worse when she arrives at the office to find out about the bomb threat and about Braswell’s murder.  Braswell had been an informant of hers, although she’d quickly realised he had a huge chip on his shoulder about law enforcement and that he really just wanted someone to vent to.  He’d insinuated he was associated with various anti-government factions, but most of their few meetings had yielded nothing useful; and at their last one, Braswell had crossed a line by grabbing her, and she’d walked away.  Now Ava asks herself if she’d been too hasty – but she knows he never mentioned anything about a bomb.

When Mason and Ray arrive at the courthouse, the place is heaving with LEOs.  They’re wading through the crowd when suddenly, shots are fired, chaos erupts and Mason realises the truth – there IS no bomb; the warning was a ploy to draw out cops and kill as many of them as possible.

Ava is given permission to work as part of the task force looking into the court house shooting, and I appreciated that the author addresses the potential conflict of interest by making it clear she’s on board under special circumstances; so often in novels like this, things like that are handwaved away.  Mason’s investigations into Braswell’s murder reveal he had a brother he didn’t get along with – yet his car was seen parked in his driveway just days earlier.  Could Shawn Braswell have killed his brother?  Could he have been responsible for the shootings?  Or are the two cases completely unrelated?

There’s a lot going on in The Silence, but the story never feels rushed or cluttered, and Ms. Elliot crafts a complex and fast-paced thriller as she juggles her various plot threads and begins to skilfully weave them all together.  The investigations into the murder and shootings are nicely balanced by familial storylines, which provide some depth to Ava’s character, and the whole thing is slick, well-paced and engaging.

On the downside,  I have to admit to feeling just a little bit disappointed because Ms. Elliot is generally billed as an author of romantic suspense, and the romance in this story has already happened (in the Callahan and McLane series), so it’s a kind of tying up of loose ends for the central couple.  I liked Mason and Ava, but this is a plot- rather than character-driven story, and I didn’t feel as though I actually got to know either of them that well.

Those quibbles aside, The Silence was a suspenseful and entertaining page-turner with plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing. It’s the first book I’ve read by Kendra Elliot, but I will definitely read her again.

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The second book in the Columbia River Series, and with each book I read by this author I fall in love with her books more and more. This book was full of so many things, murder, pain, betrayal, wild goose chases, lots of different twists and turns. Although this is part of a series, I feel that it is so well written that you could read it also as a stand alone. I would most definitely recommend this book to others.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and Montlake Romance and am under no obligation to leave a favorable review, all opinions expressed here are my own.