Book Info
Hardcover
Expected publication: August 25th 2020 by Montlake
ISBN 1542006767 (ISBN13: 9781542006767)
Series Columbia River #2
Other Editions (4)
Source:Netgalley EARC
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BOOK BLURB
A dead conspiracy theorist. A mass murderer. Two cases collide for Callahan and McLane in a pulse-pounding thriller by Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author Kendra Elliot.

A man is savagely murdered outside Portland, and Detective Mason Callahan finds blood-spatter evidence that tells a troubling story. Files reveal the murder victim, Reuben Braswell, was a radical conspiracist. In his home, investigators find pages of diatribes against law enforcement as well as ties to Mason’s fiancée, FBI special agent Ava McLane. The victim was her informant—and had strong reasons to be paranoid.

To Ava, Braswell’s rants were those of a wearying and harmless man…until they collide with her investigation into the murders of police officers and finding the connection becomes urgent. Meanwhile, Braswell’s brother and Ava’s twin sister both disappear, and disturbing acts of sabotage target Ava’s personal life.

For Mason and Ava, the brutal crimes and escalating mysteries create a perfect storm for a terrorist conspiracy that becomes dangerously personal—one that has yet to claim its last victim.

My Thoughts
Like Mercy Kilpatrick series before it the Columbia River series is a pleasure to read despite at times it’s foray into the seedier side of life as Special Agent Ava McLane, along with fiance Detective Mason Callahan, navigate the many twists that make up this story of murder and conspiracy.

When past events collide with present ones things really get going as murders old and new merge into one heck of an investigation process that leads the couple into uncharted territory they never saw coming.

Amazing twists and turns throughout the book.

For me happy to say book 2 lived up to book 1!

[EArc from Netgalley]




On every book read as soon as it is done and written up for review it is posted on Goodreads and Netgalley, once released then posted on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles as well.

I loved Elliot’s Bones Secret Series, and I was very excited to receive the ARC for the second book in Kendra Elliot’s new Columbia River Series, The Silence.  Elliot is a phenomenal writer, who’s story telling ability keeps you hanging as you go page by page. This book was no exception. It checked off all my awesome book boxes. Law enforcement ✅. Suspense ✅. Fantastic storyline✅. Great, well developed characters✅. Action-packed✅.

Many of the law enforcement characters in this book are part of Elliot’s other series and she does a fantastic job weaving them altogether in this book to solve the death of a conspiracy theorist and to catch a mass murderer. 

Detective Mason Callahan and FBI Special Agent Ava McLane from Elliot’s Callahan and McLane series are the main characters in The Silence, and when their cases collide the lives of their friends and family are put in the crosshairs of a killer. Mason and Ava have to stop the killer before their lives and future are change irreparably.  Can’t wait for the next book in this series.

This review was originally posted on <a href="http://booksofmyheart.net/2020/08/21/the-silence-by-kendra-elliot/" target="_blank"> Books of My Heart</a>
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<i>Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i>

I discovered this author with the <em><strong><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/178669-mercy-kilpatrick" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mercy Kilpatrick series</a> </strong></em> and decided to try this new <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/275978-columbia-river" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em><strong>Columbia River</strong> </em></a>series.  <strong>The Last Sister</strong> was an odd FBI case in a small town with characters I didn't know.  The murder case is in the foreground with a bit of  romance.

<strong>The Silence</strong> is featuring Mason and Ava who are part of another series.  Mason is a homicide detective and Ava is an FBI agent paired with Zander from the previous book.  I want to read the series with Mason and Ava. I had hoped to get there before this book but nope.

I found this to be a very intense read. These are smart, caring law enforcement. But the crimes are brutal and they have some disturbingly personal connections.  The suspense while waiting for information from contacts or forensics is crushing. It seemed just when they figured something out on one of their cases some new information drops a bomb and sends them scrambling.

I was worried for their lives but thrilled to have the action and see them work together so well.  Mercy had a cameo which was exciting.  I'm looking forward to the next book, with Mercy and Truman!

4 Stars!

This was my first Kendra Elliot book and most certainly will not be my last! Jumping into the second book of the series did not take anything away from the story. There's enough back story provided to pick right up on everything that's happening.

The story is very well written and the characters are very interesting. I love that Ava is a Special Agent in the FBI and has an identical twin sister that's led a bit of a criminal life. I also loved that Ava's fiance, Mason, dresses like a cowboy and is a State Police detective. What girl doesn't love a hunky cowboy?!?

Back to the story.....one of Ava's confidential informants ends up being on of Mason's murder victims. He also happens to be a crazy conspiracy theorist. There are lots of fun twists and turns with this story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

A special thank you to NetGalley, Montlake Romance, and Kendra Elliot for providing me with an ARC.

A great read. I found this book to be like a puzzle, as you read there are pieces scattered all about and slowly they start to move together and form a picture.

Books with twins in them, especially when they are central to the story, fascinate me.

It was great to see some characters from the first book in this one, although you don't need to have read the first one for this story to make sense. The tiny personal bits of the lives of the main characters was a nice touch and I love the ending - although I was half-expecting Jayne to go into labour or something similar just to upstage her sister on her big day.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller

Ava is an FBI agent who has been seeing a CI for a while now. She's not quite sure he's a true CI as he never really has ever given information that is worth anything. When her CI is found to have been killed, but left behind strange bomb references, Ava is called in to see if there could be any credibility to the threat.

Mason is Ava's fiancé, but he is also a police officer himself. When he realizes that Ava is semi-implicated in his case, he knows that she'll want to be a part of it. Mason is trying to figure out why there might be a bombing and trying to keep Ava out of harm's way.

While these two race against the ticking clock to find out where the bomb might be happening and why, the twists and turns this story take are very fun. You also get to glimpse into Ava's home life and family life. Both Ava and Mason are used to dealing with Ava's sister, but this time, it comes at the most inopportune time. I really enjoyed seeing other characters from Elliot's other stories too. This won't disappoint if you like a mystery with a little romance thrown in.


Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
We start with Mason at a pretty gruesome crime scene where an informant of Ava’s has been murdered. A manifesto found at the crime scene leads to a bomb threat which leads to an even more devastating crime. While Mason works on the homicide investigation, Ava is assigned to the task force looking into the fallout from the bomb scare. More crimes take place that may or may not be connected to the investigations Ava and Mason are working on and it was exciting watching it unfold and trying to figure out who did what and how various crimes were connected, if at all.

The Silence flowed really well and had a good pace. Not so slow that you get bogged down in details and not so fast that you can’t keep up with the story. During all the crime solving and action, Mason and Ava are preparing for their upcoming wedding and dealing with the disappearance of Ava’s misbehaving twin sister.

This is a really good, easy-to-read story for those of us that like good crime solving and a little bit of love story mixed together. The action is really good too and as I read, I couldn’t help thinking that this would make a great movie or TV series. The Silence gets a solid 4 stars from me.


Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
This is a huge, confusing jigsaw puzzle of a murder mystery. Kendra Elliott fans will remember Mason and Ava from previous books. Here, the state police detective and the FBI agent are thrown into overlapping cases weeks before their wedding. As Mason attempts to solve a homicide, Ava is appointed to the task force for a related mass shooting.

This story is complicated, moving quickly between Ava and Mason’s investigations. I really like the interplay between the couple and their partners. Many of the characters are familiar from the author’s earlier books and I enjoyed seeing them in a different context.

This story moves quickly, and I like the way all the plot threads eventually meet up. I don’t feel like Mason and Ava are quite as developed as some of my favourite Kendra Elliott characters, but the storylines involving Ava’s family add depth and complexity to her character. This isn’t necessarily a murder mystery that readers can solve alongside Ava and Mason. I enjoyed following the twists and turns of their investigations, but I usually like to be able to put the pieces together for myself. I enjoyed the fast pace of the investigations and I love that there are a couple of revelations that took me completely by surprise.

Fans of the author will enjoy this book but I think new readers might be thrown by the many characters we’re expected to know from previous books and series. I’m fairly sure the book could work as a standalone but I’ve read too many of the author’s books to know this with any certainty.


Shannan – ☆☆☆☆
The Silence is the second book in the Columbia River series. You should read book one to completely understand the storyline.

Ava and Mason are planning their wedding until a murderer forces them to put their plans on hold. Mason finds out his murder victim is tied to Ava. While they work together, they face many obstacles, both on the job and with family. As always, Kendra Elliot leads you on a suspenseful page-turning journey. The Silence does tie up some lose ends that were hanging from book one, bringing their story to a natural ending.

I was intrigued by this read. It had me invested throughout.

This review is not going to be long. I am not a huge fan of a review rehashing the entire plot and spoiling it for everyone.

Kendra Elliot has done it again. This book is suspenseful, fast paced, intriguing and action packed. She does a wonderful job of making her characters come to life. This book kept me on the edge of my seat. I will totally recommend this book to anyone that loves a great read!

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The twist ending will catch most readers by surprise… fans will look forward to seeing characters from the author’s other series take the lead in future installments. I loved this book and its characters.  this book definitely kept me on the edge of my seat.

I read The Last Sister (book 1 of the Columbia River series) back in February and have been looking forward to catching up with the characters in The Silence.  While I wish there was more Zander and Emily, we got a peek into Mason and Ava’s relationship leading up to their wedding.

While the Columbia River series is a spin-off of Kendra Elliot’s The Bone Secrets series, Mercy Kilpatrick series and Callahan & McLane series, I didn’t feel lost.  Sure having read the previous books would have provided a more nuanced backstory but Elliot does a great job of telling the reader what they need to know.

I do want to go back and read the other series though because I’m a nerd and prefer to read everything in order!

Once again, the pacing was perfect and I flew through this one.  The twists and turns kept me guessing right up to the very end!

THE SILENCE is out on August 25th! Thank you to Netgalley, Montlake Romance and Kendra Elliot for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3188867117
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CD1pry2AIn9/

As usual an amazing job!  You can never go wrong with the suspense, the intrigue and the tell tale passion of these characters!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of The Silence by Kendra Elliot that I read and reviewed.
I really enjoyed this book which was the second in the Columbia River series. I liked how it looked deeper into Ava and Mason’s story. I really enjoy the two of them paired together as a couple. I also love how Ava deals with her sister and all the crazy things she does and how she tries to help her no matter what. This book was also I testing because it brought in a favorite character from another series so it was fun to see the crossover.
This story get the reader in the edge of their seat from the start with a bloody murder and a trap for cops that leads to a number of deaths and it goes pedal to the medal from there. There are a number of plot turns that you don’t see coming and the book ends with the wedding we having been waiting for when Mason and Ava finally say their vows. This is an excellent book by Kendra Elliot!
The Silence gets five out of five stars!

I loved this book as much as i loved the first one in the series. 
The fast paced and never ending twists and turns made for a perfect afternoon with some of my favourite characters. 
I love when i found authors that manage to make my imagination run wild and prove that my theories aren't correct even if they lead us to a different ending.
Suspenseful , thrilling and it felt like watching the best crime serial on tv.

In this story, Ava McLane and Mason Callahan are both involved when Mason is called to investigate a gruesome murder. The man is severely beaten and tortured. When Mason investigates the man's house he discovers that the man was one of Ava's informants. He also discovers that there is a plan to bomb the Clackamas County Courthouse. 

But the bombing was only a ruse. When law enforcement from many jurisdictions converge on the courthouse, they run into a sniper who kills a number of the police officers and wounds Mason's partner Ray. Mason's vest is the only thing that saves him from being wounded himself. Now Ava and Mason are trying to track down the sniper which leads them to a larger conspiracy which includes stolen weapons that were being transported after confiscation. 

But that isn't the only problem that Ava and Mason face. Ava's sister Jayne is making a reappearance in Ava's life. Every time Jayne shows up she sows chaos and this time is no exception. She cancels the reservation for the wedding venue that Ava and Mason had chosen. She also calls Ava to beg for help getting away from the man she is with. 

Then Ava gets a phone call telling her that her father - the man she has just met and isn't sure how to deal with - was attacked and killed while jogging. Ava is torn between being with her newly discovered family and working on her current case. Things get even more tangled when it is discovered that the gun used to kill her father was the same weapon that was used to kill someone across the street from the first victim Mason was investigating.

This was a very busy story with lots of twists and turns. I liked the appearances from other characters from other books written by Elliot. I liked that it looks like Ava and Mason are on the way to their own happy ending.

This breathtaking tale is filled with twists, turns and red herrings at such speed that will confuse thrill and leave you spent. The author writes such vivid characters you feel like you know them. This story sucked me in from the first line to the last.

Ava and Mason are back!  I love these characters and it was great to have another story.  The case they are involved in has a lot of twists that kept me guessing.  The book was quick paced and I enjoyed every minute.  All my favorite characters made an appearance plus there was the wedding! I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I enjoyed Kendra Eliot’s Mercy Kilpatrick series, so I jumped at a chance to get an ARC of this book.  I hadn’t read the first book in the series.  But Eliot gives enough background into the characters that I didn’t feel lost and it worked fine as a standalone.  
Ava McLane is an FBI agent.   Her fiancé, Mason Callahan, is a Portland detective.  He’s called to a murder scene where the dead man has Information about a planned bombing and Ava’s name is mentioned in his paperwork.  Turns out, he was an informant of Ava’s.   He was also an anti-government, conspiracy believer.  
Meanwhile, Ava’s disturbed twin sister had gone missing.  And someone is causing problems for Ava’s personal life.   Is there a link?  
This is a very fast read.  Not tons of depth to it, and the ending didn’t really work for me, but it’s entertaining.  
Keep in mind that Eliot’s books always have a strong romance component to them.  But she usually manages to not go overboard.  
My thanks to netgalley and Montclair Romance for an advance copy of this book.

Fans of Callahan & McLane, rejoice! Kendra Elliot finally makes their story whole. As always, the writing is smooth, effective,  and delivers a modest amount of thrill. Elliot’s conservative approach makes her narratives the perfect novels for sensitive readers. 4 stars

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #TheSilence which was read and reviewed voluntarily.

Guess who is back!!  That's right Ava and Mason!!!  Oh my gosh readers this is the book you have been waiting for and it will not disappoint the most die hard of readers!!  Kendra Elliot brings back some amazing characters will updates as well as the perfect story telling that will keep readers up late into the night.  

The end of the book is everything readers have been waiting for!

The story is everything you have comes to love from this amazing author.  I can't say enough this is a CAN'T MISS Book!!!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy of Kendra Elliot The Silence.

Detective Mason Callahan and partner Ray Lusco attend a crime scene which becomes more worrying by the minute. The victim, mutilated and beaten, was a radical conspiracist who had explicit knowledge of a potential terrorist attack which Mason and Ray must now try to contain. As the danger surrounding them escalates they face the dilemma of needing to be in two places at the same time. Special Agent Ava McLane meanwhile has a surprise visit from her troublesome twin sister's boyfriend who has no idea where she is which, where Jayne is concerned, is never good. 

Although this is the second book in the new Columbia River series FBI Special Agent Zander Wells is more of a peripheral character once again, working alongside Ava as they join the investigation into the information her fiancee, Mason found.

Having enjoyed the first book in this new series I was looking forward to the second and it was even better than I'd hoped. Although it's been 4 years since the final Callahan and McLane book only a few months have passed in their story and it was easy to slip back into their lives as if they had never been away. Add an appearance by Mercy Kilpatrick and for fans of Kendra Elliot it's like all our christmases have come at onve. 

The storyline is excellent, it was surprising in many ways and the actual crime Mason was investigating was as gory and complex as is the norm with this author as well as being satisfyingly taut and attention grabbing. Revisiting such popular characters whose story arcs had been believed to have finished is always a risky business but in this case it absolutely works right from the first word. I loved it. 

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys this author's work. Once again Ms Elliot has written an exciting, page turning crime novel of the highest quality.

Thank you to Netgalley and Montlake for the Advanced Reader Copy provided for an honest review.

This is the second book in the Columbia River series. It is third person dual point of view following main characters FBI special agent Ava McLane and Portland police detective Mason Callahan. McLane and Callahan are characters from a previous series by this author and were also involved in Book 1 though not the protagonists. If you read book 1, Zander is Ava McLane’s partner at the FBI and lends an assist to her in this story though it is not necessary to have read book 1 to follow along. While I have not read the previous series featuring Mason and Ava, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything that pertained to this story or mystery. It might have been nice for background insight into any character development but not necessary for comprehension of the story.

I found the book to be a quick and easy read. A straightforward mystery that managed to draw all the characters into the story as it developed. Ava had a lot going on with missing family members possibly causing trouble, navigating new family connections, planning a wedding despite signs of sabotage, all while trying to keep up with her position at the FBI and getting drawn into Mason’s case when her informant turns out to be his murder victim. 

I enjoyed the characters and the mystery, though I did guess one of the major plot points. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a good, fast-paced mystery.