Silent Ridge

Silent Ridge by Gregg Olsen is the third book in a series featuring Detective Megan Carpenter, and largely set in and around Port Townsend, Washington. This author knows how to pull a reader into a book with the first sentence.

By the end of the first paragraph you are hooked. The novel is a police procedural with a lot of suspense, but it is also a study of characters.

While the story starts with and is interspersed with looks at the killer, most of the novel is from Sheriff’s Detective Megan Carpenter’s point of view. When she is called to a crime scene by the sheriff, she wonders why he is handling the case and not her. When she gets to the scene, it turns out she knows the victim and the killer has left two laminated photos of Megan at the scene.

Megan has a dark past and more details of that time come out in this novel. She is likeable, but seriously flawed, and is a memorable character who feels real and three-dimensional. She shows definite character growth in her personal interactions with friends and colleagues. Her new partner, rookie Ronnie Marsh, plays a major role in this novel and shows new character depth as well.

This book is fast paced and I did not want to stop reading it even when it was very late and I needed to sleep. The author does a great job of worldbuilding and gives the reader a vivid sense of the place and people. The ending is explosive. However, there are a few open threads that will likely play into future books in the series. The story flowed well and kept me guessing. Danger and tension built rapidly. Overall, Silent Ridge is suspenseful, fast-paced, and twisty. Readers should be aware that the vivid descriptions include those at crime scenes. Themes that run through this novel include loneliness, humor as a stress relief, murder, cruelty, defensiveness, trust, lies, secrets, family and romantic relationships and complexities, desire for vengeance and retribution, and much more.

This is the third book in this series that I have read and I am looking forward to the next one. The series is fresh and it just keeps getting better and better. However, it would be nice to have Megan take on a case that doesn’t tie into her past. I believe those readers that enjoy crime fiction and police procedurals with a little something extra will enjoy this book. The series should be read in order.

I purchased a digital copy of this novel. This is my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and are not biased in any way. Publication date was December 4, 2020.