Title: Silent Sentinels: The Sequel to the Mourning Doves
Author: Patricia Huff
ISBN: 978-1504971270
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Pages: 344
Genre: Fiction / Mystery / Romance

Reviewed by: John Murray

Read Book Review
Buy on Amazon

 

Pacific Book Review

In a Polish concentration camp during World War II, a young woman finds herself targeted by a sadistic officer. She is tortured, raped, and pushed to the edge of madness. Flash forward 20 years, a serial killer in Arizona begins hunting down prostitutes in the same method. Five “Ladies of the Night” victims stack up and a sixth goes missing. Christian Grayson, an investigative reporter, takes to the streets to ferret out the truth of a citywide corruption and hopefully some news about the missing girl. He’s found days later in front of Jason Borseau’s estate, nearly beaten to death. Reeling from the beating, Jason and his allies struggle to find firm footing before City Hall explodes. That explosion sets in motion a series of events leading to a climatic gunfight and chase across the border.

Silent Sentinels is a direct sequel to Mourning Doves. Several characters make a return, especially Jason Borseau, Alan Sheffield, and Kathryn Wittaker. Like Mourning Doves, this novel is a blend of romance, mystery, and crime thriller. This time around, the characters deal with a serial killer targeting prostitutes and women on the fringe of society. Additionally, relationships fostered in the first book play a pivotal role in the current story set in the 1960s. Legal proceedings, criminal investigations, marriages, births, and daring nighttime raids jockey for attention as the pages flip ever forward.

Patricia Huff has crafted an ambitious novel that spans genres. The main plot involves a serial killer popping up in Arizona with a similar method used by a sadistic Major in a Polish concentration camp during the war. Shockingly, one of the primary characters is a Holocaust survivor with ties to that camp. As the tension mounts, the truth of the killer begins to come into focus. A secondary, and third plot follows the romantic relationships between the major characters. This gives a welcome respite between the gruesome murders and horrific atrocities committed during the war.

Some issues arise due to the pacing and plotting of the storyline. Time passes between chapters erratically, sometimes there is a delineation but often this is subtle, keeping the reader on their toes. For example, a major event near the end of the book comes up rather quickly – at a slightly faster pace than the book’s main time sequencing, changing the momentum established in the story.

Huff’s writing shows a fondness for the mystery and romance genre. The slow reveal to the killer’s identity and escalation in action balances nicely with the slower paced courting and family scenes. Silent Sentinels is an interesting sequel and a thrilling, charming, and ultimately enjoyable read.

Silent Sentinels is the long awaited sequel to “The Mourning Doves.” Like Doves, Silent Sentinels involves murder, kidnapping, blackmail, and a deep and abiding love affair. Jason Borseau, the co-owner of Kcoy Radio Station in Yuma, Arizona, is now the co-owner and Ceo of Ksol-Tv in Phoenix, where the story begins. Jason is married to Kathryn Whittaker, the love of his life.

The year is 1961. A serial killer is targeting the west side of Phoenix, Arizona. Five young women, alleged prostitutes, all minorities, have gone missing, their bodies discovered in the desert, ravaged by the killer and savaged by wild animals. Now, another girl has disappeared.

Jason Borseau’s good friend Christian Grayson, a handsome, light-skinned Negro and Pulitzer Prize–winning investigator, has worked for Jason for four years. For some time, Christian has had a hunch that something isn’t right about the way the City is doing business. Jason has doubts, but over the years, he’s learned to trust his colleague’s instincts. Jason instructs Christian to go ahead, and look into it, but urges him to tread softly through the City’s hallowed halls.

Meanwhile, the “Ladies of the Night Murders” investigation is going nowhere. Christian is certain it’s not a priority with the police, because the victims are minorities, and prostitutes. He’s determined to unmask the killer. Unfortunately, he becomes the target. When Christian is found unconscious and badly beaten on the street in front of Jason’s estate, Jason calls his old friend, Alan Sheffield, Arizona’s Attorney General, the State’s, “Top Cop.” Together they begin an investigation that will expose a conspiracy that runs deeper than anyone could have imagined, leading them into the darkest regions of human behavior.

This book is enthralling in its emotional aspects, brilliant in its love story, an extremely thrilling mystery. Silent Sentinels is a whodunit that keeps you guessing until the very end.

Patricia Huff has always had a passion for reading mysteries, and now she writes them. Silent Sentinels is the sequel to her first novel: The Mourning Doves. She’s already plotting her next novel in the Doves series.

Ms. Huff’s career began in radio. After a brief stint in television, she accepted a public relations position at the Port of Stockton in California. The job included writing and editing a four-color bimonthly magazine distributed around the world. It literally put the Port on the international map. Ms. Huff also wrote speeches, editorials, newspaper articles, brochures, and articles for magazines such as the Journal of Commerce and Bulk Materials Handling and Shipping.

Year after year, the Stockton Port was the recipient of the American Association of Port Authorities’ highest award of excellence for the promotional brochures Ms. Huff produced. She was also instrumental in the realization of two projects vital to the future viability of the Port.