Alex Segura

"Pete Fernandez is a mess. He's on the brink of being fired from his middle-management newspaper job. His fiancée has up and left him. Now, after the sudden death of his father, he's back in his hometown of Miami, slowly drinking himself into oblivion. But when a co-worker he barely knows asks Pete to locate a missing daughter, Pete finds himself dragged into a tale of murder, drugs, double-crosses and memories bursting from the black heart of the Miami underworld - and, shockingly, his father's past. Making it up as he goes and stumbling as often as he succeeds, Pete's surreptitious quest becomes the wake-up call he's never wanted but has always needed - but one with deadly consequences. Welcome to Silent City, a story of redemption, broken friendships, lost loves and one man's efforts to make peace with a long-buried past to save the lives of the few friends he has left"--Provided by publisher.

Silent City

Jessica Nottingham

I've been known to devour my fair share of mystery/thriller books as a reader. I love being caught up in a whirlwind of bad-ass characters, clues laid out like breadcrumbs, and awesome actions scenes. It thrills me when I think I know what's going to happen next, and then a twist throws me completely off kilter. All of these things are what make a book in this genre so enjoyable to read. Sadly, Silent City failed to deliver on the majority of them.

The opening scene of Silent City held so much promise. It had me in its clutches, and then things slowed nearly to a halt. I was treated to pages upon pages about Pete's past, his work, and the few friends he had left. Pete Fernandez is not an easy character to like. While I understood that his life was falling apart around him, I never felt the least bit of sympathy for him. See, Pete is an alcoholic. It is never specifically mentioned, but he spends the good majority of the book in a bar or sleeping it off at home. I'll admit that he did have rather great taste in music. In fact, that's the one thing Pete and I agreed on.

I just kept hoping for the pace to pick up, for that manic feeling of need to set in. You know the one. Where you can't stop flipping the pages? Sadly, it never happened. I had no clues to grasp on to, and only Pete's mediocre attempts at sleuthing to lead me along. Even when things finally clicked into place, and I finally saw where the story was going, it felt slow. Pete's story never fully invested me.

I missed the excitement. I missed honestly caring about the characters who were on the pages. You have no idea how much it hurt me when (and yes, mild spoiler) one of them died and I didn't even bat an eyelash. Still, the plot line was at least solid enough to keep me reading to the end. The twist at the end wasn't too shabby either. Thus the two star rating. Like I mentioned before, so much potential but the delivery wasn't for me.

Silent City

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