Review: Silent Scream by Karen Rose

When a teenage girl dies in a suspicious fire, Detective Olivia Sutherland is assigned to track down the arsonist. Then she discovers something more sinister: a vicious blackmailer who preys on young people and murders without hesitation. Making her work even harder is sexy firefighter David Hunter. He's not only sharing the case but sparking memories of their long-ago night of passion, when feelings were left unspoken and hearts were broken.

David has his own ghosts, and a million regrets. But while he and Olivia try to face the wall of pain between them, a diabolical puppet master is pulling strings to make a group of twentysomethings do his bidding. Soon Olivia and David are scouring the city for a calculating criminal who seems tantalizingly close—and is moving in for the kill.

Silent Scream is the fourth Karen Rose romantic suspense novel I've read. It's been over a year since I read her last trilogy: Die For Me, Scream For Me, and Kill For Me. At the time, I wasn't yet grading the books I read so I don't remember exactly what I thought but I'm pretty sure I thought they were all worth a grade of B or better and Silent Scream is right there with them. 

Olivia and David have problems. She's got low self-esteem issues and he thinks he has to save the world. They share one screwed up night a few years prior and they've both been miserable since. Getting thrown together on a murder/arson case was really the best thing for them since they were both too chicken to call the other. Oy.

My only real criticism is that I think Rose tipped her hand a little too early. Pretty much exactly halfway through this book I picked out the killer. That's not to say that the rest of the book isn't worth the read but I do like to be surprised a little. I also would have been more familiar with everyone in the book had I read I Can See You and just about every other book she's written other than the three I read in early 2009. Isn't that always the way? Rose seems to be the type to connect all the players in her books to each other. That's definitely one way to get people to read all your books :) I'm not sure I need to read I Can See You anymore but I'll definitely be looking for her next new one, ETA unknown.