A Silent Truth by Rachel Amphlett

I’m a huge fan of Rachel Amphlett’s writing, so hearing there’s a new Mark Turpin on the horizon always puts a smile on my face. My thanks to the author for providing and advance copy of the book and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the blog tour invite. Here’s what the book’s about:

About the Book

When the body of a young woman is found by the side of a quiet country road, police first suspect a hit and run.

Then a darker side to the victim is uncovered – a dangerous addiction that led to her violent death.

With little sympathy from a local population, Detective Mark Turpin faces a daunting task to track down her killer.

When a second victim dies after a ferocious attack, Mark realises someone is determined to hide the truth.

Both victims kept to the shadows of society – will their secrets die with them?

A Silent Truth is the fourth book in the Detective Mark Turpin series from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett.

My Thoughts

I’ve really enjoyed getting to know DS Mark Turpin over the course of the series. It’s fair to say that events towards the end of the =previous book, The Lost Boy, really shook things up a little, and they have certainly played havoc with Mark’s professional life as we discover when we reacquaint ourselves in the early pages of A Silent Truth. Confined to desk duty, Mark is looking into a spate of robberies alongside one of his colleagues. It’s an important case, especially to the victims, but also a frustrating one with no evidence and no suspects, and, ultimately not where Mark wants to be. It’s not long before the team lands a new case – a young woman who has been killed and left at the roadside – and all Mark can do is watch from the sidelines as his colleagues try to work out just who she is and who might be responsible for her death …

At least, that’s how it starts out, and this is why I like Rachel Amphlett’s writing so much. She has taken two very different threads, two distinct cases, and woven them together so skillfully that we slowly but surely see the picture build before us. Whilst the investigations appear to be poles apart, there are little hints that there may more to both stories than meets the eye, and as the true nature of the victim is revealed, it is clear that there are no end of suspects and people who might have meant her harm. The author also throws in quite a few curveballs, little distractions and facts about the victim that either catch us unawares and certainly made me think and rethink all I thought I knew.

I like Mark Turpin as a character. He is not perfect, although he does try hard to be a very good police officer, partner and father. He has a really deep conscience and a troubled past which rears its head again in this book for reasons that readers of all of the previous books will understand. He is one of those characters I liked almost instantly, easy to relate to and with a dogged determination to get to the bottom of his cases. But he is a sensitive soul too, and sometimes the weight of the victims, particularly of his last case, do seem to weigh on him. But his partnership with DC Jan West is perfect, her acting as a mother hen and feeding and chastising Mark as she might her own kids. It is an easy partnership, one built on good humour, understanding and friendship and the author has really developed it over the course of the series so that catching up with them is a bit like falling back in step with old friends.

I really did enjoy the intricacies of this mystery and, whilst I may have worked out the why of it all fairly early on, the who really did escape me so it was as much of as a surprise to me as the characters when the perpetrator was revealed. Not the most sympathetic victim in literature, that is for sure, but the book still elicited a range of emotions from anger, to laughter, to a real sympathy for the real victims of the whole investigation. There is a deep, emotional core to this book, one that emerges only when necessary and although the clues were all there, they were masked just enough to keep the tension right to the end.

Pacing was spot on, the sense of danger, especially in the closing chapters, high. another absolute cracker of a story that is sure to keep fans of the series very happy.

About the Author

Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling crime author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction with over 30 novels and short stories featuring spies, detectives, vigilantes, and assassins.

Rachel’s stories are available in eBook, print and audiobook formats from libraries and retailers as well as her own shop.

A keen traveller, Rachel has both Australian and British citizenship.

She loves hearing from readers and personally replies to every email.

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