About The Book
A HOMECOMING MARRED BY BLOOD
Journalist Martin Scarsden returns to Port Silver to make a fresh start with his partner Mandy. But he arrives to find his childhood friend murdered – and Mandy is the prime suspect. Desperate to clear her name, Martin goes searching for the truth.
A TERRIBLE CRIME
The media descends on the coastal town, compelled by a story that has it all: sex, drugs, celebrity, and religion. Martin is chasing the biggest scoop of his career, and the most personal.
A PAST HE CAN’T ESCAPE
As Martin draws closer to a killer, the secrets of his traumatic childhood come to the surface, and he must decide what is more important – the story or his family…
My Review
Scrublands was a book that I enjoyed reading a lot so I was looking forward to reading Silver the second book in the series. Following on from the events in Riversend Martin and Mandalay are hoping for a quieter life in a new town. However whilst this is a new town for Mandalay it isn’t for Martin. It is the town where he grew up and he has a lot of bad memories. But their fresh start doesn’t go as planned when almost immediately Mandalay is implicated in the murder of Martin’s childhood friend.
This book is very much a slow burner but I feel that this is the only way it could be. Martin, because of his childhood, was familiar with the town and its inhabitants but he could see it differently. The way the lure of huge amounts of money showed a different side to an individual’s personality. You could see how the promise of ‘improvements’ in the local area could benefit in some ways but could also see it destroy in others. My choice would be to protect the natural world and turn away from the money making opportunities.
It is one of those novels where you don’t initially see what is happening. I had doubts about Topaz but wasn’t sure why. But she wasn’t the only one, there were others whose true personalities were revealed in the latter half of the novel. Some I liked more, a few I liked a lot less.
I have to admire an author who can write a novel where all of the characters are important and where most have some type of impact on the reader. Even the town of Silver seems to have its own personality. The old way of life competing with the new way, led by corruption.
I can’t wait to read Trust the next book in the series.
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