Customer Reviews

Child of Silence

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The main character of this book is a woman named Bo Bradley who also happens to be a manic-depressive. Sounds strange at first - but it is fascinating. Seeing things through her eyes is educational and makes it hard to put the book down. I learned a great deal about the prejudices and tribulations that a person with this condition has to overcome - and the incredible gifts that can come with it. The author never lectures, though - the book is a quick read. The ending was a little lame, unfortunately. Not uninteresting, just a bit overly complex and unlikely. Her other books are also very good.

I absolutely loved this book. I couldn't put it down. Being Bipolar myself, I could completely identify with the main character, Bo's, inner challenges. The author has done a very, very good job of capturing and describing what goes on inside the mind of a high-functioning person struggling to stay sane, and she's done it in a way that brings a lot of humor. Bo is so likable, so determined, so admirable. The central storyline is very engrossing, and the whole southwestern setting and mystique are icing on the cake. I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read the next one.

Mix a child-protection officer with her Irish grandmother's Gift of "knowing," an elderly Indian receiving beneficient messages from The Spirit, and the officer's bi-polar illness, and you have a marvelous ride on a merry-go-round. Add a French pediatrician, a cold-eyed Texan running for office, and the "severely retarded" child who unites all. Allow plenty of time, because you won't want to stop for bedtime. A rare treat.

In a complex world of the juvenile court system in San Diego County, bureaucrats and individual social workers struggle daily to save the children in danger. For one social worker, Bo Bradley, the daily battle is enhanced because of her own condition of manic-depression (bipolar disorder). Only one person with whom she works knows of this condition--her friend and colleague, Estella Benedict. But whenever the symptoms begin to reappear, a difficult job becomes almost impossible.

When one day a four-year-old boy, tied to a mattress in an old shack on an Indian reservation, is rescued by an old Indian woman, life just got a whole lot harder. Saving the boy, who turns out to be deaf, from whoever hurt him and is still trying to kill him, becomes a full-time obsession for Bo Bradley. Like a one-woman army on a hunt-and-capture mission, she digs into the clues at hand, flies to a neighborhood in Houston, Texas, and begins to realize that the only way to save the boy is to hide him.

Intermingled with the tale of rescuing the boy called "Weppo," the author weaves a bit of Bo's history, including the loss of her own sister--also deaf and plagued with manic-depression--many years ago. A Native American theme casts Child of Silence and its characters into a tapestry of mysticism and spiritualism that lends beauty and hope to the story of one child and one woman on a collision course with danger.

Five stars!

This book is an intelligent page-turner. The protagonist
is a child protection worker named Bo who has manic depres-
sive illness. The mystery deals with an abandoned deaf
child and Bo's attempts to rescue him and find some murder-
ers while in a manic phase and waiting for her lithium to
kick in. For thosee of you not familiar with manic depres-
sion, the manic phase is when you are all over the place -
needing no sleep, spending money you don't have, buying
things that you don't need, having grandiose ideas, etc.
Lithium is the medication that is used to stabilize the ill-
ness.)

This book provides a realistic and resectful portrayal of
someone with Manic Depressive Illness. On top of that, it
is a very good mystery. I also recommend The Caveman's Valentine.
It has a private eye who suffers from mental illness and is
a very well-written book.

This book is the first of Abigail Padgett's "Bo Bradley" series. It is very well written, and gives some important insight into a very important issue, as well as being an extremely good story.

The first of five in the incredible Bo Bradley series. The first four are newly released on Kindle.

Bo is a child abuse investigator in San Diego CA, which means some of the details in the series can be intense. But this book was more of an old fashioned puzzle, then hunt and chase.

The real story is the lead character, a forty year old closet manic-depressive embarking on a manic episode. She knows what to do; the problem is surviving without revealing until the meds kick in. At the same time, she is assigned a case of an abandoned child who is being sought by killers, and her mania has her convinced that only she can save him. In the end, of course, she is right.

The author contends that the manic in manic-depressive makes Bo an human lie detector. No nuances get by her. The problem is too many details, any one of which can assume huge significance that only she can understand. By the end of the book, her thought processes are lyrical, often amusing and highly engrossing.

Note: These books were written in the mid-90's and tech-wise, they come across a little dated. No cell phone in every pocket, no quick Internet search to research something, no CDs or MP3s in the car, etc. Since these are character driven stories, it was note worthy, but not impactful. Another example of time passing is the label itself: manic-depressive, instead of bipolar.

Highly recommended.

I'd read a handful of Padgett's Bo Bradley books back in the '90's but was delighted to discover that I had never read this one. Nice to meet Bradley again.

Through her, we learn about the gifts that can accompany manic states. As well as seeing the horrible parts, from the inside. More the former in this case. Bo screaming that the found child is DEAF, not retarded at all, as she catches the wonderful light in his eye.

And it's a good mystery, we don't get preached at, we are just dragged along by the runaway train (Thank you Billy Joe Shaver for that image).

A manic-depressive child abuse investigator with San Diego's juvenile court system rescues a deaf child from a diabolical plot to kill him. Bo Bradley teams up with some unlikely allies to save Weppo from death by killers who are intent on finding him. The child is discovered tied to a mattress on an Indian reservation by an elder, Annie Garcia, who helps Bo solve the mystery of who brought Weppo there and why.
Enjoyable and interesting read. I liked the character!

I really liked this book because it was interesting and you would never want to put the book down. It's mysterious and rare. It's about an investigator named barbera bradley and she tries to save a 4 year old boy from to dangerous guys that try to murder the little boy named Weppo. She got a mysterious call to run away with the child. This is my favorite book I'v read so far.