Customer Reviews

Grave Silence

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After spending the last few years writing sexy romances as Jennifer Fulton, Fulton aka Rose Beecham has triumphantly returned to penning mysteries. With the award-winning Grave Silence, she mixes facts, surrounding the activities of the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS), with a riveting murder mystery and crafts a gripping story.

When we first meet Sheriff's Detective Jude Devine, a former FBI agent who has been transferred to a small Colorado town in the Four Corners area, she is unraveling the grisly murder of a young woman left decomposing in a desert wash. The clues to solving this crime take Devine and the reader on an unbelievable journey beyond anything we could have imagined. FLDS is a splinter group not recognized by the Mormon Church that among other things illegally practices polygamy. Beecham deftly weaves a second plot about life on an FLDS ranch into this story. We learn how autocracy and abuse rule the mostly underage girls married to the "master" of the cult, and how silence is used as a survival tool to avoid being punished for disobeying. As the book evolves, these two plots collide forcefully, taking the reader on a compelling adventure with Devine emerging as the silent hero.

After reading this book over eight months ago, this reviewer was haunted by the "facts" of Grave Silence. I wanted to know where the fiction ended, and the truth began. After hearing a talk by Beecham on how she compiled her research and gathered first-hand information about FLDS, I received my answers and was shocked. This is not a book where an author spews her views on religion disguised as a novel. FLDS is a cult that does not adhere to any tenets of any religion. Beecham has done a tremendous amount of in depth research to incorporate these facts into a fictional murder mystery, and the results are an amazing and fascinating book. The writing is tight and fluid. The path to the murder clues grows as the plot moves forward. Beecham strings her readers along cleverly, not releasing us until the final explosive ending.

After hearing Beecham speak about Grave Silence, I reread the book. If she had written a non-fiction account of this cult, I would not have believed the magnitude and far-reaching effects FLDS has on its victims, the young girls who are forced into this way of life by other adult family members. This fictional story, termed a "message mystery" by the author, cannot be ignored. It captures the reader and obliges us to look beyond our world. Beecham's telling helps us swallow the hard reality and reflect upon the importance of unmasking these groups. After reading Grave Silence, I suggest you take another glance. The implications of this novel are significant and cannot be overlooked.

(Beecham won a 2006 GCLS award in the mystery/thriller/adventure category for Grave Silence. In September 2006 Sleep of Reason, the second Jude Devine mystery, will be released.)

It's good to see Rose Beecham back on the shelves. This is far better than her previous detective series (Amanda Valentine), and that's saying a lot.

This book is one of the rare books that I immediately begin re-reading as soon as I reach the end; it's that good.

Others have described the plot; I'll just add that not only do you learn more about a topic that you really wish weren't true (the plygs) but you have a helluva read.

All I can say to the author is "More!".

It's rare to find a lesbian mystery that is better written and more compelling than most straight ones. Grave Silence exceeded every expectation I had. It's brilliantly researched, riveting to read, introduces a great new lesbian detective, and pulled me into a world so disturbing, I'm still thinking about it.
Rose Beecham combines a terrific crime drama with a blistering expose of a Mormon cult called the FLDS. I had never heard of these people until I read this book, so for educational reasons alone, Grave Silence is more important than most novels. It's also moving, memorable, powerful, funny, sexy, and the writing truly knocked my socks off.
Not only is Jude Devine a fascinating and hot hero, but there are some outstanding secondary characters - sensitive Deputy Tulley, the repulsive Naoma, and Adeline, the runaway "bride", just to name a few.
Beecham also runs several great sub-plots through the story. I can't wait for the next book to see what happens with Dr. Mercy Westmoreland, Chastity (please bring her back), Jude's missing brother, and the creepy white supremacists.
I normally don't get around to reviewing books, but I had to spread the word about this one. Grave Silence is exceptional. My hat's off to its author.

Grave Silence is a chilling look into an American polygamist cult. As usual, Rose Beecham writes with clear wit and precision and, in the case of this story, poignantly about the lives of abused women and children. It's a hard-to-put-down read.

I'm not a big reader of mysteries, but I could not resist this one since it's by one of my favorite authors. It's a really outstanding book about a gruesome killing that leads Detective Jude Devine to Utah to investigate members of a polygamous Mormon sect known as the FLDS. It also tells the story of Adeline, a feisty young girl who's meant to be married to an old man with numerous wives but runs away into the desert.
Some of the material in this book is very disturbing, partly because it's factual, but also because it's so vividly written. Ms. Beecham must have done a lot of research because the level of detail is amazing. As usual, the author's unique dry dark humor is strongly in evidence, as is her gift for creating powerful settings and compelling characters.
Jude Devine has a love interest, "star" forensic pathologist Dr. Mercy Westmoreland, and somehow Ms. Beecham manages to make them a very hot couple even though their romantic encounters don't take up much of the plot. Jude's working relationship with Deputy Virgil Tulley, and the sub-plot about the K9 bloodhound is just another great part of this fantastic book.
I'm probably leaving out important stuff, but all I can say is Grave Silence is in a class of its own and is nothing like any lesbian mystery I have ever read. Ms. Beecham blows her competition away. The writing is just stunning and even if you are not a mystery fan this book is so original and fascinating I think most readers would enjoy it.

Rose Beecham (aka Jennifer Fulton) has another great series going with star FBI agent Jude Devine at the helm.

The plot has to do with dead women being found and the trail leads back to a group of Latter Day Saints living out the role of polygamists without appearing to break the law.

The child abuse and uncaring of the men and women was appalling.

Beecham has written a fine novel.

Of course, there's the underlying notion that maybe, just maybe Jude and Dr. Westmoreland might become an item.

I'm looking forward to the next book.

Great book!

Jude Devine, a FBI agent, has been assigned to an undercover operation in remote Paradox Valley. She assumes the duties of Sheriff's detective for the Montzuma County Sheriff's office. While she is building a case for the FBI, a dead, mutilated woman shows up on her turf. She and her deputy begin an investigation. It leads them to a cult of Mormon polygamists. What follows is a web of secrecy,deception, abuse, and brainwashing.

This book is hard to read in places because it depicts spousal and child abuse in detail. While the descriptions are germane to the story, it remains hard to read.

Beecham carefully develops the characters in this book from petty crook Bobby Lee to Jude Devine. Her descriptions of the people are carefully drawn so the reader comes to care about them all - with the exception, of course, of the cultists who the reader will learn to despise. Her descriptions of this remote area near the Four Corners is beautifully drawn so the reader senses the desolation and the isolation.

This is a procedural at its best. We follow along with Jude as she uncovers each bit of evidence that will lead her to the woman's killer.

The romance is well done. Jude's relationship - or non-relationship - with the local pathologist, Dr. Mercy Westmoreland, begins slowly and builds slowly. By book's end, however, the two women still want different things from each other - resolution of which will undoubtedly take place in a later book in the series.

Over all this is a good read for mystery fans, for romance fans, and for readers who like to learn from their fiction.

Beecham does a wonderful job in reseachering a sensitive topic and blows top off of the LDS and in coubination introduces lesbian lovers who are in high positions who enjoy each other's company in many ways. The book deals with many real issues that are still in exsistance that are not pretty, but the love between the woman softens the difficultes for the reader and the family support of the suvivors of the cult who are not involve gives the reader hope to know that there are people who are willing to help save and assist the survivors of children who have been victims of cults. Excellant start to a wonderful trilogy.

Two pages into my latest re-read, reminds me what great writing should be. This book pulls you at you like magic after you are almost sick of the so called "Lesbian Writing".

Nothing is overdone with this book. Subtle humour, starky wit, great story and development, suspense, the revulsion towards the cult, the sadness all are there - and all feels humane and believable.

No discussion of plot or the stroy line here, as i can see it is already in detail.

I would rate this as a better book that most mainstream ones available and would recommend it to all the avid readers.

Buy this book people and read it. You will find it so engrossing and fresh that you would want to skip work!!!