Quiet Time [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephanie Kane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2001

It’s when you’re too afraid to make a sound...

Inside his picture-perfect home, Warren Scott runs a tight ship. He demands total respect from his family. He’ll accept nothing less.

The Scotts are quiet, they keep to themselves — and to the neighbors, they seem like any other family. Then the Scotts’ facade shatters one sun-drenched morning in May.

Sari Siegel is engaged to Tim Scott when his mother is found murdered. Sari barely knows the Scotts, but even she can sense the terrible secrets that seethe below the surface. Sari knows something about Peggy’s murder, but she isn’t telling ... at least not yet. For if she does, her own dreams of a perfect life with Tim will shatter.

There are some family traditions no one wants to keep.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A harrowing novel about family relationships, secrets and murder, Kane's second mystery (following Blind Spot) opens with a graphic prologue describing the murder of homemaker Peggy Scott. When Peggy's husband, Warren, is accused of the grisly crime, his children, Tim and Laura, rally around him, leaving Tim's fiancee and fellow university mate, Sari Siegel, feeling strangely removed from the family and her husband-to-be. Although the case against Warren is eventually dropped due to lack of evidence, Tim and Sari's marriage doesn't survive the ordeal. A decade later, Sari, grown from an idealistic biology student into a hard-edged corporate lawyer, teams up with Detective Ray Burt. Ray was the detective in charge of the case, and he's spent several years rehashing the details in his mind. Together they methodically and serendipitously complete the murder puzzle. Insightful peeks into the dark side of family life will keep readers turning the pages, but astute readers will quickly figure out what the Scott family is so desperate to conceal. An excess of detail, weak characterizations and a pat conclusion further mar this slow-moving, lightweight mystery.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Kane’s work is just as good as the trial mysteries written by Steve Martini.”
— The Drood Review of Mystery

“[Kane] is a talent and readers will want more.”
— The Midwest Book Review

“Kane weaves an intricate story. Her prose is refreshing and tight.”
— I Love a Mystery


Also by Stephanie Kane:

Blind Spot

“Riveting stuff!”
— ABA Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553581740
• ISBN-13: 978-0553581744
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,369,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best-written edge-of-seat novel of 2001, December 18, 2001

By 

James Bausch (Sarasota, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quiet Time (Mass Market Paperback)

Where has Stephanie Kane been all of my reading life? In Quiet Time, her second book, she establishes herself without question as a master of the psychological thriller. It's replete with believable characters (normal people, killers, lawyers, cops are all drawn with a fine touch, like those Persian artists who use a one-hair brush to bring every nunance to the surface), a plot that will draw you in from the prologue and keep you riveted to the final page, and superb writing talent. I have purchased five copies for family and friends so far, and all of them thank me and enthusiastically recommend the book to others. Read it, and you'll thank me -- and Stephanie Kane -- too.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Didn't want to put it down, January 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Quiet Time (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is very exciting. I didn't want to put it down and kept picking it up to read at any chance I had. Although you may think that you know where it is heading starts off, the author doesn't follow convention. The result is a very interesting and exciting book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Defining Quiet Time, October 12, 2001

By 

Jenny Noble "JN" (Denver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quiet Time (Mass Market Paperback)

I tend to prefer mysteries over suspence novels but this one intriqued me. It had enough mystery to kept me engaged -- how would the killer by unmasked? What was "quiet time?" What secrets lurked beneath the family's silence?

The behaviors of the main characters made sense as the motives were uncovered; and as a psychotherapist with almost two decades of experience, I was delighted by that.

As a mystery buff I was pleased that the author's logic matched mine--I got each critical clue just a page or two before it was revealed--a sign of a good story.

Definitely worth the time and money to read.