Silent Screams [Paperback]

C.E. Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2009

In the streets of New York City, the Slasher chooses his victim - and makes his move. As he wraps his fingers around the girl's pretty throat, his power increases. As he carves into her skin, his words become flesh. As he arranges her lifeless body in a loving tableau, his fantasies demand new, more violent sacrifices...At first, NYPD detectives suspect a jealous boyfriend. But criminal profiler Lee Campbell senses something darker, even ritualistic, about the murder. More chilling, he's convinced he's witnessing the genesis of a full-blown serial killer. But time is running out. A new victim has been chosen. Campbell must search the most terrifying recesses of the human mind - and his own past - before the screaming starts again...

"Pulse-racing, compelling, first rate. Lawrence knows how to build and hold suspense with the best of them. Once you get into this one, you can't get out. A wild ride down a dark road."
--John Lutz, New York Times bestselling author of Urge to Kill

"C. E. Lawrence has achieved a rare level of authenticity, not only in character development but also in the realistic use of behavioral science. If you want to read a serial-killer thriller that's solidly based on frightening reality, this is the one."--Louis B Schlesinger, Ph.D., professor of forensic psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

"C. E. Lawrence delivers finely honed suspense, with unique twists, and accurately captures the logic and intuition of a profiler under pressure."--Katherine Ramsland, professor of forensic psychology, De Sales University, and author of The Devil's Dozen

"Criminally compelling, Silent Screams by C.E. Lawrence nails you to your seat with a fascinating NYPD profiler who's hurled into the case of his lifetime. From the Bronx to Manhattan, Catholic churches to university classrooms, this journey into violence and the soul is unforgettable." --- Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Spies and The Last Spymaster

"Silent Screams is a wickedly brilliant, carefully wrought thriller where the roles of hunter and hunted are skillfully blurred. Team up with a virtuoso profiler and a street-wise Bronx detective as they are thrown into an escalating torrent of murder that threatens to sweep them away. It's ride that neither they, or you, will soon forget."--Gregg McCrary, author of The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us

"By setting the horror of fictional killings against the background of 9/11, C.E. Lawrence constantly reminds the reader that life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. The deviant perpetrator of grisly murders is described as someone who has a sophisticated knowledge of forensic investigations. The same can be said of the author. Silent Screams beckons C.E. Lawrence to become a repeat offender in this genre."--Marina Staji , Ph.D., President of American Board of Forensic Toxicology

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In New York not long after 9/11, appealing psychologist-turned-criminal profiler Lee Campbell is traumatized by the unsolved disappearance of his sister in the mid-1990s. Though still recovering from a nervous breakdown, Lee is determined to keep working with the NYPD and find the man who leaves his female victims mutilated in churches throughout Manhattan, even if it means enduring painful reminders of his past. Lawrence (a pseudonym for Carole Buggé, author of the Claire Rawlings mysteries) assembles a quirky group of detectives and experts, all strong characters who can support future books in the series: Chuck Morton, the commander of the Bronx Major Case Unit, who married Lee's ex; Eddie Pepitone, a hustler who befriended Lee in the hospital; Dr. Katherine Azarian, a forensic pathologist and Lee's love interest; and brilliant criminal justice professor John Paul Nelson. Fans of Keith Ablow will enjoy this dark, intriguing thriller. (Dec.)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 405 pages
• Publisher: P Mass Paper; 1 Original edition (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786021489
• ISBN-13: 978-0786021482
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #717,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Could not make it thru the book !, January 7, 2010

By 

M. shoemaker - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Silent Screams (Paperback)

I picked this up at the store because of the 10 great reviews,, I am sorry to say I disagree, I could not even make it thru the book, it is pretty boring, nothing new, no new twists or turns, just same ol, same ol..

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Meh. Big fat clues, gratuitous atmosphere descriptions, predictable., February 7, 2010

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Adam S. Beslove - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Silent Screams (Paperback)

(Reviewed for Mensa Book Lover's SIG) It hits all the major tropes of crime fiction/fantasy. It's got a brutal killer! It's got religion! It's got romance! It's got a cop that identifies with the killer! It's got a father figure! It's got deceit! Seems padded with extra descriptions of the environment, where buildings are located, bus schedules and routes, but fortunately I could skip whole paragraphs because it was like an editor had Lawrence insert that information in blocks. And the main character! He seems to never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. He doesn't readily share what he's learned in a timely manner with his fellow detectives, takes stupid risks repeatedly, and is so often unprepared that if he were my employee I'd have fired him early on. Well, he is a government employee... Definitely a competently written book by somebody that's been taught to lay out plot and chapters, but competency doesn't translate into entertainment.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Description Overkill, January 20, 2011

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Deshawn Taylor - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Silent Screams (Kindle Edition)

This book was okay at best. It had a good plot although the ending was predictable. My main issue is the same as many others. The unnecessarily long descriptions were just too much! I'm all for painting a picture, but this author was too extreme with it. Was it really necessary to go into detail about Florette's outfit every time he was mentioned, particularly when no one else's attire was mentioned? It added nothing to the story. We get it! He was well dressed! In that same vein, why state each character's race in the description? Again, I get painting a picture, but there were some scenes in which the mentioning of the race of the individual seemed completely out of place (i.e. When Lee talks about the black waitress who guessed his mom's age). And like another reviewer, I completely skipped over many parts because it was just filler. The church was gray...the guy was muscular...the couple across the street were having dinner! Enough already! And what was up with the whole piano playing? Again, more filler.

Without the excessive descriptions, this would have been a decent book. There was a point in the middle when the author slacked on the descriptions and I actually began to enjoy it. If you're the kind of person who likes to know every detail in order to be fully drawn into a story, then this is the book for you. If you just want the meat, look elsewhere.