Customer Reviews

Silent Screams

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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..

(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.

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.

"Silent Screams" puts writers like Michael Connolly to shame ... it is SO much better! Understand, you must want to read novels about serial killers, which is normally not my choice. But I've read Connolly and Dennis Lehane because I've been both an Edgar and Nero Award judge for many, many years .. and C. E. Lawrence's "Silent Screams" far surpasses everything I've read till now. Its protagonist, supposedly NYC's first police department criminal profiler, is both likable and deeply sympathetic. Even the killer, y clept, enlists a certain amount of reader sympathy or, at least, understanding ... but when the mystery and the suspense seem ready to climax, the author gives the reader a shakeup so perfectly logical that one declares -- albeit sheepishly -- "Of course!!!"

"Silent Screams" is the work of a writer with true skill in plotting and characterization. If this kind of harrowing experience is "your thing," get hold of it immediately!!!

Marvin Kaye
[...]

Totally cannot stop turning the pages. Beautiful detail, sense of place, rich characterizations. The suspense is understated and pervasive. The feeling of a breakthrough seems to wait around each NYC corner. I'm getting copies for everyone in my family. Best mystery I've read in years. Who is this C. E. Lawrence?

I'm not generally a fan of serial-killer books, but happened onto this one because of the allegation of fake reviews (see below), and my increasing questions about the usefulness of Amazon's book reviewing system.

I found Silent Screams to be a fairly gripping, entertaining read. I enjoyed the friction among members of the task force appointed to find the killer, and thought the portrayal of the investigation and the role of profiling to be reasonable. I appreciated the limited coverage of gory details, though this genre seems to require some. The plot is a little marginal in originality, but has a nice twist.

I have looked at the eighteen 4- and 5-star reviews and reviewers (as of 1/23/11) and find Bookworm's inference about a large fraction of fake reviews to be dubious. Most of the reviewers look authentic to me, based on their reviewing history and reviews' contents. I think the evidence that there are lots of fake identities is weak, although four or five reviews might be fake in this case. In general, it has occurred to me, too, that a lot of the Amazon book reviewers are more positive (or less critical) than I am, and it is certainly tempting to suspect that a certain amount of positive padding has been applied when you find a marginal or poorly written book that has several rave reviews.

C E Lawrence has come up with a protagonist that is conflicted, with a tortured
soul. Lee Campbell is a Forensic pcychologist helping the New York Police solve
a serial murder case. Very well written with great characters. A fantastic debut
novel!!!

POSSIBLE SPOILERS--OK, REAL SPOILERS!!
Where to begin.... I purchased this based on the initial reviews--all rather glowing. Yeah, I should have seen through them, but it was late, and I wanted something new to read. First, I have to say that the author just took on too much. There's the depression and breakdown suffered by the main character, Lee, before the book began. The reader is never allowed to forget that for even a second, as its existence is wound through every thread (and yet adds nothing TO those threads). Next, there's Lee's missing sister. We're never given many specifics, she's never found, and, again, including her story added NOTHING to the story as a whole. There's the relationship (or lack thereof) of Lee and his mother, although why we're privy to this I haven't a clue; the just "weird" relationship between Chuck and Lee (Chuck's wife is only with him to see Lee?? Again, what does this have to do with the storyline?); the pseudo father/son relationship; and the list goes on. The one I really got a kick out of was the relationship between Kathy and Lee. They meet in the hallway outside of the courtroom, Lee asks her to identify a body that is potentially his sister, and Kathy just...AGREES?? REALLY?? Any ONE of these would have provided it's own storyline, but together they result in a tangled web of, well, of tangled webbing. There are inconsistencies as well. Look at the description the young boy gives of Pam's necklace. Compare it to the description given by Pam's mother. Those are mistakes that are simply not acceptable! Every character is painfully described in excruciating physical detail as well, and each is a raging stereotype. Perhaps if the author had spent as much time inside the head of Samuel or Nelson, the outcome would have been more emotionally engaging. As it was, I just really didn't care and had to struggle to finish. So who beat up Lee? Who ran him off the road? How did Samuel and Nelson meet? Those question were but a few that flitted through my thoughts. In the end, however, as I've already stated, I just don't care enough to watch for a sequel. Buy at your own risk!!

I'm baffled by the many positive reviews of this clichéd, amateurish novel. The writing is clunky (some passages are guaranteed to make a halfway sensitive reader wince), and the author's knowledge of profiling and forensic science appears to have been gleaned from TV shows. The silly, mechanical plot is TV-level as well; I figured everything out about halfway through, but pressed on to the end in the vain hope that the author would prove me wrong. He didn't.

This was a fun to read thriller with great character development. I liked how the psychology of the main character was explored and how it related to the entire story line. As a reader of thrillers, this book did not offer much new for me to ponder, however, like watching a great episode of Criminal Intent, I enjoyed the story line. Yes- I often knew what to expect and was not surprised, but I consider myself one of the initiated in this genre. I give it four stars because I definitely liked it. I think as the series grows, so will the surprises.