Silver Falls

by Anne Stuart

Book Overview

Rachel is finally getting it right. After years of wandering, she's married the perfect man and settled into the ideal life. But as her sleepy little town turns into a killing ground, she realizes... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0778325970
• ISBN13: 9780778325970
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Mira Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

Chapread's Read

I always enjoy Anne Stuart's books. She is an excellent writer and develops a good storyline. However, I was disappointed in this book. It was not quite believable and didn't hold together as well as most of Ms. Stuart's book do. I found knowing the identity of the killer almost from the beginning somewhat disconcerting. Although the heroine had married the wrong person, I felt she should have kept her marriage vows until things were sorted out. At the end, I couldn't quite accept how the characters' seemed indifferent to the horrific murders, and just went on with life. This was not a good enough story cover the character flaws.

fast-paced suspense thriller

Professor David Middleton persuades photographer Rachel Chapman to come to Silver Falls as his wife. He swears he will make a safe home for her and teenage daughter Sophie. After years of traveling, Rachel agrees. However, she finds the idyllic Pacific Northwest college town depressing as it seems to rain everyday and when it is not pouring, it looks like it is about to storm. Worse, she finds David's loving personality has turned to smothering her and her daughter. Starting to be concerned with his obsessive behavior, Rachel reconsiders whether she did the right thing in marrying the previously charming professor. When his brother, Caleb arrives in town, Rachel is stunned by her attraction him even as he mockingly rips holes in her lifestyle. When someone begins to serially murder girls who look like Sophie, Rachel fears her brother-in-law is the culprit with her terrified that her daughter will be his final curtain. SILVER FALLS is a fast-paced suspense thriller starring a strong cast. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the newlyweds and her teen daughter arrive in town and never slows down. Although some of the "Notorious" excitement is lost because the killer is revealed early on, fans will enjoy Anne Stuart's tale as Rachel risks her life to keep Sophie safe. Harriet Klausner

Another Page Turner from Anne Stuart

Like other reviewers have mentioned, there really is no mystery here about who the real villian is. And of course we already know that there will be a happily ever after. However, I found myself unable to put this book down until I had finished it. Nobody can create and develop the characters of the "bad boys" quite like Anne Stuart. Caleb is another one of her bad boys that the reader, along with the heroine, falls in love with.

3 1/2 stars- Entertaining but a bit frustrating

Rachel Chapman became her family's biggest disapointment when she got pregnant at the age of seventeen and left home with her daughter Sophie to take pictures all over the world. It was a wild way to raise a child and when one of Sophie's friend's was murdered, Rachel realized that she needed to give her daughter a stable life. So she married dull professor David Middleton and moved to the collage town of Silver Falls with him. However murder followed Rachel and Sophie to Silver Falls. Not long after their arrival, a young student is found raped and murdered and she isn't the first; a seriel killer has arrived in Silver Falls. At the same time as the bodies begin to pile up, David's black sheep brother Caleb shows up. Two more disturbing things happen at this time. The first is that it becomes evident that Rachel's beloved daughter fits the killer's victim profile exactly. The second is that Rachel is very attracted to Caleb. As her life becomes chaos, Rachel begins to wonder if she can ever come out of this mess alive... The first thing I wanted to mention about this book is that it's mislabeled. The blurb makes it sound like there's a mystery surrounding the killer's identity, but by chapter six the killer is more than obvious to the audience. It's also labeled 'Romantic Suspense' but the idea of a wife and her brother-in-law becoming romantically involved just isn't very romantic. There were many good things about this story. It's fast paced and it's suprisingly and inapproiately funny thanks to Rachel's sarcastic voice. The gothic atmosphere of the creepy hollow of Silver Falls really comes alive here and I felt like I was there. But there were a few problems for me. My main problem was that the entire plot revolves around the heroine looking like a serious idiot who trusts a killer almost to the bitter end. No matter what a clever facade the killer puts on, no matter how badly she wants a normal life for her kid, I could not shake the feeling that she wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. The hero, while much smarter, was really no better. In true gothic style, he spends most of the book keeping Very Important Secrets from everyone around him. He had his reasons but it's still annoying. Really, the only great character here was the daughter, Sophie, who's smart, brave and fun. The way that the plot itself played out reminded me a bit of a Lifetime movie and since it's based on the Bundy killer's tale it probably couldn't have been any other way. Many of the scenes were just plain awkward, even icky, and I often found myself wishing they were over. It's not a bad book by any means, but it's definitely not the most comfortable read and I'd only recommend it to those who don't mind squirming in their seats a lot.

A Change of Pace

I actually liked Silver Falls. There were certain elements that some readers may not like but to me the story worked. There is no real mystery because the author lets the reader know what is going on pretty much from the beginning. Still the story moved at a good pace and kept me reading to the end.