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Scream in Silence

by Eleanor Taylor Bland

Eleanor Taylor Bland has the distinction of being the only mystery writer I've read so far who is African American, and although a number of fictional characters portrayed by other authors are black, none expresses personality in quite the same way as her principal, Marti MacAlister. Eleanor Taylor Bland knows how to build suspense. This author's writing is more than adequate and improving over time - Ms. Bland's story about arson, con men and mistreatment of the elderly along with actual murder in Scream in Silence, cleverly depicts the disintegration of rural society to so-called urban development at the same time it holds your complete attention with the insanity of certain fictional characters.

Scream in Silence opens with an arsonist's thoughts as he carefully sets a fire. Unknown to him, however, a murder has already been committed there, and the body left in the cellar. Detective Marti MacAlister and her partner Vik Jessenovik are called to investigate. Both detectives are soon faced with a series of fires, then bombings. When it's determined that the body in the first house was already dead when the fire was set, both the fires and the bombings seem to be random and without human victims. Then suddenly the destruction escalates, including a motorcycle blown apart along with its rider.

As Marti and Vic search for clues to the murder of the woman found shot to death in the cellar of that abandoned house, the woman's identity is brought to light - the body is that of a Virginia McCroft. The strange thing about Virginia is that she was the most popular girl in the local high school, yet very much a loner afterwards, and not even considered a very nice individual. Her purse and her car are both missing. Meanwhile the reader is given two very suspicious men to follow - a Geoffrey who likes to con people to get money he assuredly doesn't need, and a Fred who severely mistreats his elderly mother, while claiming everything she owns as his. A sub-plot has Marti dealing with protection of her daughter Joanna from her friend Lisa, along with her son's reluctant acceptance of his stepfather Ben.

Marti and Vik go through Virginia McCroft's house, discovering the dichotomy of rooms crowded with furniture and bric-a-brac spotlessly clean, yet a bedroom with everything carelessly thrown about. They come away with boxes of meticulously kept records and receipts, which give both detectives hours of frustrated reading, attempting to find some clue to the reason she was murdered. The more the two police detectives learn about Virginia, the more people become suspects, while meanwhile the fires and bombings continue. Virginia's mother is in a nursing home and the victim of senility; no help there. S. J. Rosenblum, a name from Virginia's carefully inscribed Planner, turns out to have given her regular gardening sessions every Wednesday - or at least he claims it was gardening.

The detectives' search through Virginia's papers finally turn up the fact that she was being paid a pension from an Andrew Thornton Inc., Actuary and Accountant. When they visit Thornton, they find him not only poor, but virtually tied to an oxygen tank and mask. Oona, Thornton's daughter, then comes under suspicion. When Marti at last succeeds in discovering the why and how of Virginia's murder and who instigated it, the bombings and fires are also found to be the work of one person, with evidence proving beyond any doubt who was responsible. Scream in Silence is brought to a close with Marti's son accepting Ben as his Dad and Lisa becoming a new member of Marti's family.

Eleanor Taylor Bland has provided us with a good mystery story. I felt the reason for Virginia's murder was slightly contrived and therefore slightly disappointing; however the characterization for the two male suspects was superbly accomplished, holding my interest as it will
hold yours. Ms. Bland certainly has a flair for telling a tale, and her facility with the English language combined with a skill for the portrayal of an individual is what makes Scream in Silence successful.

Alan Paul Curtis

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