Tahoe Silence

July 30, 2007
There's little to distinguish the predictable fifth Owen McKenna novel (after 2004's Tahoe Killshot) from countless similar contemporary thrillers. McKenna, a San Francisco police inspector turned Tahoe PI, struggles to maintain his sanity in the face of traumatic memories of a case involving a murdered child. Those demons threaten to resurface when he's hired by Marlette Remmick to find her teenage children, who were abducted by a notorious biker gang. When Marlette's son, Charlie, is found dead, she further pressures McKenna to locate her autistic daughter SalAnne, known as Silence for her inability to speak. McKenna finds coded messages and drawings from Silence and struggles to interpret them as the tension rises. The predictable plot offers nothing new, and McKenna himself is insufficiently engaging to attract a wide readership.