Child of Silence

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This powerful and suspenseful debut features an unusual heroine, San Diego Juvenile Court child abuse investigator Bo Bradley. A closet manic-depressive, Bo fights to keep her job and her equilibrium when she is assigned the case of a four-year-old boy found tied to a mattress in an abandoned house on an Indian reservation. She realizes that the boy is deaf, not retarded as she first thought, and hopes to place him with a family who will teach him to sign. But her intuition and her own experience with a deaf sister tells her that the boy had been tied up to prevent him from straying. Could someone have intended to return to him? She finds a grocery receipt, the only clue to the boy's identity. When two men attempt to shoot him and she receives a threatening note, her mission becomes increasingly urgent. Recognizing and resisting the manic phase of her own disorder, she traces the boy's past to Houston and an important political race. Padgett's deft handling of Bo's mental state and her empathetic rendering of his deafness add originality and depth to a gripping story. (Jan.)

Emily Melton

This ambitious first novel introduces Bo Bradley, a child-welfare worker. Bo's been asked to investigate the case of a deaf four-year-old abandoned on a nearby Indian reservation. The boy tugs at Bo's heartstrings because Bo's sister was also deaf. As the case unfolds, Bo discovers that the child is the product of an incestuous relationship between the son and daughter of an opportunistic Texas politician, Tia Rowe, who's desperate to get elected. But the scandal of the abandoned child may ruin Tia's chances, so she'll stop at nothing to squelch the story. Bo's determined not only to expose the unscrupulous politician but also to rescue the little boy. In an action-packed climax, Bo and the child must flee for their lives, but Bo's determination and bravery save the child and expose the scandal. The author's only fault is trying to pack too many subjects--manic-depressives, Indian folklore, deafness, incest, political corruption--into one story, but the characters are well drawn, the heroine is intelligent and appealing, and the action compelling and suspenseful. A promising first effort.