Don’t Make a Sound (Sawyer Brooks Book 1)

“Don’t make a sound” is what Sawyer was told over and over again as she was brutally violated by her uncle’s friends as a child. Left behind by her two sisters, Sawyer struggled to survive in that house and certainly didn’t come away unscathed. Her grandma, the one person to show her true kindness when she was younger, has just passed away, so Sawyer heads back home. As a newly promoted crime reporter, she decides to take advantage of this time and investigate two unsolved murders and the disappearance of her best friend from fifteen years ago. Being back in town, unfortunately, means coming into contact with her uncle as well as her parents who either didn’t know what was going on in their house or didn’t care. During her stay, another young woman is murdered and Sawyer begins to realize the murderer is closer than she thinks. She also knows this town is built on secrets and lies and that some people will go to extreme lengths to protect them.

I enjoy T. R. Ragan’s stories, but this one is was pretty rough, not necessarily in a bad way. There is a lot of rape and torture as well as murder and incest, so be warned. While it is fiction, there isn’t much in there that doesn’t happen all over the world every day. Watching how all three sisters dealt with their own trauma was the positive point in this dark tale. Overall, a great crime read, but very dark.