Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing this Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review of the book; all opinions expressed in the review are my own.

Of the countless police procedurals available in the market, many of which feature broken lead characters either because they had lost someone close to them or had a traumatic childhood, the Detective Jackie Cooke series by Marnie Riches is carried by a lead character who is as real and believable as any character can get.

In “The Silent Dead,” Jackie is trying to get her life back on track and, having applied for a divorce from her cheating husband, she is struggling to juggle her demanding profession with her duties as a mother. As if things weren’t difficult enough, she is using all her will to find a killer who has started to kill single mothers in her city. The fact that one of the victims was once her friend, only makes her more determined to catch the killer.

Riches takes the reader into a very average police procedural story. through a protagonist in Jackie who has a strong sense of justice despite her faults as a character. How does she figure out who the perpetrator is? What effect does the case have on her newfound status as a single mother?

Jackie is a fascinating character who’s very driven yet not completely aware of her own shortcomings. However, I thought the way she conducted her investigation was fairly elementary; I don’t think even the freshest rookie would jump to conclusions at the pace she does regularly in the book. The fact that I was able to guess the perpetrator almost halfway through the book doesn’t help its case.

I had a fairly enjoyable reading experience from it and would recommend it for lovers of light thrillers who don’t mind small flaws in the procedural aspect of this book.

This book gets 4 out of 5 stars.