Silent Killer

The Powell Agency is back with some of the familiar from the Protectors series and some new giving you a thirst for their stories. Cathy's old boyfriend is coming home. She is a widow now with a secret. Her husband was murdered and there are more murders happening to ministers like her husband. Jack is hired by the Sheriff's Department and he is called to protect her and help solve the murders going on. Will her secret come out? Will Jack and her son forgive her?

Cathy Cantrell is trying to get her life back together after losing it when her husband was murdered at home. Cathy knew she had needed help and decided to get it for herself so she could become a good mother for her son once again. Now back in her town and trying to pick up the pieces, it appears life is going to be throwing her yet another hardball. Her first love is back in town and Cathy still has feelings for him but she has a secret that could kill anything that might develop between them. Jackson Perdue has come home to become a sheriff's deputy. Jackson has been discharged from the military after he was first taken as MIA and then almost died while on a mission. Jackson isn't sure coming home was the best decision but he is willing to give the job a try. He is surprised when one of first cases is the cold case involving Cathy's husband. A love he has never forgotten. Jackson and Cathy are being cautious with each other when a murder happens which is exactly like the one that killed her husband. Someone is killing men of the cloth by burning them to death. Jackson knows he has a serial killer on his hands but his first concern is if Cathy can handle the memories the killing brings. Things finally combust with Cathy and Jackson that show their past had only simmered during the years apart. Dealing with their personal lives, Cathy's teenage son and the danger of a serial killer, which is getting closer, tests their newly restored love. Will Jackson be able to discover and arrest the killer before the flames burn too close to Cathy and her son? What happens when the love of your life returns? Silent Killer returns both Cathy and Jackson to their Alabama hometown years after their love affair. Cathy just wants to gather up the threads of her life that were scattered when her husband was killed. Jackson needs a place to find out what his life out of the military will consist of and to slay his ghosts. It was painful, but in a heartwarming way, to read while Cathy and Jackson tried to discover just what was between them now. I also could believe the initial outrage from Cathy's teenage son when his Mom is suddenly dating again. Jackson was a hero in every sense of the word and Cathy was an extremely strong heroine when they had to face down people in town, her teenage son and most importantly a cunning serial killer while declaring their love to one another. Like my normal way of reading suspense, I had the characters narrowed down to two and one of them turned out to be the killer. However I was surprised at just how the capture happened. Silent Killer is a must read that will warm your heart, have your mind racing and send chills down you spine alternately. There are other side characters from the Powell Agency, which show up in Silent Killer from past books. I was concerned about some loose ends until I read the after note from Ms. Barton and learned she was writing the follow up novel as we speak which will tie t

Silent Killer by Beverly Barton Facing your demons and things that haunt you from the past can be really difficult, hard and often debilitating. But, Cathy Cantrell and Jack Purdue must face their pasts and the tragic incidents in them in order to forge ahead and live their lives. This brings me to my review of Silent Killer by Beverly Barton. Would you be able to continue on if your husband doused with flames by someone when going to answer the door? Would you be able to continue on after a bombing in the army that caused you to become disfigured? Would you come back to the town where so many bad things happened and live there again? Would You? Cathy's husband was a minister and when Mark went to answer the door someone decided to end his life right before his 40th birthday. Dousing him with gasoline and turning his body into an inferno in front of her eyes, Cathy stands frozen in place before calling for help, but it is too late As a result she has a serious nervous breakdown and she checks herself into a rehab center for a year leaving her son with her husband's parents. Upon her release from the center she gets a job with a friend as an interior designer and tries to resume a normal life, but there are many demons and obstacles that stand in her way. Her in-laws and her son still have to learn to trust her and test her every step of the way to see if she is capable of taking care of herself and living a normal life. However, there is much more for her to deal with. Reentering her life is Jack Perdue someone she cared for deeply in her past and now will become an intricate part of the life. But, the murders have just begun and this demented killer goes after and kills two more clergymen the same way. Father Brian is one victim and Father Randolph another. Followed by Brother Hovater, and Brother Kelly and with Mark the first victim that makes five in all. The author cleverly introduces the killer in between chapters and has the killer state why these men must die and ask God to give the killer the strength to carry out the justice these people rightly deserve since they have sinned. Mark Cantrell cheated on his wife, one Father stole money from the church and the third, and Father Brian was a pedophile. Rather than have them face their day of judgment, the killer does it for them in the form of this horrendous and torturous murder. Cathy, Jack, and Seth her son and many others will have to deal with these murders and much more before the killer is caught. Called The Fire and Brimstone Killer, which refers to God's wrath and the fate of the unfaithful, this killer inflicts punishment on those the killer feels are disloyal or unworthy of God's protection and guidance. This person feels it is the killer's duty to listen to God's word and wishes and carry out these punishments on the names of those God whispers in the killer's ears to kill. Who is committing these crimes and why is the major question and the reason is still un

In Dunmore, Alabama, a community where secrets, lies and gossip vie for top honors, a deranged killer is on the loose, hell bent on exacting revenge against members of the clergy for their sins, real or imagined. Cathy Cantrell, a once fragile and compliant wife and mother, returns to Dunmore, Alabama, after being hospitalized due to a mental breakdown after witnessing the horrifying (and unsolved) murder of her minister husband, Mark. Now mentally and physically strong, Cathy is determined to regain custody of her teenage son, Seth, whom she lost after being sent away. But her in-laws, the current legal guardians of the boy, don't want to relinquish control. And to make matters worse, Cathy's own mother sides with the in-laws against her. With nowhere else to turn, Cathy moves in with long-time friend Lorrie Hammonds. But not all is as it seems with Lorrie as she has been keeping some secrets from her old friend. Also returning home to Dunmore is Jackson "Jack" Perdue, a war veteran, whose arrival is bittersweet as he has been badly wounded in battle. Jack, who has never forgotten or stopped loving Cathy, is hired by the local sheriff to work on the unsolved murder of Mark Cantrell. But Jack has his own problems to deal with after he moves back into his old family home, where he struggles to overcome battlefield scars and erase painful memories of his past. When attacks by the deranged killer escalate, Jack calls on his sister Maleah, an investigator with the Powell Agency, and former FBI profiler Derek Lawrence, for assistance. Even with outside expert help, the killer eludes capture and the murders continue. Can Jack solve Mark's murder, capture the twisted serial killer, and win back Cathy's love? Beverly Barton writes with a deft hand about small-town living and big-time secrets. SILENT KILLER is an engaging and romantic suspense novel filled with painful memories, graphic murders, vivid sex, hypocrisy, vengeance, and the destructive power of secrets. What is particularly satisfying about this book is that, while Barton portrays the power some clergy members have for the potential of abuse, she also shows their positive influence and the good works they do. She crafts an engaging story, one that has twists and surprises that will keep even the most astute readers guessing until the very end. --- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt

I believe this book should have been called the "Best of Barton". This was the best book IMO she has done so far. Of course, I loved it being set in Alabama, as that is where I am from. It is a great "whodunit". This one will keep your interest, you will not want to be interrupted after you start it and you will not want it to end. We do know now that Ms. Barton is already writing another novel due in 2010 to tie up the few loose ends left in Silent Killer. I wish all of "my authors" that I read were as good as Ms. Barton. She has set the bar so high now that the other authors in this genre will have to race to catch up with her. I highly recommend this book to romantic suspense fans as well as thriller and mystery fans. This book is not to be missed.