Richard lives with his mother far away from the hubbub of the city. He's home schooled and socializing is pretty much nonexistence. After a ride on his cycle, Richard comes home to discover his mother and dog murdered on the kitchen floor. The scene is emotionally gripping, especially since seventeen-year-old Richard is deaf with no one to turn to. His parents' past loving guidance gives him wisdom to get through the crisis, and his pain gives him the courage to investigate his mother's murder on his own. When Hawkman becomes aware of the circumstances he takes up the deaf teen's cause, doing everything possible to keep the state and the police from taking him into custody.

REVIEW

An Incredibly Sensorial Mystery, February 9, 2002
By  Evelyn Gale (Norfolk, NE USA)

Seventeen-year-old Richard Clifford returns to his isolated ranch home from a motorcycle ride to find his mother and dog both slaughtered in their kitchen. Not having a telephone, he rides his motorcycle to the Zanker house ten miles away. The Zankers are gone and the only other neighbor, old Jerome isn't home either. Richard is deaf, his father died of cancer a year ago, he doesn't know where his only uncle is, he knows of no other neighbors but the Zankers and Jerome.

The smell in the house becomes nauseating. Richard buries his dog under his mother's favorite tree. After washing his mother's violated body and dressing her in a clean dress he wraps her in a quilt and a plastic table cloth and seals her body in a granary to protect it from rodents and insects. Richard cleans up the rest of the mess in the house and anxiously awaits the return of his neighbors. As soon as the crime is reported to the authorities he can begin to search for the murderer himself.

Private Detective, Tom Casey, better known as Hawkman assists the sheriff's office in their investigation. He alone is convinced of Richard's innocence. The boy does show an unusual ability with a knife, proven when he's attacked by a mountain lion and kills it, skins it and tans the hide. He becomes a focal point of abuse by an gang of outlaw bikers and since he can't hear, he can't anticipate the approach of predators whether two or four legged. Richard does perform his mundane chores as usual, milks the cow, does the chores, tends his mother's garden-appears to be going about life as usual, intent on staying on his own land. But he's a minor and unless his uncle can be found Richard will become a ward of the court.

Once again Betty Sullivan La Pierre has involved me in the lives of her characters to such an extent that after beginning, I didn't have the option of closing the book until the surprise at the end. Having a hearing disorder myself, I can attest to the authenticity of her character's struggles. This author consistently writes good clean, captivating mysteries peopled with substantial characters in sensorially credible scenes and settings that live in the reader's memory after the solution. I give THE SILENT SCREAM five stars.

Reviewed by: Reviewed by ©Evelyn Gale 2/2002

EXCERPT

THE SILENT SCREAM
by Betty Sullivan La Pierre

CHAPTER ONE
Richard bounced across the rough field on his motorcycle toward home. He peered in the direction of the front door and wondered why his mother hadn't poked her head out and waved as she usually did when he arrived. She must be busy over the stove, he thought, wheeling into the barn yard.

He jumped off the bike and glanced up at the roof of the house. No smoke curled out of the pipe vent connected to the wood burning stove. That worried him.

Quickly pushing the bike into the barn, he dusted off his jeans and hurried toward the back door. Sniffing the air, he thought it odd that he couldn't smell any food cooking. Mom always had something going on the stove that made his mouth water.

His dog Ruffy hadn't run to greet him either. As he raced up the rickety wooden steps, he glanced quickly under the raised back porch for his large Golden Retriever, but didn't see him. Giving his seat one more dusting, he opened the squeaky screen.

Richard had no more stepped into the kitchen than he staggered backwards against the door jam. He sucked in his breath as he stared in horror at his mother's body sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood. And Ruffy's furry body lay beside her, blood still flowing from the slit in his throat.

He swallowed hard, then forced himself forward, stretching out his arm so that only the tips of his trembling fingers touched his mother's cold, lifeless body. As the smell of death invaded his nostrils, the taste of bile bubbled into his throat.

Richard clutched his stomach and stumbled back outside where he leaned over the wooden railing and vomited until his insides ached from the dry heaves. Tears blurred his vision and sobs wracked his whole being. Who would do this horrible thing to his beautiful mother and gentle dog?