Those who like to see evil men get their just desserts will look forward to Sawyer’s further ex

An exciting start to a new series with a feisty and unforgettable heroine in Sawyer Brooks
ploitsRagan masterfully crafts one unexpected twist after another until the shocking finale.
Awesome book. Loved it from beginning to end

This is a very dark and disturbing as it deals with sexual child abuse by the father and the giving of one sister to a friend. I did not like the subject matter but could not put the book down as I had to see how it ended. This is a series and the second book is now available. I will read it as it continues the story line and I want to see how it ties up

This was at times a dark, harrowing read, and *trigger warning* as it deals with child sexual abuse that all three sisters endured as children. Despite the difficult story lines I really got engrossed with the story and though at times difficult to read, you really connect with Sawyer on a deeper level.

Sawyer returns to her hometown of River Rock to attend her grandmothers funeral, and with the hopes of blowing up the secrets that town has. Her childhood friend disappeared and there was also two murdered teenage girls, leave three cold cases, but when another girl if found in similar circumstances to the previous Sawyer gets her bite for the story.

There are a lot of sub story lines that twist and weave together, bringing the past and the present to head, and I loved how they came together. Though the story was hard to read at some points like I have said, I did enjoy this story and how it all played out.

4 stars

I’d like to thank Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Don’t Make A Sound’, the first book in the Sawyer Brooks series written by T R Ragan, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Sawyer Brooks is a newly-promoted crime reporter working for the Sacramento Independent. When her Gramma Sally dies she asks for time off to return home to River Rock to attend her funeral and whilst there is given permission to get the story of who bludgeoned Peggy Myers and Avery Jones to death, and the disappearance of her best-friend Rebecca. Meanwhile, a group of five women known as ‘The Crew’ are working together to rid the streets of the sexual predators who abused them and got away with it.

I’ve read all of T R Ragan's novels since the first book in the Lizzy Gardner series and enjoyed every single one, and although ‘Don’t Make A Sound’ is different to the others and the content definitely makes for uncomfortable reading at times, it’s just as exciting. This is a thoroughly entertaining thriller, compelling, absorbing, dramatic and full of action, and the gripping finale brings a fitting conclusion to an extraordinary book. I’m very much looking forward to reading more of Sawyer Brooks and her sisters Harper and Aria and seeing how her character develops.

This book is not for the faint of heart. Tread lightly because this is deeply disturbing and made all the more chilling given how incredibly believable it all is. This violence happens every day, and though explicit, but never gratuitous, it is relevant.

Junior reporter Sawyer begins looking into the deaths of two girls, now cold cases, from her home town that converge into shedding light on her own haunted past and abuse. Sawyer's story, much like all the women in this book, is absolutely horrific and marked with a great deal of pain. Her coping mechanisms were completely understandable given her family dynamics and the level of trauma she experienced. Bringing in the subplot element of a vigilante revenge group was fascinating, and I couldn't turn away once the story began moving between their actions and the murder mysteries Sawyer is attempting to solve. This was an intense thriller told from various points of view that added incredible layering to the growing suspense, while also building anticipation for the final showdown. The setting of River Rock is just as menacing and filled with it's own secretive history that was interwoven into the narrative in such a gripping way that in a sense it became its own character as well.

Thought the subject matter is awful, this well written plot was an amazing read for me and really set some high expectations for future installments of the series, which I am now highly anticipating! In the meantime, I'll definitely be checking out the author's previous books. So if you're in the mood for dark, gritty, and dangerous, definitely give this book a read!

This book comes right at you. Sawyer Brookes wants to be a crime reporter. Just as she is starting to move up in her career, finally being added to the criminal reporting team, she is called back home to deal with her own past. With her grandmother's funeral, she returns to her small town where young girls were murdered and disappeared. Where she was abused so much herself that she can barely stand to be touched. Her own sisters, who also escaped, warn her not to go back. But she does.

Sawyer has to come to terms with her past, try to make people remember those girls from long ago, and investigate a brand new murder that mirrors those from years ago. Oh, and back home in Sacramento a vigilante group of women are taking revenge on the men who victimized them. There is a lot going on.

This story moves fast. You don't have a lot of time to wander. You learn about the people of her small town and about her family, but not so much that it pulls you out of the story. I'm hoping that this becomes the first in a series. I can't wait to see what Malice does next. Thanks to TR Ragan, Thomas & Mercer, and Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for my honest review.

T.R. Ragan’s new Sawyer Brooks series is unsparing in its examination of sexual abuse, torture, and pre-meditated murder. Sawyer Brooks is a 29-year-old Sacramento journalist. Her traumatic childhood experiences at the hand of her uncle impact her daily, even after years of therapy. Sawyer’s older sisters, Harper and Aria, were also victimized. Years later, the sisters are not particularly close.

The story of The Crew, five vigilante women nicknamed Malice, Lily, Bug, Cleo, and Psycho runs parallel to Sawyer’s tale.

Their connection ran deep. Rape, torture, and years of anguish had brought them together. They knew one another’s stories, and they trusted each other fully. They hadn’t joined forces to provide emotional support, although much of what they did was therapeutic. The header pinned at the top of their page read Deterrence, Restitution, and Reformation.

The Crew plans to target and punish their abusers before releasing them back into society. Their motto, “One Douchebag at a Time,” sums up their approach. The scheme is potentially a recipe for disaster—there are valid reasons why frontier justice is no longer de rigueur.

During her five years at the Sacramento Independent, Sawyer progresses from an intern to a researcher/editor before “finally landing a job as a news and human-interest reporter after another writer moved back East.” Today’s assignment is following up on a kid who was bitten by a snake at a birthday party. Her editor, 35-year widower Derek Coleman, approaches her a little before 9:00 a.m.

She met Coleman’s gaze. His expression told her he had bad news.



“What’s wrong?”



“The kid died.”



Her first thought was: What kid? Second thought: No way. She’d read the stats on snakebites.

How could that have happened? Sawyer grabs her purse and jumps up, intent on going to the hospital. Hold on, Coleman says, “Geezer called in sick.”

Geezer was a crime scene photographer who worked closely with the Sacramento Independent’s top crime reporter, Sean Palmer.



“So?”



“He said you can hold your own when it comes to taking pictures.”



She nodded. Waited.



“There’s been a homicide. Forrest Hill Apartments in West Sac. Palmer wants you there ASAP. He said to bring your gear.”



“What the hell?” She pushed her fingers through her hair in frustration. “Why didn’t you tell me five minutes ago?”



A thick brow shot upward. “Because I need the snake story on my desk by seven tonight.”

Working with Sean Palmer has been a dream of Sawyer’s since graduating CSU Sacramento. Her mind starts racing—get home to get her camera, go to the scene, get to the hospital: check, check, check. Why is Coleman still standing there?

“A woman was brutally murdered. From what I’ve heard, it’s a grisly sight.” He looked overly concerned.



“Are you kidding me? All I’ve wanted since I got this job was to work side by side with Sean Palmer and learn from the best.”

Sawyer is nothing if not determined. Keeping her eye on the prize is one tactic for suppressing her internal demons. When she gets home, there’s a car she doesn’t recognize in the driveway—and a strange girl underneath her boyfriend, Connor.

Connor peeked over his shoulder. His face was red from exertion, which made sense considering this was the hardest she’d ever seen him work.

Sawyer doesn’t engage. She grabs her camera and heads out, stopping momentarily to shoo a stray cat out from underneath her front tire. How does she feel? Sawyer examines her emotions, “a pinch of anger, a dab of disappointment, and a bucketful of reality that she wasn’t that into Connor.”

She sees the world through mistrustful eyes and isn’t that surprised. It goes back to her childhood. One night, when she was alone with her Uncle Theo, he turned her over to four strangers. Scared, she said she wanted to go to bed, and a kindly-faced man offered to take her. Was he her savior?

“Don’t make a sound,” he’d said after he closed the door and turned her way. He’d been Satan in the flesh, blue eyes and all, there to strip her of all goodness and light, spending hours on top of her, inside her, his sweat and sour breath all over her, leaving nothing for his friends but bones and whatever else made up the human body, including a darkened heart and a newfound aversion to being touched.

It’s hard to imagine any crime scene could surpass Sawyer’s deeply held memories. She fluently talks her way past the police and slips into the victim’s apartment.

From the looks of things, Kylie had put up a good fight. Plants had been knocked over; there was an open book on the floor and a broken picture frame. Fingerprint powder covered the coffee table. Drop of blood made a path across the hardwood floor.

Sawyer has an eye for the unusual and recreates mentally what might have happened to the victim while taking pictures. Hours later, she wraps up her story on reptile safety and birthday parties. While she was at the hospital, she spoke to the “grief-stricken” man who had handled the reptile at the birthday party. Sawyer “found herself feeling sorry for him.”

Her sisters had accused her, on more than one occasion, of lacking empathy. But Sawyer disagreed. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the suffering of others, she believed her compassion allowed her to keep emotion out of moments like this.

The day holds still more surprises for Sawyer. Her father calls her to say that “Gramma Sally passed away last night.” Sawyer loved her grandmother deeply. She promises to come to the funeral, even though she is intensely reluctant to go home to River Rock.

River Rock is where she’d been abandoned by her two older sisters to suffer alone, and in silence, the unspeakable abuses of her family. It’s also where Sawyer’s best friend disappeared and two teenage girls were murdered. Three cold cases dead and buried with the rest of the town’s secrets.

Before she leaves work, crime reporter Sean Palmer texts her that he wants to see her. She hands him her USB flash drive, and he examines her pictures. They go back and forth—he thinks her pictures are overly grisly; why didn’t she get everyone’s names—but Sawyer holds her own. Palmer offers her a job on his team. It’s a promotion with more money. She’s stunned, thrilled, but says she can’t start right away because of her grandma’s funeral. Palmer is not pleased.

“But we’re short staffed, and I need content.”



She spouted the first thing that came to mind. “I’ll get you content,” she said with more desperation than intended. “My hometown of River Rock is practically around the corner from here. It’s a small town that reeks of death, abandonment, and abduction—chock-full of the sort of stories told around the campfire, the sort of stories that make people feel uncomfortable.”

Sawyer Brooks is a compelling heroine, fearless and fierce. Given her past, one might expect moments of fragility, but that’s not her style. She’s compassionate and clear-eyed. Sawyer looks to provide justice and restitution, where possible, through investigative journalism. Her approach is contrasted with The Crew’s frightening descent into the rawest of vigilante justice. It’s no accident that Sawyer’s pitch to Palmer is just what T.R. Ragan’s Don’t Make a Sound offers readers—a compelling thriller that “reeks of death, abandonment, and abduction.” A great debut to a new series.

I feel like I need to begin this review with ALL of the trigger warnings! This book is dark and not always easy to read so it may not be for all readers. But it was also such a suspenseful read that kept me turning the pages to see what was going to happen next the entire time. I just think that because this book was so dark that readers will want to go in knowing that ahead of time as it isn't always easy to read - Sawyer has been through some horrific things in her childhood as have both of her sisters. If you can handle all of that, this book was a very compelling read! Sawyer is a prickly character for very good reason. She is also someone that I was instantly rooting for especially after we learn about everything that she has been through. This book also gave me some serious Sharp Objects vibes thanks to the town Sawyer grew up in and all of the darkness that seemed to be contained within it. Another interesting aspect to this book is that there is vigilante storyline (that's the best way I can describe it) that is interspersed throughout the book. I was curious and guessing how it related to Sawyer's storyline while I was reading but my guesses weren't confirmed as correct until the end. I'm very curious to see how this will play out in future books as this book is the first in a series. I will definitely make sure that I'm ready for a darker read when I pick up the next book. I'm looking forward to that next book though as well as checking out what else this author has written!

Overall, it feels kind of wrong to say I enjoyed this one when it had such difficult subject matter but I really did. It wasn't always easy for me to read but it was a very compelling book. I'm eager to read more about Sawyer and to see what other kinds of trouble she will find herself in next. Make no mistake, I'm 100 percent sure that she will find herself in other trouble - that is just the type of person she is. I'm rooting for her though and looking forward to future books because of it. I would recommend this book to readers that don't mind darker reads, those who enjoy a good mystery, and those who like suspenseful reads that they don't want to set down. I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone though because it could be very triggering - please message me if you need specific trigger warnings. In the end, I'm excited to have found this new to me author and looking forward to checking out what else she has written!

Bottom Line: A very dark, suspenseful and compelling read - but be warned that it may not be for everyone!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher as part of a Great Escape Virtual Book Tour. Honest thoughts are my own.