I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. A good mystery/thriller/drama. Recommend.

Well written with good character development but very predictable to me. Typical story of women going missing. Who did it. Where are there. I just couldn’t get into it. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Silenced Women is a very well written crime novel. Great plot with many twists and turns. Suspense fans will not be disappointed.

Detective Eddie Mahler and his investigative team are called to the scene of a woman's body, strangled, and left on a park bench. Mahler is immediately taken back to another scene quite like this one. And 72 hours after finding that body ... another body is found in the same area and killed the same way. No one was ever charged for those crimes.

BOOK BLURB: Now suffering from chronic migraines that affect his vision, Mahler has secretly lost faith in the investigation process, and must rely more than ever on his team. Its newest member, Eden Somers, is a former FBI analyst whose ability to completely immerse herself in the evidence of a case proves both a gift and a curse. While Eden dives deep into the cold case evidence, the rest of the team chase leads to identify the latest victim, and discover that her death might be the work of a new killer altogether.

He and his team must stop the killer/killers before another murder occurs.

It's a well-written, compelling, fast-paced read. Credible characters are caught up in the swirling twists and turns that ultimately lead to an unexpected ending. This book introduces the Violent Crime Investigations Team, a modern series of hard boiled crime fiction, taking on the very worst of California crime. It looks to be a compelling series and I look forward to reading the next case for this team.

Many thanks to the author / Poisoned Pen Press / Netgalley for the digital copy of this hard boiled crime fiction/mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I’m so sad to say I was not a fan of this book not enough action or suspense, I just wasn’t interested in at all.

I enjoyed this one - it's not an easy read, there are lots of very well drawn characters with quick dialogue demanding your attention and concentration (you get the criminals viewpoints as well as the units), so I found if I read before bed I might have to reread a bit the next day incase I'd missed something. It's worthy of paying attention though - I can see this new series proving very popular!

First off I want to say a huge thank you to the publisher Poisoned Pen Press, the author Frederick Weisel, and to NetGalley for letting me read and request it:What a great start to a new series , it has a lot of stuff in that I love when it comes to my thrillers: creepy characters , not sure who's telling the telling or not, team members who work will together and in their own way bring something to the story. And the main character who you can relate to, which I can to the main character and team leader Eddie Mahler ( who has migraines just like me , and the author was spot on about them, because when they hit , they come out of no where and make it impossible to do anything , all you want is a dark room and some time by yourself ). Another thing I liked was that no matter how bad it got for Mahler ,he still put the case before himself. As for the twists and turns they kept me on my toes so much that I didn't want to stop reading it at all. What else can I say except that it was a solid read that didn't let me down and I can't wait for the next book .

A gripping and entertaining thriller with an interesting MC.
It's a well written story, full of twists and turns, that kept me hooked and I appreciated the character and plot development.
The mystery is solid, the plot tightly knitted and I want to read other books by this author as this was my first one.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

First, there were the murders a couple of years ago but now, there is another one. The case needs to be solved. Involved in all three in terms of trying to find a killer is Detective Eddie Mahler. He is invested but is suffering from migraines that impede his ability to solve the case. So, a new member comes on the case. She and he work to obtain justice for the women who can no longer speak for themselves.Are the cases related? How and will they be solved? Read this one to find out. This is a police procedural that will be enjoyed by those who like that genre.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.
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Received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for a fair review
3.5 stars.
“The Silenced Women”, by Frederick Weisel (Poisoned Pen Press), is an interesting, engaging read, with well developed characters and a great, singular hero,
I liked the journalistic, detached writing style and found the mistery was well built, while having the good and the bad guys’ perspectives, and always in a very straightforward, non judgmental way.
Mahler is a great hero, stoic and very discreet, but such a powerful figure. The migraine episodes are wonderfully depicted, both with economy and great visualization, from the almost detached hero’s point of view.
I liked that, refreshingly, our wounded hero isn’t tall, but “short and powerfully built”.
I really liked having the criminals’ point of view and seeing how their twisted minds worked in what they consider a normal manner. It was so interesting to have their take on the detectives, Mahler’s “dangerous raggedness”, for instance.
This had a slow beginning but it kept me engaged most of the time. Perhaps the story could be shorter, with less digression; sometimes, I lost track of some of the characters or their names. I also felt I needed to know more details or be reminded more often about the main characters’ physical and even psychological features to have a more tight sense of cohesiveness.
When I finished I felt there was much more to find out about the VCI team members, hopefully in next stories in the series.

A decent crime thriller that checks all the boxes. Readers are immersed into a complicated murder investigation with a captivating team of investigators. While the trope is somewhat familiar for the genre, Wiesel makes it his own with a broadly unique writing style and prime characterization. 4 stars

Thank you to #NetGalley and #PoisonedPenPress for the ARC of #TheSilencedWomen. All thoughts and opinions posted by Wayward Readers Book Blog are original and offered voluntarily.

The main idea and storyline was thrilling, but it was quite hard for me to read, that is why I only give 3 stars. I really liked the characters and the scenes, however I had my issues with the style of writing.

364 pages

3 stars

This book is a fast-paced thriller from a new author to me. I enjoyed the book very much. At first, I had some trouble liking the two major characters, Detective Mahler and his new employee Eden Somers. But, as the story went on, and I learned more about them as persons, I began to appreciate them more. The book is well written and fairly well plotted for a new author. I did get confused a couple of times with the loose transitions. But, over all, nicely done, Mr. Weisel!

Detective Mahler suffers from debilitating migraines. (Do I know how those feel!) He is also haunted by two unsolved murders from two years previously. He believes he knows who did them, but could not prove it at the time. He no longer feels he has the clear sight of the law on his side.

Now, another dead woman is found in the same area as the cold cases.

This book follows the intricate and demanding investigation into all of the cases. There are many police officers involved in the search for the killer. They all have their own specialities and with varying personalities, they make quite a team.

I want to thank NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions stated here are my own.

A young woman is found strangled to death and left on a park bench in Santa Rosa, California, Detective Eddie Mahler and his Violent Crime Investigations VCI Team are called to the scene. The crime immediately flashes Mahler back to two unsolved homicides - young women who were also strangled!

This was a page turner from get go!
I read this so quickly because I had to see what happened next!
I definitely didn't see any of what happened coming!
Such a great mystery.

DNF at 52%.
I really wanted to finish this book - I was intrigued by the murder of Elise. There just wasn't enough to interest me enough to finish it.
A young woman is found on a bench - posed as sleeping, wrapped in a blanket.
Mahler has been haunted for years by a series of related murders - not enough evidence to prove the suspect was even at site let alone a conviction.
Somers is a new hire - from the FBI BAU.
Elise has been dating a rich older man for a few months- her roommate barely knows Elise. Her previous roommate has some information to share. Suffering from bipolar, Elise was all over the place - drugs, men, alcohol.
I appreciated Mahler as a realistic character. Suffering from migraines, haunted by a victim, losing his patience at work and yelling at his staff - all relatable.
Somers broke a cold case - finding a detail overlooked. Now she's haunted and terrified the killer will come for her - Somers hides in this small community, picking apart the unsolved murders.
Thackery, Elise's mystery man and killer, is a psychopath who kills his girlfriends.
It just didn't hold my interest.