I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

Beyond excited that my very first NetGalley book was Silent Key by Laurel Hightower. I was a fan moment I jumped into her book Below and I knew this would be just as amazing! This story has a little bit of everything, it’s a creepy ghost story with suspense and just a sprinkle of romance. I love how Laurel gives the perfect amount of details for you to be able to imagine being in a situation with the characters. I completely connected with Cam, the main character, who lost her husband long before he died… She has trouble understanding the connection between her daughter and her late husband, who were both seers. Dimi, and ex Russian mobster who she calls her brother and who is never far away, always watching over them. And then there’s Eric… sweet countryfied Eric. He’s a veterinarian and their neighbor who quickly falls for Cam. They seem like an unlikely couple… but they work. I adored the loving and protective relationships between all of them.

Once the creepy stuff starts it doesn’t end. Voices, visions, nightmares, shadows and let’s not forget the creepy humans that pop up here and there. Cam struggles to solve this mystery, protect her daughter from the living and the dead and figure out her feelings for Eric. This story definitely kept me on the edge of my seat thanks to Laurels amazing writing!

I’m beyond grateful to @laurelhightower @netgalley and @flametreepress for the opportunity to read Silent Key!

I tried several times to dive in to ‘Silent Key’ by Laurel Hightower but found myself unable to stick around each time, until finally I gave in just beyond the halfway. This isn’t to say the writing is bad or the plot is especially boring, I don’t think either of these things are true, but something with the narration style particularly of ‘Silent Key’ made it hard for me to keep reading.

Similarly, none of the characters ever felt as though they rung true to me or were characters I felt any kind of connection towards. ‘Silent Key’ felt and feels a little too “at arm’s length”, which ultimately led to me being unable to finish this book in its entirety.

I’ve only ever heard praise for Laurel Hightower’s work, and now I can see why.

This was my first book by this author, and it certainly won’t be the last. The plot, characters, dialogue were incredibly written, the suspense was palpable from the first page and carried the whole way through.

There are ghosts, Russian mobsters, brutal murders, and a ton of lovely pittie pups that are complete goodbois (looking at you Atticus ♥️). There’s also a sweet romance aspect which I adored, as it didn’t overwhelm the horror of the plot and take over the story.

If you don’t add this to your TBR list you will definitely be missing out. I really hope there’s a second book with these characters as some parts of the ending were left a little ambiguous (please please please let there be a second book 🙏🏼 👻 🐕).

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Flame Tree Press for a copy.

Wow! Laurel Hightower sure knows how to tell a complex story! 'Silent Key' combines elements of mystery fiction, spy thrillers, ocean horror, paranormal thrillers, ghost stories, haunted houses tales, detective fiction, supernatural thrillers, and last but not least, romance fiction - and manages to come up with an intricate, original tale, full of twists, adventure and suspense. Although the characters are well-drawn and interesting, this is not really a character-driven story; the character relationships come second to the plot, which is not easy to summarize. In very general terms, it follows the attempts of a mother, who's a cop and recently widowed, to save her five-year-old daughter from the sad fate of her husband. The only drawback of the book, in my opinion, is that it feels like the second volume of a series, as the story begins right after mother and daughter, hunted by supernatural forces, have already gone through an adventure, with people and places already set in place. More people are introduced, new places are visited, and the whole tale unfolds in small doses, blending romance with ghosts and horror. By the time one can see the big picture, plotlines have multiplied significantly, though never confusingly. Hightower keeps absolute control of her story, and does not hesitate to make space for even more complexity, as the last pages of the book show!

Overall, this is an impressive book with many different conflicted personalities, with intriguing backstories, all playing their role in a bigger story, a story starting back in the Cold War and reaching right into the affairs of a very special family today. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an ARC!

<b>A tense thriller with a supernatural twist!</b>

I'm so happy I got a chance to check this book out! Laurel Hightower is such a great author, and an amazing human to boot! This book blended thriller and crime themes with the supernatural and it worked wonderfully.

At first the book seemed a bit wordy for my taste, but soon the pace picked up and the ride started in earnest. I really identified with the main character as a single mom doing whatever it takes to protect her child. She was a strong, independent woman, which we need more of in everything!

The characters felt believable and authentic. Usually I don't love books with a young child prominently featured because I feel it's hard to write them in a way that feels real. This book definitely didn't fall into that trap, and I was able to get fully invested in all the of characters.

There were also many dead ends and twists throughout. I was kept guessing about who she could trust until the very end. The fact that there were a couple of leads mentioned, but ultimately not followed up on, bothered me a little at first, but by the end I wonder if they were intentionally left in to throw the reader off course. If so, they definitely worked.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable book, and I do wonder if there will be another story to come for these characters, just from the way things ended.

The story revolves around former Detective Cam Ambrose, her daughter Sammy, and her best friend who she considers her brother Dimi. She leaves her home in New York hoping to escape the grief of her recently deceased husband, the news of his infidelity, and the ghosts who seem to be haunting her daughter.
As she learns more details about her husband's death she realizes he kept many secrets from her and she never truly knew him. it's up to Cam to decipher the cryptic messages he's left her, unravel the mystery of her husband's demise, and stop the hauntings happening to her daughter. This was an amazing book from start to finish! The pacing of the story was perfect and kept me intrigued the entire time. It was a great horror novel that kept me on my toes, and I found myself trying to figure everything out along with the characters.

I liked this one. Couldn’t put it down. But after I finished reading it, I realized that this book seemed more like a synopsis of a story rather than an actual story itself. I enjoyed the characters of Cam and Dimi and their dynamic, but I felt like there was a lot of backstory that wasn’t adequately explored, just mentioned in a matter-of-fact way. I felt the same way about the ending of the book. I looked forward to exploring this author's backlist! Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I read Below by Lauren Hightower a year ago and really liked it. It started out more of a thriller but then became wacky creature horror. I expected more of that from Silent Key, but going in with those expectations threw me off.

Instead, Silent Key is more of a speculative thriller--mostly thriller but with paranormal entities, too. If I had gone in knowing that, I would have enjoyed it more. Instead, I was waiting for things to get truly bizarre for the first 30% and then they never do.

I also find the marketing around this book misleading. The cover shows an underwater scene and the publisher's blurb compares this book to other ocean-horror books. There is one scene in the ocean in this whole book.

What affected my rating the most, though, was the climax of this story. There is so much build-up to solving the problem the main character, Cam, is facing. And the way it is solved is...almost nothing? Witnessing something from the outside? I'm not even sure what really happened or how it solved the issue at all. I had gotten really into the book by this point, so it was a letdown.

Overall, I had fun with this one once I adjusted my mindset about what this book was. The payoff just wasn't here for me.

It's my second book by Lauren Hightower and definitely not the last. Silent Key skillfully combines a detective story with the supernatural and portrays a well-written familial bond. It's well-paced, intriguing, and twisty enough to make readers guessing. Well worth a shot.

I simply love discovering new to me authors and Laurel Hightower did not disappoint!!

Her writing and pacing is fantastic, the characters are well-written and interesting and as mentioned the plot and scary bits are perfectly paced.

If you're a ghost story fan, this one is for you!

3.5 stars rounded up.

Silent Key tells the story of a woman trying to protect her daughter from a supernatural world that she doesn't understand. It's a detective story, an unsolved mystery, a story about the bonds between family & friends, and a ghost story. 👻

There was plenty of creepy imagery within the book that left me feeling spooked and unsettled at times. I thought the writing was fantastic and the author does a great job of bringing the atmosphere to life as well. My favorite part of this book by far is the characters and the bonds they all shared with each other. From a shy, broken country boy veterinarian, to a funny five year old, and a softened Russian best friend - I loved them all. The relationships the characters had with each other really made the story great and I enjoyed seeing the way they all deeply cared for one another.

The ghost story/mystery itself however was not my favorite. Some aspects were a little confusing to me and I didn't really feel too invested in the plotline, but I do think it was developed well and came together nicely in the end.

Overall, Silent Key was a fun read that I found myself fully immersed in and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of a ghost story detective mystery!

Really enjoyed this one, thanks so much to Flame Tree for sending it along! Silent Key is a character-driven horror mystery, and it blends genres together really well. Loved Cam and her relationship with her daughter, her best friend Dimi, and her budding romance with Eric. The story gets off to a strong start and I loved seeing everything come together as Cam searches for answers about the deaths surrounding her and the ghosts that won't let her or her daughter go.

Laurel writes characters and dialogue very well. Everyone feels real and the world feels lived in. While there are a lot of characters and setting shifts, Laurel confidently keeps everything moving and wrangles these seemingly disparate plots to a satisfying conclusion. I always feel like, especially with horror, that I don't want to give too much away, so I won't add any spoilers here, but if you're a fan of ghosts, detectives, and don't mind a little bit of romance in your horror, you will enjoy this one.

I believe this is Laurel Hightower's first published full length novel, but you wouldn't guess that from reading it. I found her characters and dialogue to be very believable and emotionally gripping. I didn't find this to be exceptionably suspenseful or eerie, but I was never bored and enjoyed the story. This book was described as "a supernatural mystery with elements of Nick Cutter’s The Deep, Peter Benchley’s Jaws and Stephen King’s Firestarter." I don't feel this book is anything like any of those books, but I guess there may be some shared elements. Thanks to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the ARC.

Big thank you to Flame Tree Press & Laurel Hightower for this ARC from NetGalley.

I didn’t connect with our FMC or her family at all during this book except when the “love interest” was involved. He seemed to be the only one with actual emotions and development going on outside the haunting issue.

The whole Cold War / Russian submarine plot was something I wasn’t expecting and truly wasn’t my favourite. I thought I was reading the second book in a series for a few moments because we had so much info without context.

Kept waiting for hauntings & ghosts that made sense or at least had better build up but they just popped up out of nowhere and the context wasn’t there. I was expecting more horror (other than bodily descriptions) but it leaned waaayyy more mystery for me.

Silent Key is a full length novel by Laurel Hightower. It follows a former detective named Cam who has recently lost her husband. But when she realizes that there are secrets her husband kept from her, Cam has to learn about a world of supernatural hauntings while protecting her young daughter who has a mysterious gift.

This book was equal parts good and bad to me. I have read from this author before and loved her novellas so I was very excited to read a novel by her. I think this book suffers from just having too much going on which makes it very confusing. There were parts of this that didn’t make sense as to why they existed in the book. I’m not a fan of police procedural books and this has those vibes. Also Dimi, as a character, felt a little weird.

I did love all the creepy parts of this and Sammy, the daughter, was such a well done character. I’m really picky about children in books because they never feel authentic but I enjoyed this. I also really liked Morgan as a character.

I feel like if Dimi and all the Russian stuff was taken out of this book and it was half the length, it would have been a lot stronger for me. It is a pretty quick read so I think a lot of people will enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC. I’m still trying to gather all of my feelings for this book. I ended up really enjoying it, although I do have some issues. I feel like you just get thrown into this without any background into what’s happening. The whole Russian thing and Dimi was just confusing to me and even though I liked Dimi I didn’t really care about any of that. Even though this is only 305 pages it felt very long winded at times. I could’ve been wrapped up sooner I feel like. ******Maybe SPOILER alert but I actually loved the romance in here. How can you not fall in love with Eric Morgan*****
I loved the descriptions of the ghosts and the scenes of the hauntings. They really were terrifying! That part was great. Great supernatural book and the ending…could there be a sequel? I know this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it was spooky and creepy and romantic at times. I enjoyed it. I’m giving it 3.5/4 stars.

Laurel Hightower can’t miss. Her work hits like a truck and she doesn’t pull any punches. She’s the writer I always hope I’ll be one day.

Silent Key
by Laurel Hightower

There are things I loved about this book and some things that just confused me. Hightower is so good at developing a strong, flawed, loving and feisty female MC. I still think about Chris from Crossroads and Addy from Below, both strong, sympathetic characters and both books are terrifying reads.

Cam is a newly widowed and newly unemployed young mother, trying to start a new life Texas with her 5year daughter Sammy, who sees dead people. Cam is accompanied by her “brother,” Dimi, a close friend made while Cam was undercover, investigating the Russian mob as NYC police.

Hightower excels at building tension and frightening situations. Her descriptive powers are top-notch. When Cam is trapped in her nightmares, I could not turn away. It was wonderfully scary!

But…

The whole “brother” thing was weird. He was a close friend. Or maybe a “cousin.” But deciding someone you worked undercover with for 8 years is your brother is strange to me. Cam’s dead husband Tony also cheated on her for years with a woman called Aliyah. Tony, Aliyah and Sammy had a secret friendship because they all saw the dead. I found Aliyah a completely unnecessary character. Her appearance did nothing to propel the story. I actually did not understand Tony and his haunting at all. Even by the end of the book, I couldn’t figure out his motivations or his purpose in driving the story. “Tony tried to pick up the box from the lawyer.” Why? “Tony was wrong.” About what? “Tony was a good husband and father.” But he came off as a selfish, manipulative, shifty, cheating, lying, cardboard cutout of a character.

Maybe the story was just over-populated. It confused and diluted the narrative. I appreciated the mystery, the terror, the mother/daughter dynamic, the budding love story and more. But, as a whole, the book was muddled and unsatisfying.

Thank you @NetGalley and @flametreepress for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

A few months after the mysterious death of her husband, Detective Cam Ambrose takes her five year old daughter to a ranch inherited to her by her late uncle. As Cam tries to process her grief, she learns about a whole supernatural world that her husband was part of- and was likely the cause of his death.

I don’t typically like ghost and haunted house stories, but this book really did something different for the genre that I think worked. The haunting was disorienting, atmospheric, and had such effective horror. There was an aspect of radiation sickness, that really freaks me out, and I think Laurel Hightower did an amazing job depicting the horror.

The pacing was a bit slow at first, it took me a little longer to get invested in the story. Once I reached 70% of the way through, I was racing to the end because I was determined to unravel the mystery. This book felt pretty long at times, but I think the length helped Laurel Hightower develop her characters and their relationships more. Everyone in this story felt real and with secrets of their own. It made me wonder who Cam could trust. I will say there were a lot of characters- it was a little overwhelming for me to keep track of them all. I don’t personally like to annotate, but it might be useful to you if you’re someone that likes to try and solve the mystery before it’s revealed!

If you like unique haunted house stories, a large cast of characters, and a dash of crime thriller, then The Silent Key comes out October 10th!