Iris Johansen’s 2013 book, Silencing Eve, which is the third book in her trilogy within her Eve Duncan series, starts us back to hunting Eve, even though that was the premise of the prior book. Sure, Doane, the father of the evil serial killer, Kevin, isn’t “hunting her,” as he has her captive in an Oregon town, but just like the prior book, all of her family and friends — Jane, Eve’s adopted daughter, who has Trevor (her lover?) and Caleb (a weirdo with vampire-like powers) always at her side; Margaret, who can pick up memories and “impressions” from animals; Kendra, who is a mentalist type; Zane, her psychopathic assassin father; Joe, her husband, and Gallo, her ex; Catherine Ling, also an assassin, but less psychopathic apparently; and Bonnie, Eve’s murdered child who helps as a ghost — trying to find out where Eve is and save her. Oh, and in the process of saving her, prevent Kevin’s plans of nuking Seattle and Chicago come to fruition. His plans, by the way, are being carried out not just by his dad, but we learn, his mother, Harriet, who is not just psychopathic, too, but it’s heavily implied had an incestuous affair with her son. Ew. What a family.
That nuke part of this book I don’t quite have a grasp on, which might have something to do with not reading the first book in the trilogy. Kevin is a serial killer and a pedophile, but he’s also an Al-Qaeda terrorist? But it also seems like officials in Tehran are the ones orchestrating the terrorist cell within the United States that Kevin was a part of, which doesn’t make sense since typically, Al-Qaeda and Tehran are enemies (Sunni Muslims and Shi’i Muslims, respectively). Also having not read any prior Johansen novels, I’m not sure if Johansen leans into the supernatural, for lack of a better word, with her stories given the use of the vampire-like character, animal whisperer, and ghostly assistance. I’m not opposed to those things, but they would make more sense ‘to me if I knew they were normal Johansen trademarks within the Eve Duncan series.
Unfortunately, I didn’t like this one as much as its predecessor. Partially because Kendra, who I thought was the best character of Hunting Eve, is largely sidelined here, and she’s not just the best character, but the dynamic of “teaming” with Margaret made for fun dialogue. But also, the dialogue is a bit more stilted throughout. I felt like much of the dialogue either was a.) used to table set rather than feeling like organic dialogue, and b.) was occurring at times when it shouldn’t have, like life or death situations. That said, the last 100 pages or so did pick up once everyone started coalescing around Eve’s location and uncovering the locations of the nukes. I also liked that Joe’s the one who kills Doane and saves Eve because he also largely was sidelined in this book and the prior book.
Now, I still gave Silencing Eve a five-star rating on Goodreads because, as I’ve said before, my “system” is simple: If you made me read your book, then that counts for everything important as far as ratings go, if you ask me. I think Silencing Eve will go to the bottom of the pack for books I’ve read this year, but it wasn’t a waste of time, and of course, after reading Hunting Eve, I had to see how Johansen ended the story. Killing off Doane and Harriet, those wackadoodles, is satisfying enough.
Milam's Musings 