{"id":916,"date":"2026-09-29T14:02:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T04:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/?p=916"},"modified":"2026-09-29T14:02:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T04:02:50","slug":"silent-observers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/?p=916","title":{"rendered":"Silent Observers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Clarissa Verne<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

November 10, 2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASIN B0H8QNN6MX<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My review<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gated community. A murder in a rose bed.
No one came in or out and no one heard anything so it can only be one of the neighbours. But which one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author analyses each person living in this \u2018close\u2019 community. They have their disagreements. They all appear to have liked the victim Claire Whittaker, yet in the early hours someone took garden shears to her and chopped more than her roses down. Roses featured a lot in this story making it quirky and lighthearted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author uses a lot of descriptive words for the characters eyes, some I didn\u2019t feel made sense.
There are moments between the retired detective Athena Campbell brought in to help her colleague Patrick unravel this baffling case that confused me. Such as when she arrives early unannounced on Patricks doorstep, begrudgingly he lets her in and tells her to make herself at home whilst he gets ready but later calls her snooping when she asks about his brother on a photo? Surely photos aren\u2019t snooping if they are on display. Patrick’s mood was never addressed, which I was hoping it would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they go to see a suspect at 7 am and find him dressed in a button down shirt and dress pants, unless he slept in them of which there was no mention I found this odd attire for that time in a morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That all said I loved the plot and the myriad of different characters. It kept me guessing as to who the murderer was and that was a complete surprise..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five houses. One locked gate. A murder no one could have committed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claire Whittaker is found stabbed in her own rose garden at dawn, and no one saw a thing. Her neighbors were sleeping. The gate never opened all night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 1998. In the cliffside community of Narcissa, where the houses face inward and the residents pretend not to notice each other, Lieutenant John Coxen calls in the one person who might see what everyone else cannot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retired detective Athena Campbell was once known nationally as the Red Swan, a name she has spent decades trying to escape. Coming back means facing the spotlight she left the force to avoid, mentoring a young detective who does not want her help, and walking into a neighborhood where every door hides something worth killing to protect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As winter rain sweeps in from the Pacific, Athena realizes the truth did not die with Claire but has been hiding in plain sight, waiting for her to look in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarissa Verne November 10, 2026 ASIN B0H8QNN6MX My review A gated community. A murder in a rose bed.No one came in or out and no one heard anything so it can only be one of the neighbours. But which one? The author analyses each person living in this \u2018close\u2019 community. They have their disagreements. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":918,"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kgracereads.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}