ALMOST A WHISPER

A woman who either can’t or won’t speak holds the answers to several crimes.

DI Joanna Piercy may have given birth to the son her husband Mathew desperately wanted, but her continued devotion to her job makes her feel like a bad mother, and certainly an exhausted one. She especially misses her sergeant, Mike Korpanski, who’s been sidelined by a severe injury, especially when she catches the case of a young woman who was seemingly about to shove a toddler over a steep cliff when a passing hiker grabbed the little boy's stroller. The woman carries no identifying papers, and she and the child both have blood on their clothing. No matter how hard everyone tries, no one can get her to say anything, and Joanna ends up placing her in a psychiatric hospital and the boy in foster care. Despite extensive searches with dogs, door-to-door inquiries, and appeals to the public, the team comes up with frustratingly little evidence. No car is found, but at length a trucker comes forward to say that he’d given the pair a ride. DNA evidence shows that the child is not related to the silent woman but is the son of whomever’s blood is on their clothes. Joanna is baffled because no murders or kidnappings have been reported. When a body is finally found, it produces more unanswered questions than answers.

A riveting police procedural focusing on guilt, frustration, and the many varieties of love.