Review of "Silence" by Thomas Perry

Wendy Harper was a LA restauranteur who was in the wrong place at the wrong time several years ago when she witnessed a murder. She was badly beaten and left for dead by the murderer, but managed to survive. Former LAPD detective Jack Till took pity on her and helped her to disappear so completely that not even the mob could find her. Six years later, Till is forced to locate Wendy when her former lover and business partner is charged with her murder. Till can't stand to see the wrong man convicted, and starts searching for Wendy. In the meantime, the killer hires a team of married assassins to follow Jack and murder Wendy.

Silence is a throwback to the hardboiled detective novels popularized by authors like Raymond Chandler and the legendary Dashiell Hammett. And I just loved it. The character of Jack Till is pretty much right out of Central Casting, but the psychotic, cold-blooded, sociopathic assassins made an interesting twist on a story line that would otherwise have been pretty predictable.