Wall of Silence

Wall of Silence kicks off excitedly, immediately engaging us with action, crime, and panic. The groundwork is laid out, and now we want to learn more. But like many of its kind, it slows, with predictable details surrounding the world-building Buchanan creates in all her novels.

The novel feels genuinely contemporary, however, and anyone looking for a good book to cozy up to that will distract them from their day to day without too much of a challenge will find its pages enjoyable.

The book is littered with “Facebook chapters” which are dialogues between the people of the neighborhood contributing their theories and feelings on the mystery surrounding the event in the first chapter; this is cleverly implemented, but takes up too much of the novel, and moves too slow.

Finally, Melissa, the mother, who is arguably the central character of the story, appears to behave in inconsistent manners to forward the story: unreasonably passive initially, and not-so-much later on. The conclusion, although interesting, ties up the novel perhaps a bit too quickly and perfectly for the work put in to feel reasonably earned.

Overall a campy, enjoyable read, but without paving any new roads, nor introducing characters we might cherish after the story is over.