Quick Review: "The Silent Girls" by Eric Rickstad

From Goodreads:  With the dead of a bitter Vermont winter closing in, evil is alive and well …

Frank Rath thought he was done with murder when he turned in his detective's badge to become a private investigator and raise a daughter alone. Then the police in his remote rural community of Canaan find an '89 Monte Carlo abandoned by the side of the road, and the beautiful teenage girl who owned the car seems to have disappeared without a trace.

Soon Rath's investigation brings him face-to-face with the darkest abominations of the human soul.

With the consequences of his violent and painful past plaguing him, and young women with secrets vanishing one by one, he discovers once again that even in the smallest towns on the map, evil lurks everywhere-and no one is safe.

My Thoughts:  The first chapter of this book is crazy scary and got my attention right away.  However, after that chapter, the story slowed down for a bit and it was hard to get into.  I also struggled with understanding how the first chapter was relevant to the story (it's not mentioned again until half way through) so I spent a lot of time waiting for the story to get moving.  Once it did get moving, the story went in fits and starts.  Rath was an interesting character but he had so many demons that I couldn't decide if I liked him or not.  The rest of the characters were kind of vague and I felt like I never really got to know them.

The story did wind up getting pretty freaky later in the book though I still had questions when everything was all over.  The bad guy was even creepier than I expected and man, did I have trouble sleeping after reading about that freak.  Once I thought everything was resolved, things took a turn I never expected and the story ended with a huge cliffhanger.  I didn't realize that this book would have a sequel and even though the story had flaws, I will definitely have to read the next book to find out what happens.  3 stars