One night Joe is driving Will to a series of locations for reasons Will has not divulged. At one address, they pick up an eleven-year-old girl. Shortly afterward they are trapped by a couple of cars. Will gets out of the car to talk and is shot. Joe manages to get the girl over a wall and kills two of the men, but it is too late to save Will.

Joe blames himself for his father’s murder. He had had a feeling that something was wrong but didn’t act on it. In the dark and the fog, he was unable to see any of the men’s faces, but he heard a distinctive speaking voice. He resolves to find the killers. His search will uncover a chain of interconnecting crimes and unearth some long-hidden truths.

This book has a well-crafted, complex mystery, but what really distinguishes Silent Joe from the profusion of law-enforcement-officer-on-a-personal-crusade mysteries is the title character Joe Trona. (Silent Joe is a name his mother Mary Ann bestowed on him.) Joe ranks among the most memorable of mystery heroes. With the narrative written in the first person, the reader is becomes only gradually aware of some of the elements of the mystery through Joe’s thought and feelings. (For example, initially only hints of Joe’s disfigurement are introduced, but because Joe has lived with it for most of his life, it would be unrealistic for his thoughts to dwell on the full story in the first chapter.)

Joe is a character of strong principles. As he investigates seemingly unrelated threads of this complex mystery, he exhibits a deep moral fiber. He not only needs to discover who committed the murder, he also needs to know why. The reader comes to hope that in the end Joe will triumph without sacrificing his principles.

The subplots - the truth behind Joe’s disfigurement and the romance thread - add to the overall impact of the story. (It’s particularly gratifying that one woman is able to look beyond Joe’s disfigurement and see him for the rare person he is.) Unlike some books where the subplots detract from the main plot these are significant in the character development.

I found to be Silent Joe one of those books I could not put down and didn’t want to end. I recommend it highly to all readers - not only those who enjoy a good mystery. I am sure that others will join me in hoping the author will write another book featuring this unique hero.

--Lesley Lawrence