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THE STILL SMALL VOICE by Brenda Stanley

THE STILL SMALL VOICE

by Brenda Stanley

Pub Date: Sept. 27th, 2023
ISBN: 979-8989017614
Publisher: Twisted Pen

After being shunned for years, a daughter returns home to unravel her family’s darkest secret in Stanley’s novel.

Twenty-eight-year-old Madison Moore has mixed feelings when she receives the news that her dying father is desperate to see her. Many years ago, in 2006, her conservative Mormon family shut her out because of what they saw as her rejection of their moral and religious values. Now married and living near Las Vegas, Madison has built a good career for herself as an investigative journalist and fears that a return home to Orem, Utah, will put her back into a conflict she’d left behind. She arrives at her father’s bedside, only to find that he wants to confess his complicity in a decades-old miscarriage of justice that condemned a woman to life in prison for a murder she didn’t commit. Unable to fully explain what happened, he presents Madison with an album of old photographs that he claims will reveal the woman’s innocence: “I have the proof,” he tells her; “I’ve kept it a secret all these years.” Madison can’t find the proof in the album, and her quest for the truth tests her professional skills and stretches her emotions to the breaking point. Meanwhile, the rest of her family resents what they see as her vengeful desire to tarnish their reputation, and they become more suspicious of her motives after learning of the contents of her father’s will. Much of the novel effectively focuses on Madison’s frustration: not only with her intolerant family but also on the wrongly convicted prisoner, who, it turns out, seems uninterested in evidence that might exonerate her. The book also delves into intriguing themes, including the effects of long-buried family secrets, unspoken fears, and unresolved conflicts, and readers will find Stanley’s treatment of these issues almost as compelling as the mystery itself. The story’s eventual resolution is a surprising one that will reward readers for the time they spend with this well-crafted book.

A skillfully written mystery about family drama and a quest for redemption.