Silent Witness

Patterson, Richard North

ISBN 10: 0679458174 ISBN 13: 9780679458173

Publisher: Random House Audio, 1996

Synopsis

4 cassettes / 4 hours
Read by Boyd Gaines
Also available on Compact Disk and Unabridged on cassette

Almost thirty years have passed since Tony Lord left Lake City.  Thirty long years dedicated to putting the past -- the brutal murder of his girlfriend, Alison Taylor, and his own acquittal of the crime -- behind him.  Married, a father, and a successful defense lawyer in San Francisco, Tony Lord has run as far from Lake City as he can.

But the phone call requesting his return -- and the circumstances surrounding it -- is enough to make the ghosts of Tony's past live again.  The trigger is the murder of another young woman -- that of 16-year-old Lake City High School track star Marcie Calder, last seen alive with Sam Robb, her coach and Tony's childhood friend.

With this stunning new novel of psychological drama and suspense, Richard North Patterson has done it again.  Silent Witness is a drama of rivalry and betrayal, the darkest recesses of love and friendship, and the tenacious grip of the past on all our lives.

About this title

Review:

In each successive novel since Degree of Guilt, Richard North Patterson has experimented with flashbacks and past tragedies to drive the present suspense of his legal thrillers. Silent Witness is, perhaps, his greatest achievement with the technique as his hero, Tony Lord, is haunted by the 27-year-old murder of his high school girlfriend, Alison Taylor.

In the late 1960s, Tony is the star of the Lake City, Ohio, high school football team. But when Alison is found strangled behind her house, even Tony's closest friend, Sam Robb, suspects him. Alison's true killer is never found, and Tony flees his home town to forge a career as a high-powered, high-profile San Francisco criminal attorney and marries a a movie star. Cutting to the present day, Tony is called back to Lake City to defend his old friend. Sixteen-year-old track star Marcie Calder was found dead on the shore of Lake Erie, and Sam, now the overweight assistant principal and track coach of Lake City High, is the accused. A series of scandals slowly erodes Tony's confidence in Sam's innocence as Tony comes to terms with his own troubled past.

As with Patterson's previous work, Silent Witness is a novel with subtle characters who happen to be involved in a compelling (and authentic-seeming) criminal trial. For dedicated Patterson fans, some insight into the life of actress Stacey Tarrant is a special treat. She's Tony's wife in the present world of the novel but was the lover of Senator James Kilcannon before the senator was assassinated. James was the brother of Kerry Kilcannon, the enigmatic presidential candidate at the center of Patterson's 1998 blockbuster, No Safe Place. --Patrick O'Kelley

From the Back Cover:

"This generation's best writer of legal thrillers . . . His strongest fiction to date."
--Entertainment Weekly

"Enthralling . . . The denouement is powerful."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Intense courtroom drama . . . As startling as the bang of a gavel."
--People

A Main Selection of The Literary Guild

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0679458174
• ISBN 13: 9780679458173
• Binding: Audio Cassette