Reviewed by: Kylie Fox
ISBN: 978-0-7553-7395-6
Ramon Munoz has spent five years in prison, convicted of a murder he did not commit. Unable to get the courts to take their concerns seriously, his family turns to private investigator Paige Holden for help.
But when Ramon’s wife, having just handed Paige the evidence that will prove his innocence, is brutally executed in front of her eyes, she is thrown headlong into a case which will place her job, her friends and her life in jeopardy.
As Paige risks everything to prove Ramon was set up, she comes to realise that those controlling Ramon’s fate will do anything to ensure his conviction remains intact. Can Paige stay alive long enough to unmask a killer who will not rest until there’s no one left to tell?
No One Left To Tell opens six years in the past with a chilling murder scene and we’re set on the path of what promises to be a gripping read.
The pace doesn’t slow into the second chapter as the heroine of the story, Paige Holden, is promised new damning evidence into a case that has long been closed. In a gripping shoot-out, the witness, Elena Munoz, is killed and dies in Paige’s arms.
Paige is determined to see that Elena hasn’t died in vain and sets out to find her killer and ultimately free an innocent man from jail. In the process she manages to attract the attention of the real perpetrator and those who helped to cover up the crime – as well as the attention of prosecutor Grayson Smith.
What started off fast-paced and action-packed soon, frustratingly, slowed down as we are privy to an investigation which leads us far into the past with a complex cast of characters, each with their own agendas and crimes to cover. More frustratingly is the relationship between Paige and Grayson which is unrealistic to say the least.
Both Paige and Grayson have demons from their past and therefore, trust issues, yet within the space of the three days that this book takes place over, they are talking “forever” and lamenting the keeping of secrets from each other. Their relationship, in such a short space of time, sees more highs and lows than will most ten year marriages.
The love affair and the intricately, though often convoluted, woven plot often got in the way of the more basic and very sinister storyline.
Fans of Karen Rose will recognise Paige Holden from previous novel, Silent Scream - a tool that Rose uses effectively to tie all thirteen of her novels together. There is no one central character to form a series but minor characters from each novel often find themselves the stars of their own story in later books.
Paige was a great character; strong, determined and kick-arse – when she’s not in the company of Grayson. The love affair seems to turn her into a simpering damsel in distress.
Overall, I enjoyed the ride this book took me on which led to a fairly satisfying end – I only wish it had been a couple of hundred pages shorter, with one or two less subplots and a lot less romance to slow the pace down.
