Features The Big Thrill Recommends: EVERY SILENT THING by Alan Brenham

The Big Thrill Recommends: EVERY SILENT THING by Alan Brenham

Recommended by Jonathan Davidson

Claire Deveraux has arrived. She works as a foreign service officer at the U.S. embassy in Paris and explores the beautiful City of Lights in her free time. Despite the daily challenges of being deaf, she’s thriving.

Until she witnesses a shooting at the Louvre.

As the victim dies, she slips a thumb drive into Claire’s pocket and says three words: L’homme champagne Trois. But what’s on the drive? And what do the words mean? A professional killer also wants to know. He tracks Claire back to her apartment, determined to get the drive and the code words he was hired to secure.

Half a world away in Texas, Claire’s identical twin sister Megan Deveraux also witnesses a murder. Her local thug of a boyfriend gets shot by his accomplice after a diamond heist. Megan steals the diamonds and flees to Paris, where she hopes to find safety and a chance to get her life together.

But the twins quickly learn that no place—and no one in their family—is safe from the owner of the diamonds and the man who’s after the drive.

A relentless pursuit unfolds across Europe as cartels and the professional killer hunt the Deveraux twins. Claire must use all her resourcefulness to stay alive, keep her “wild child” sister from making more terrible decisions, and unlock the thumb drive’s mysteries before it’s too late.

EVERY SILENT THING is a family drama wrapped in a mystery and nestled in an international thriller. These elements combine to create an immersive read, and each thread leads to surprising revelations and satisfying conclusions.

Alan Brenham’s 20 years in law enforcement and 25 years as an attorney help him write the criminal and police sides of EVERY SILENT THING with insightful authority. Another strength is Brenham’s lean and dispassionate prose. He describes brutal violence on one page with the same efficient nonchalance as a character ordering pain au chocolat on the next, which somehow makes the contrast between such moments far more striking.

Brenham also tactfully handles Claire’s deafness, and her inability to hear her assailants coming spikes the tension throughout the novel.

If you’re ready for death and coq au vin for dinner, fleeing cartel hitmen in Amsterdam, tracking millions of stolen euros, and uncovering dark family secrets, let EVERY SILENT THING be your chilling tour guide.

The Big Thrill Recommends: EVERY SILENT THING by Alan Brenham