This is a character driven tale of grief and despair.

The writing is quite lovely and the story, eerie.

I’ll admit that I didn’t love Cam, or any of the characters really, but it didn’t keep me from being anxious to know the resolution of our story.

My first book from the author. I’ll read her again.

• ARC via Publisher

This was a non stop thrill ride, where a woman who discovers the husband she is grieving had not only a mistress, but a whole life she had no idea about.

After the death of her husband, Cam discovers Tony lead a very different life from the one she knew about. Now, she has left her gang crime detective job and she is trying to raise their sweet daughter, but something keeps pulling her back. She discovers that the circumstances around his death are increasingly strange. Now, his mistress is trying to get in touch with her, warning her that she and her daughter aren't safe. Whatever Tony was mixed up in is coming after them...

Cam, her brother Dimi, and the intriguing neighbor Eric Morgan do absolutely everything they can to keep them safe and find answers. There was a lot going on in this book. I loved the various eerie elements and the different horror aspects. Silent Key is a very suspenseful book that leaves you guessing as you go along for the ride.

A silent key?
If you're like me, you pictured a lock. Don't do that. It actually has nothing to do with locks.

This book had me dreaming about water. I think because I was thinking about it so much. It's a bit mystery meets ghost story. I didnt know who to trust until the last page. I was questioning everyone.

The storyline is so interesting, the characters are great, I was really worried about who was bad. I got mad with the characters and often agreed with their methods.

It was just an overall good time!! Another reason to stay away from water.

SILENT KEY is a thoroughly enjoyable book. A first rate piece of popular fiction, that’s unpretentious but intriguing and packed with characters you grow to care about.
Laurel Hightower has crafted a novel that manages to blend genuinely creepy supernatural elements with an old school thriller plot and a pleasing dash of romance. I had a great time with it.

Huge thanks to Netgalley, Flame Tree Press and Laurel for an advanced digital copy of this one!

Look, I’ll say it right off the hop here – I’m a huge fan of Laurel’s work and I consider her one of the most solid folks in the writing community. I consider her a friend and as such, I love seeing friends succeed. With the acclaim of her debut and her recent novellas, her fan base grew exponentially, and when I saw this one announced I was so over the moon excited for her! Flame Tree Press! Another step up the ladder that is well deserved and well earned.

I couldn’t wait to dive in – pun intended.

What I liked: Much like ‘Whispers in the Dark,’ ‘Silent Key’ follows a single mom trying to navigate her new normal and keeping her child safe. From there, the story morphs into its own beast, but it was great to see Hightower return to that POV character to drive this one, as that’s 100% her bread and butter.

After her husband has died under mysterious circumstances, some things have come to light that have her questioning the depth of their love, while also revealing some truths that have followed her and her daughter. Coupled with her ‘adopted’ Russian brother, they flee to her deceased uncle’s ranch in Texas, where, much to her surprise, the supernatural elements follow and make things that much more difficult when all they want is to just get away.

As the novel progresses, Laurel continues to reveal different elements that add to the narrative (I’m not gonna expand on this to prevent spoilers) and lead us to the deep dark depths where the crux of the story takes place. We’re led to this moment, often unsure of what exactly is going on, but when we get there, it’s an AH-HA! of storylines coming together.

The ending is solid, closing things off really nicely and giving us a glimpse of what life will look like for those who remain topside.

What I didn’t like: I’m not totally sure if I am 100% sold on Dimi’s storyline and how things turn out. I mean, it all makes sense, I just don’t know if I personally liked it haha!

And, I will say, the first quarter does have some repetitive storyline aspects where it feels like we’re spinning our wheels once Cam, her daughter and Dimi arrive. It is needed, especially in the police procedural narrative, but there are moments where it doesn’t feel like you’re progressing forward.

Why you should buy this: Cam may very well be Hightower’s most developed and ‘real’ character she’s created. You want to root for her, you want to see her succeed and be happy and when things go bad you want to step up and be her backup. ‘Silent Key’ features a melding of several genres that Laurel’s wields deftly and confidently, ultimately giving us readers one of the more solid ‘paranormal-mystery-thrillers’ I’ve read in some time.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

Beyond excited that my very first NetGalley book was Silent Key by Laurel Hightower. I was a fan moment I jumped into her book Below and I knew this would be just as amazing! This story has a little bit of everything, it’s a creepy ghost story with suspense and just a sprinkle of romance. I love how Laurel gives the perfect amount of details for you to be able to imagine being in a situation with the characters. I completely connected with Cam, the main character, who lost her husband long before he died… She has trouble understanding the connection between her daughter and her late husband, who were both seers. Dimi, and ex Russian mobster who she calls her brother and who is never far away, always watching over them. And then there’s Eric… sweet countryfied Eric. He’s a veterinarian and their neighbor who quickly falls for Cam. They seem like an unlikely couple… but they work. I adored the loving and protective relationships between all of them.

Once the creepy stuff starts it doesn’t end. Voices, visions, nightmares, shadows and let’s not forget the creepy humans that pop up here and there. Cam struggles to solve this mystery, protect her daughter from the living and the dead and figure out her feelings for Eric. This story definitely kept me on the edge of my seat thanks to Laurels amazing writing!

I’m beyond grateful to @laurelhightower @netgalley and @flametreepress for the opportunity to read Silent Key!

I tried several times to dive in to ‘Silent Key’ by Laurel Hightower but found myself unable to stick around each time, until finally I gave in just beyond the halfway. This isn’t to say the writing is bad or the plot is especially boring, I don’t think either of these things are true, but something with the narration style particularly of ‘Silent Key’ made it hard for me to keep reading.

Similarly, none of the characters ever felt as though they rung true to me or were characters I felt any kind of connection towards. ‘Silent Key’ felt and feels a little too “at arm’s length”, which ultimately led to me being unable to finish this book in its entirety.

I’ve only ever heard praise for Laurel Hightower’s work, and now I can see why.

This was my first book by this author, and it certainly won’t be the last. The plot, characters, dialogue were incredibly written, the suspense was palpable from the first page and carried the whole way through.

There are ghosts, Russian mobsters, brutal murders, and a ton of lovely pittie pups that are complete goodbois (looking at you Atticus ♥️). There’s also a sweet romance aspect which I adored, as it didn’t overwhelm the horror of the plot and take over the story.

If you don’t add this to your TBR list you will definitely be missing out. I really hope there’s a second book with these characters as some parts of the ending were left a little ambiguous (please please please let there be a second book 🙏🏼 👻 🐕).

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Flame Tree Press for a copy.

Wow! Laurel Hightower sure knows how to tell a complex story! 'Silent Key' combines elements of mystery fiction, spy thrillers, ocean horror, paranormal thrillers, ghost stories, haunted houses tales, detective fiction, supernatural thrillers, and last but not least, romance fiction - and manages to come up with an intricate, original tale, full of twists, adventure and suspense. Although the characters are well-drawn and interesting, this is not really a character-driven story; the character relationships come second to the plot, which is not easy to summarize. In very general terms, it follows the attempts of a mother, who's a cop and recently widowed, to save her five-year-old daughter from the sad fate of her husband. The only drawback of the book, in my opinion, is that it feels like the second volume of a series, as the story begins right after mother and daughter, hunted by supernatural forces, have already gone through an adventure, with people and places already set in place. More people are introduced, new places are visited, and the whole tale unfolds in small doses, blending romance with ghosts and horror. By the time one can see the big picture, plotlines have multiplied significantly, though never confusingly. Hightower keeps absolute control of her story, and does not hesitate to make space for even more complexity, as the last pages of the book show!

Overall, this is an impressive book with many different conflicted personalities, with intriguing backstories, all playing their role in a bigger story, a story starting back in the Cold War and reaching right into the affairs of a very special family today. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an ARC!

<b>A tense thriller with a supernatural twist!</b>

I'm so happy I got a chance to check this book out! Laurel Hightower is such a great author, and an amazing human to boot! This book blended thriller and crime themes with the supernatural and it worked wonderfully.

At first the book seemed a bit wordy for my taste, but soon the pace picked up and the ride started in earnest. I really identified with the main character as a single mom doing whatever it takes to protect her child. She was a strong, independent woman, which we need more of in everything!

The characters felt believable and authentic. Usually I don't love books with a young child prominently featured because I feel it's hard to write them in a way that feels real. This book definitely didn't fall into that trap, and I was able to get fully invested in all the of characters.

There were also many dead ends and twists throughout. I was kept guessing about who she could trust until the very end. The fact that there were a couple of leads mentioned, but ultimately not followed up on, bothered me a little at first, but by the end I wonder if they were intentionally left in to throw the reader off course. If so, they definitely worked.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable book, and I do wonder if there will be another story to come for these characters, just from the way things ended.

The story revolves around former Detective Cam Ambrose, her daughter Sammy, and her best friend who she considers her brother Dimi. She leaves her home in New York hoping to escape the grief of her recently deceased husband, the news of his infidelity, and the ghosts who seem to be haunting her daughter.
As she learns more details about her husband's death she realizes he kept many secrets from her and she never truly knew him. it's up to Cam to decipher the cryptic messages he's left her, unravel the mystery of her husband's demise, and stop the hauntings happening to her daughter. This was an amazing book from start to finish! The pacing of the story was perfect and kept me intrigued the entire time. It was a great horror novel that kept me on my toes, and I found myself trying to figure everything out along with the characters.

I liked this one. Couldn’t put it down. But after I finished reading it, I realized that this book seemed more like a synopsis of a story rather than an actual story itself. I enjoyed the characters of Cam and Dimi and their dynamic, but I felt like there was a lot of backstory that wasn’t adequately explored, just mentioned in a matter-of-fact way. I felt the same way about the ending of the book. I looked forward to exploring this author's backlist! Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I read Below by Lauren Hightower a year ago and really liked it. It started out more of a thriller but then became wacky creature horror. I expected more of that from Silent Key, but going in with those expectations threw me off.

Instead, Silent Key is more of a speculative thriller--mostly thriller but with paranormal entities, too. If I had gone in knowing that, I would have enjoyed it more. Instead, I was waiting for things to get truly bizarre for the first 30% and then they never do.

I also find the marketing around this book misleading. The cover shows an underwater scene and the publisher's blurb compares this book to other ocean-horror books. There is one scene in the ocean in this whole book.

What affected my rating the most, though, was the climax of this story. There is so much build-up to solving the problem the main character, Cam, is facing. And the way it is solved is...almost nothing? Witnessing something from the outside? I'm not even sure what really happened or how it solved the issue at all. I had gotten really into the book by this point, so it was a letdown.

Overall, I had fun with this one once I adjusted my mindset about what this book was. The payoff just wasn't here for me.

It's my second book by Lauren Hightower and definitely not the last. Silent Key skillfully combines a detective story with the supernatural and portrays a well-written familial bond. It's well-paced, intriguing, and twisty enough to make readers guessing. Well worth a shot.

I simply love discovering new to me authors and Laurel Hightower did not disappoint!!

Her writing and pacing is fantastic, the characters are well-written and interesting and as mentioned the plot and scary bits are perfectly paced.

If you're a ghost story fan, this one is for you!

3.5 stars rounded up.

Silent Key tells the story of a woman trying to protect her daughter from a supernatural world that she doesn't understand. It's a detective story, an unsolved mystery, a story about the bonds between family & friends, and a ghost story. 👻

There was plenty of creepy imagery within the book that left me feeling spooked and unsettled at times. I thought the writing was fantastic and the author does a great job of bringing the atmosphere to life as well. My favorite part of this book by far is the characters and the bonds they all shared with each other. From a shy, broken country boy veterinarian, to a funny five year old, and a softened Russian best friend - I loved them all. The relationships the characters had with each other really made the story great and I enjoyed seeing the way they all deeply cared for one another.

The ghost story/mystery itself however was not my favorite. Some aspects were a little confusing to me and I didn't really feel too invested in the plotline, but I do think it was developed well and came together nicely in the end.

Overall, Silent Key was a fun read that I found myself fully immersed in and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of a ghost story detective mystery!

Really enjoyed this one, thanks so much to Flame Tree for sending it along! Silent Key is a character-driven horror mystery, and it blends genres together really well. Loved Cam and her relationship with her daughter, her best friend Dimi, and her budding romance with Eric. The story gets off to a strong start and I loved seeing everything come together as Cam searches for answers about the deaths surrounding her and the ghosts that won't let her or her daughter go.

Laurel writes characters and dialogue very well. Everyone feels real and the world feels lived in. While there are a lot of characters and setting shifts, Laurel confidently keeps everything moving and wrangles these seemingly disparate plots to a satisfying conclusion. I always feel like, especially with horror, that I don't want to give too much away, so I won't add any spoilers here, but if you're a fan of ghosts, detectives, and don't mind a little bit of romance in your horror, you will enjoy this one.

I believe this is Laurel Hightower's first published full length novel, but you wouldn't guess that from reading it. I found her characters and dialogue to be very believable and emotionally gripping. I didn't find this to be exceptionably suspenseful or eerie, but I was never bored and enjoyed the story. This book was described as "a supernatural mystery with elements of Nick Cutter’s The Deep, Peter Benchley’s Jaws and Stephen King’s Firestarter." I don't feel this book is anything like any of those books, but I guess there may be some shared elements. Thanks to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the ARC.

Big thank you to Flame Tree Press & Laurel Hightower for this ARC from NetGalley.

I didn’t connect with our FMC or her family at all during this book except when the “love interest” was involved. He seemed to be the only one with actual emotions and development going on outside the haunting issue.

The whole Cold War / Russian submarine plot was something I wasn’t expecting and truly wasn’t my favourite. I thought I was reading the second book in a series for a few moments because we had so much info without context.

Kept waiting for hauntings & ghosts that made sense or at least had better build up but they just popped up out of nowhere and the context wasn’t there. I was expecting more horror (other than bodily descriptions) but it leaned waaayyy more mystery for me.