An excellent novel from Clea Koff, an author who I hadn’t read before

Action pack no fast paced, I hope she continues this to a series

This is the first book in a new series featuring Jayne and Steelie, forensic experts who, driven by their own past traumas, form Agency 32/1, a business dedicated to solving crimes and identifying missing persons. When body parts from multiple victims are discovered on a Los Angeles freeway, the FBI calls them in to assist. The forensic details are intriguing and well-written, but as I read, I felt like a prequel is needed to provide more backstory.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon Books UK and author Clea Koff for the opportunity to review the advance copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

A fascinating and tense murder mystery with added forensic details and plenty of suspense. Hard to put down. I really enjoyed this story and hope to read more in this vein from Clea Koff in the future.

Jayne and Steelie run an agency specializing in the forensic identification of missing persons. Their latest case begins dramatically when bones unexpectedly spill out of a van on the freeway, prompting their team to investigate the remains. The stakes rise as they aim to uncover not just the identity of the bones, but also the killer behind the mystery.

While the premise has strong potential for a gripping crime novel, the execution fell short. The story quickly felt unfocused, lacking a clear direction. Instead of gradually unveiling character backgrounds, the narrative thrusts them into the spotlight all at once, which diminishes their depth and makes it hard for readers to form connections with them or engage with the plot.

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As the title Silent Evidence suggests, this story features forensic detail. The author's background in Forensic Anthropology makes this an authentic read, with gruesome scenes that define the story. I enjoyed meeting Jayne and Steelie but would have welcomed more background. I like their relatability and the connections between them because it makes what happens to them matter to the reader.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

An interesting note at the beginning confirms that 32/1 does not exist - but should! As an anthropologist Clea Koff obviously knows what she is talking about and it shows in her writing. Her main characters are well rounded and their backgrounds are alluded to. Fast moving story although Jayne and Scott's relationship - or lack of it is a little too slow for reality. Some of the dialogue is a bit clunky but apart from that a good read. Look forward to more stories about this agency.
Three and a half stars.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Clea Koff/Avon Books for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

I'm always attracted to a potentially good thriller and, being a huge fan of the Patricia Cornwell Kay Scarpetta series, I thought this might in a similar vein. This is the first book in what is likely to become a new series, so I was hoping for great things. The premise is certainly interesting and, for the most part, well delivered. However, I felt the characters and their background could have been better introduced and developed as it felt like this could have been the third or fourth book rather than the first. I also found the style bordered more on being a romance novel and the 'will they get together' element slightly detracted from the actual thriller element. For me, not quite on a par with Patricia Cornwell, but a good read nonetheless - but be prepared to have lots of questions about the characters! Hopefully, more will be revealed in subsequent books - which I will still give a go based on this one. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for this review.

This is a well researched story with a good plot but there was something about it which left me cold. It’s difficult to put a finger on the reasons why but the tech references placed it somewhere in the early 2000, which meant that the cold cases from the 1990s were a little less cold than I first assumed. Also the main characters, Jayne, Steeley and love interest Scott felt a bit generic.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy to read and review.

Forensic Anthropology seems to be cropping up frequently in my reading and I find the whole concept to be fascinating.

Silent Evidence does a rather good job of merging fact and reality with fiction and I enjoyed every page. Some of the detail might upset the stomach of some but if you are OK with almost graphic detail, I suspect you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

I found this lacking in background so I had trouble working out the relationship between them and their history. The principle story was excellent but maybe it needed a first book to understand the dynamics of the jobs and why they did this and set up the agency.

A random collision might lead to a serial killer

Human remains are discovered when a vehicle rear-ends a van on an LA freeway, and they may have a connection to a spree of killings in Georgia. FBI agent Scott Houston and his partner Eric Ramos certainly think so, although their bosses don’t necessarily agree. Houston reaches out to Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander, forensic anthropologists who formed Agency 32/1 which uses scientific methods to aid families in matching missing persons with unidentified bodies in morgues or living John/Jane Does. Scott had met the two women at Quantico five years earlier and has stayed in touch with Jayne (in large part due to a mutual but not acted upon attraction). He asks them to look at the remains and hopefully discover something that will prove to the powers that be that there is a serial killer on the loose and that they have moved across the country; if that is so, then Houston and Ramos can work on bringing the person to justice. Becoming involved in the case, however, may just have put Jayne and Steelie in a killer’s crosshairs.
When I selected this book to read, I was expecting it to be a twist on Kathy Reichs or Patricia Cornwell, a thriller with a forensic science base. In actuality it seems to be leaning more towards a romance novel with touches of thriller added in. The premise is more than intriguing and the author clearly has a background that could add a great deal of information to the table, so I was disappointed as I found the plot skewing off towards the “does he like me or doesn’t he” vibe surrounding Jayne and Houston. This is the first in what could become a series, yet the way background information was introduced it felt more like this was a later book in a series and the author was just tossing in nuggets from previous novels to clue in anyone who hadn’t read previous installments. Not a horrible book, but not what I expected nor anything truly outstanding about it within the genre. Reichs and Cornwell fans would not, I expect, find that it lives up to those authors’ standards; it would likely be of more appeal to readers of Alexandra Ivy, Susan Stoker or Katie Reus. My thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for allowing me access to an early copy of the novel.

Very Different to the usual thriller, confusing to start but worth sticking with.**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Another ARC courtesy of netgalley and Avon Books Uk. Due to be published 29/08/24

If you like Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs then you'll love this. Similar but Koff holds her own and I really enjoyed this one.

Was evenly paced so you get good detail as the story unfolds. I liked the potential for stories to follow and the themes of missing people/serial killers and cross agency working do set things up quite well for a potentially long lasting series.

Great crime fiction with a good storyline and characters. Follow the characters solve the case of a serial murderer through forensic anthropology.
I really hope this will be the beginning of a series of books with Jane and Steelie.

I really wanted to like this book but it just didn’t grip me. The idea is great - a new agency trying to match up body parts to reported missing persons - but it was just too slow going and I found I just didn’t care about the characters.

Silent Evidence by Clea Koff is not what I expected. Silent Evidence is the first book in The Jayne and Steelie series, but it does not read like it. It felt like a book in the middle of the series. I wanted an introduction to the characters before diving into a case. The characters needed to be fleshed out and brought to life. There are many extraneous details that are not needed because they did not add to the plot (lots of fluff). I found the conversations to be stilted. It seemed that the author was trying too hard to make the conversations sound normal. One of the characters, a special agent, is Scott Houston. It seems that the author could not resist using the line, “Houston, we got a problem” (once I could live with, but more than that has me shaking my head and rolling my eyes). The story moved at a sloth’s pace. I was surprised at the amount of romance stuffed into this book (the flirting, the tension between the pair, the heat—good grief). I wanted a good mystery with suspense and danger. The story lacked those elements. I wanted to like Silent Evidence, but I found the story to be dull. It needed life breathed into it. I managed to get through the book, but it was not an easy task (I kept hoping it would improve). While Silent Evidence was not up my alley, I suggest you download a sample to see if it suits you. The one positive thing that I can say about Silent Evidence is that it helped my insomnia.

Jayne and Steelie are the founders of and agency which helps to identify missing people forensically. When some bones fall out of a van on the freeway, the team are called to try and work out who they belong to. Will they discover this and the killer along the way?

I really liked the premise of the this one as it sounded like it would be a solid, interesting crime novel. What I ended up reading was not what I expected. I felt it fumbled around a bit aimlessly almost straight away and didn’t really go anywhere. Rather than introduce the characters and learn their backstories, they are thrown in your face immediately with little personality, which did not help me to connect to them or the overall story. The writing was over descriptive and I didn’t really feel much of anything while reading, which left me bored and wanting to skim the pages. I think this could have been great if delivered in a different way. The idea was definitely great but unfortunately the overall book wasn’t for me. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

#SilentEvidence #NetGalley I believe this is the first in a new series about Jayne and Steelie agency 32/1. I enjoyed the premise of this book - identifying frozen body parts and linking them to missing persons on their books. I really like the characters of Jayne and Steelie and their receptionist. As with all new series, there is a fine line between giving all the background information that the reader needs especially regarding the main characters, and being too descriptive with not enough action. On balance I think the author got it right in this instance. I enjoyed the pace of the book and the twists and turns and red herrings. I look forward to reading more in this series and more by this author.

An intriguing (albeit familiar) premise- forensic anthropologists helping to solve crime. Jayne and Steelie founded their agency after their experience in Africa and now they're determined to help people find answers. In this case, it's the mass of frozen bones that belong to more than one person. This wasn't as suspenseful as I'd hoped but I did learn a bit. I'd like to see the characters rounded out more in the next installment. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read,

Great premise - really loved the start of the book - but it just didn’t really take off for me! It was very descriptive at times - when it wasn’t necessary. I am hoping this was just to set a scene and the next books won’t need that. Unique and different though, I would certainly read more.