The Silent Order by Melanie Dobson - REVIEWED

About the Book: (from the publisher)
Cleveland, Ohio, 1929.

Dark secrets bind the notorious Cardano family together, but Detective Rollin Wells is close to exposing them. The Cardanos are working in the hills south of Cleveland, and when Rollin travels to Sugarcreek to investigate, he discovers that the Cardanos want him dead. Rollin hides out in an Amish home, trying to uncover why the Cardanos are in Amish country and who is collaborating with them.

As he gets closer to the truth, he also attempts to find out what a beautiful Amish woman named Katie Lehman—a woman who reminds him of the girl he once loved—is hiding. Will Katie trust him with her secret..and her heart? Or will the Cardano code of honor silence them both?

My Thoughts:

I like a good story told within the context of the Amish community. However, I must admit that lately I’ve come to sort of expect a lot of the same plot lines, and so the Amish stories have sort of lost some of their appeal. Well, Melanie Dobson must have known that, because even though one of her main characters makes her home among the Amish, The Silent Order is NOT your typical Amish plot line! Actually the title, The Silent Order, refers to something VERY different from Amish all together! Dobson took creative license to a whole new level when she seamlessly blends two totally opposite worlds and takes her reader on a very intriguing and increasingly suspenseful journey in search of life-threatening secrets!

Folks, Melanie Dobson writes a VERY GOOD story!! She takes you into the darkness of the mob boss and his family, the lives of the detectives trying to uncover the mob’s secrets, and the life of a woman and her son who are trying to forget their past. I never did figure out what the connections were for these three very different groups of people, and when the connections came to light…my jaw hit the floor! All of the sudden everything took on new meaning and the urgency and suspense of the story line sky-rocketed in my heart!

And the ending?!! PERFECT!!! That’s all I can say! Just PERFECT! I hope that Melanie Dobson will come back and re-visit some of these characters in another story! I wish all Amish stories were this exciting! (can you tell I like prefer a suspenseful tale?!)

About the Author:

Melanie Beroth Dobson is the author of the inspirational novels Together for Good (2006), Going for Broke (2007), The Black Cloister (2008), Love Finds You in Liberty, Indiana (2009), Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa (2010), Refuge on Crescent Hill (2010), and The Silent Order (2010) as well as the co-author of Latte for One and Loving It! A Single Woman's Guide to Living Life to Its Fullest (2000).

Prior to launching Dobson Media Group in 1999, Melanie was the corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family where she was responsible for the publicity of events, products, films, and TV specials. Melanie received her undergraduate degree in journalism from Liberty University and her master's degree in communication from Regent University. She has worked in the fields of publicity and journalism for fifteen years including two years as a publicist for The Family Channel.

Melanie and her husband, Jon, met in Colorado Springs in 1997 at Vanguard Church. Jon works in the field of computer animation. Since they've been married, the Dobsons have relocated numerous times including stints in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Berlin, and Southern California. These days they are enjoying their new home in the Pacific Northwest.

Jon and Melanie have adopted their two daughters —Karly (6) and Kinzel (5). When Melanie isn't writing or entertaining their girls, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, traveling, hiking, line dancing, and reading inspirational fiction.