Vacation

Hello, my dear readers. I won't be posting any new reviews until March 1st. I am going to be leaving on vacation in 2 days. I am headed for warmer temperatures for a little while. I will be enjoying time with my family on a beach somewhere for a couple of weeks. I currently have 3 reviews to post so I will try to get those up before I leave after I finish packing. I am sure I will have many reviews to post when I return. I plan to get some serious reading time in while I am sitting on the beach working on my tan.  I will be back and ready to go with new reviews soon!

Mute Witness by Rick R. Reed

This is a review of Mute Witness by Rick R. Reed. This book is dark.  It contains child abuse, domestic violence, pedophilia, molestation, homosexuality, murder, and  kidnapping. If you are offended by these things or have a weak stomach you will not be able to handle this book. I found this book to be very gripping and had a hard time putting it down once I started it. I read the whole book in one sitting.

We have several main characters so I am going to list them out so you know who they are:

Shelley: Jason's mother, Sean's ex-wife
Sean: Jason's father, Shelley's ex-husband, lover to Austin
Jason: Shelley and Sean's young son. He's around 8 years old.
Estelle: Shelley's over-bearing, religious zealot mother
Paul: Shelley current husband, Jason's stepfather
Austin: Sean's male lover

This book starts off with Jason's kidnapping. Jason is missing for three days and a hermit finds him in the woods around his shack and takes him to the hospital. The hermit is identified by a nurse and security camera footage as being the one that dropped Jason at the hospital. After they examine Jason they discover that Jason has been raped. They also take a DNA sample of the semen let inside of Jason and send it off to the lab.  Shelley and Sean are floored when they find out the extent of their son's injuries.  Several days later Jason is discharged from the hospital and goes home with his mother. He is silent and withdrawn and refuses to talk. Once Jason arrives home we soon find out that the person that raped him is his stepfather Paul. Paul has a secret stash of child pornography hidden in his basement and he has flashbacks where he has memories of his grandfather molesting him as a young child. Estelle visits her daughter and Jason. Estelle feels Sean should not be able to see Jason because Sean has a male lover. She also feels that Sean or Austin is responsible for what happened to Jason.

Shelley gets into a car accident after a fight with her mother and ends up in a coma. Estelle shows up at Shelley's house to take Jason with her to her home about the same time Sean does. Estelle does not let Jason go with Sean. Estelle takes Jason to her home but refuses to let Sean see his son. Estelle goes to see a lawyer and convinces him to get a court order saying Sean is not allowed to see his son because he is gay and that homosexuals are all attracted to children.

While Shelley is in the coma, Paul brings a 16 year old girl home to have sex with after a night of drinking. He starts to have sex with her and then smothers here with a pillow. The next morning he doesn't realize right away that his bed partner is dead and that he killed her. He eventually realizes it and decides to put the body in his freezer. The day before Shelley come home from the hospital, Paul takes the body and disposes of it unaware that their is a witness and she has recorded his license plate number. She calls the police and they issue a warrant for his arrest after they find the body and examine it.

When Shelley gets home from the hospital Paul rapes her. She cleans up after and tries to get some rest. She hears a knocking on the door so she gets up to investigate and finds that it is the police and they have a warrant and are looking for her husband. They search the house and basement finding no evidence of Paul. Paul takes off running outside. He makes it to the river and decides to get in and swim to get to West Virgina.

Sean and Austin have multiple fights during this whole ordeal and Austin leaves for several days to think. Their relationship seems to be crumbling under the stress they are under.

While Shelley is in the coma, Sean devises a plan to kidnap his son from Shelley's parents house and run with him. They go from Pennsylvania to Chicago.Shelley decides not to press charges against Sean since Jason is with him.  Jason wants to go home and be with his mom. At the same time as Sean is leaving town with his son, Shelley wakes up from her coma and finds out Jason is missing again. When Shelley finds out that Sean and Jason are both missing she knows that they are together. She still wants her son home and they start a massive manhunt. While in Chicago, Sean rents a room at a boarding house. The owner did not want to let Sean skip the credit check. He takes an impression of Sean's credit card for a deposit but promises not to run it. However, he apparently runs the card and the police in Pennsylvania  and they find out where he is. Sean wakes Jason and runs with him when he sees the local police arrive. He has an attack of conscience and writes a note on an old receipt. He takes Jason to the nearest police station and tells him to give one of the officers the note. Jason reads the note and it gives contact information on how to get in touch with Shelley.

Shelley receives a call from the police saying that they have found Paul's body in the river. She goes to the morgue and identifies the body. She gets another phone call shortly after saying that the DNA results from Jason's attack matches to Paul.  Shelley goes to Sean's house and find Austin has come back home. She spends the night on his couch.She receives a call that her son is on his way home.

Shelley and Jason are reunited and Sean decides he wants to go home so he heads back to Pennsylvania and finds Austin at home. They reunite and that is the end of this story.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review,