After being selected to review THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE for
Bookreporter.com, I was asked if I could submit my review in a
week’s time. I said I’d try, but I wasn’t going
to promise. I have a houseful of other commitments, some books just
take longer to get through, and the writing of the review
doesn’t always come as easily as you’d like.

Well, the laugh was on me. Those houseful of commitments are
right where I left them, because nothing was going to happen
until I finished this novel.

Wow.

Every so often you get really lucky, and a book comes along that
just knocks your socks off: an absorbing, engrossing, suspenseful
read that you just want to keep paging through, a novel that feels
a lot like running downhill --- fast and a little breathless ---
until it all winds down and wraps up. THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE is
exactly this kind of book. Believe me, the laundry never had
a chance.

Gudenkauf tells the story of a hot and humid August morning in a
small Iowa college town. Two families wake up to find that their
little girls have disappeared: Calli Clark, a sweet seven-year-old
who hasn’t said a word in over three years, and her best
friend, Petra Gregory, who has stood by Calli and been her
“voice” to the world. Calli’s parents have a
strained and difficult relationship, exacerbated by her
father’s drinking and abusive behavior. Petra’s family
seems idyllic by comparison, but as the clock slowly ticks and the
children don’t return, both families begin to become
unraveled and no one is above suspicion.

THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE is Heather Gudenkauf’s debut novel,
and it’s a major achievement. The point of view shifts
between characters, and she manages each perspective with masterful
skill. The girls are fully developed without being precious, and
even the secondary characters are wonderfully crafted. The author
manages to avoid clichés and isn’t afraid to show the
emotional depth of her characters, including the
less-than-sympathetic facets of their personalities. She has a
talent for understated elegance; a scene between the town’s
deputy sheriff and Mrs. McIntire, the woman in town whose
10-year-old daughter was abducted and killed by an unknown
assailant the previous year, resonate beautifully. These portraits
are second only to her sense of pacing, which is spot-on and so
critical to this kind of novel: as it begins to move toward its
close, the rhythm picks up to a dramatic finish. Let this serve as
notice: Jodi Picoult has some serious competition in Heather
Gudenkauf.

If you’re looking for an absorbing novel with which to
wrap up the summer season, look no further than THE WEIGHT OF
SILENCE. But be warned: those household chores will have to wait.
Once you crack this book open, nothing much will get done until you
finish. Heather Gudenkauf is an author to watch.