Module 9: The Silence of Murder

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Book Summary: The book opens in the courtroom, and the murder has already been committed. The narrator and protagonist, Hope, is testifying on behalf of the defense, her brother Jeremy. Jeremy has been accused of murdering Coach Johnson, a beloved baseball coach in the small Ohio town of Grain. Jeremy is a special needs teenager who hasn't spoken since he was nine years old. He is the only suspect in the case because he was seen leaving the crime scene with a bloody bat, proven to be the murder weapon. Hope, who knows her brother better than anyone else, is determined to prove his innocence. With the help of her best friend T.J. and a new friend/love interest, Chase (who also happens to the sheriff's son), she begins investigating who else could have killed Coach. T.J. and Chase are both on the baseball team, so they knew Coach well and have access to things like team rosters. The three teens poke around the barn where the murder took place and look into the possibility that Coach's wife, who has cancer but is not as sick as she lets on, killed her husband for insurance money. Meanwhile, Hope and Jeremy's mother, who is somewhat abusive and a drunk, is sort of an unknown in the case because she insists that Jeremy did it but should be found guilty by reason of insanity. Jeremy, as part of his autism, collects glass jars, and no one knows why. The night before the closing arguments, Hope accidentally breaks one and discovers that Jeremy has been using the jars to collect "air" from important moments in his life. She helps the defense attorney give the closing argument by opening and reading from three jars from the morning of the murder for the first time in front of the jury. It is revealed that Coach was actually Jeremy's father, which he learned that morning, and when he went into the barn he found Coach's body and saw Chase running away. Chase then, in front of the whole courtroom, admits to accidentally killing Coach with the bat when he went to see Coach to show him how well he could bat (Chase was angry that he wasn't going to pitch in the big game because Coach thought he couldn't hit well enough against their arch rival). Jeremy is acquitted, begins talking again, Hope goes on to college with T.J., and Chase goes to prison.

APA Reference:
Mackall, D.D. (2011). The silence of murder. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Impressions: I thought this book was engaging, but the mystery could have been better set up. The clues that Chase was the real killer were there, but it was a disappointment more than an a-ha. For much of the book, I was thinking that T.J. was the murderer, and while I understand that the author probably planted those clues to throw off the reader, she made Chase a little too likable, and while I didn't find it exactly hard to believe that he was the murderer, the way it all went down was just a little bit of a let down. When Chase confesses, he loses all sympathy from the other characters, and I think that bothered me more than anything else. No one seems to care that deep down, Chase is a good person and that the murder was an accident. Coach wasn't murdered in cold blood. I understand that for Hope, it was more about the fact that he would've potentially let Jeremy go to prison for him, but I'm not even sure he would have. Anyway, the book was good, not great. However, I think that for a young teen audience, perhaps middle school age, this book is appropriate and well-suited. The problem solving opportunities are there, the plot twists are there, and I don't think teens would find it too predictable or formulaic. The element of Jeremy being a selective mute with autism also adds an element of interest not necessarily found in typical murder mysteries.

Professional Review (from Booklist):
"Grades 8-12. 'I have never even once thought that there was something 'wrong' with my brother,' says 17-year-old Hope Long, but few people share her view. Jeremy, 18, is selectively mute, autistic, and on trial for the murder of a beloved local coach. Wherever their irresponsible alcoholic mother has taken them, Hope has always been Jeremy's advocate, but now, in order to save Jeremy from execution, she must testify to his insanity. Convinced of her brother's innocence, Hope sets out to discover the real murderer. Her investigation leads to the loss of her only friend, a forbidden romance with the sheriff's son, family secrets, and a journey of self-discovery. Hope's first-person narrative pulls readers immediately into the story as she works her way through clues and false leads to the truth. The well-plotted mystery is intriguing, and Hope's determined efforts to solve it have an authentic feel. Secondary characters are a tad one-dimensional, but Hope's compelling voice and very real sense of danger propel the pace to a solution that will have readers talking."

Rutan, L. (2011). The silence of murder [Review of the book, The silence of murder by D.D. Mackall]. Booklist, 108(3), 88.

Library Uses: This book could be used as part of a unit/lesson on the wrongfully accused, and/or of people with mental challenges who are accused of crimes. After reading this book, students could be asked to research real cases of mentally challenged individuals who have been wrongfully accused, or of people in general who were wrongfully accused. Students could go on investigations themselves into these cases and put together multimedia presentations or other projects to teach their classmates about the different instances where this has happened. Furthermore, after doing this research, they could propose ways to prevent this from happening in the future, and perhaps even take some sort of action such as writing letters to Congressmen and women. All of this could be done in the library, using library resources such as databases, technology applications, books, and periodicals.