I stayed with a set of brand-new parents recently. I almost didn’t want to read The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf in front of them. It’s one thing to open a novel full of troubles that you will never have (Twilight anyone?) and thrill along with all the suspense. It’s quite another if it’s about children going missing, and you just had a child.

In Silence, a seven-year-old girl disappears from her home. Mom wakes up one morning, walks through her morning routine and when she checks young Calli’s room, Calli isn’t there.

Oh, and Calli’s best friend has disappeared too.

So who did it?

It could be Calli’s dad, Griff. Griff is a jolly guy, fun and games, up until his third beer. By the time he’s downed his twelfth can, things aren’t so fun anymore. And drunk or not, Griff can’t forget that the sheriff used to be his wife’s boyfriend. In his mind, the two of them most likely still sneak around on him.

So our story has a man with a grievance.

Then there’s Calli’s teenage brother. I mean, he’s a nice boy, but they all have hormones, you know.

A few more suspects wander in from the wings. After all, anybody could walk through the woods in back of Calli’s house. It could be innocent — Just walkin’ my dog — or it could sinister — Did something just move behind that tree?

Gudenkauf keeps her prose simple. She throws in a dubious plot device here and there. But she keeps you guessing.

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With a story this movie-like, you might want to keep a bowl of Movie Theater Floor nearby.  I substituted Twizzler bites for the jelly beans.