Adventure, Sports, Mysteries, and Westerns-The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall

Adventure, Sports, Mysteries, and Westerns-The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall

Mackall, Dandi Daley. (2011). The Silence of Murder. New York, NY: Ember.

Jeremy Long is accused of killing the beloved Panthers baseball coach, John Johnson. There were witnesses that saw Jeremy fleeing from the crime scene and the evidence was found in his possession. Hope Long is convinced her autistic brother Jeremy did not murder anyone and Jeremy can’t really help defend himself since he stopped talking at the age of nine. Everyone thinks Jeremy is guilty, even his lawyer, except for his sister Hope, who along with her two friends T.J. and Chase goes looking for clues that will lead them to Jeremy’s innocence. However, snooping for clues leads to more to what they bargained for. Now family secrets are revealed and truths are told as slowly the identity of the real murderer is revealed.

The Silence for Murder was the winner of the Edgar Award for best young adult mystery of 2012. This award is presented by the Mystery Writers of America who honor a best mystery fiction book, non-fiction and television published or produced every year. Even though the book was published in 2011, the awards are not given until the following year, therefore 2012 winner. The book is organized in thirty-seven chapters with an epilogue at the end of the novel. The chapters are not titled and they vary in length. The book is recommended for grades 8-12^th.

The story is told from first-person omniscient point of view by Hope. Through her we are able to live the moments in court during Jeremy’s trial, feel her pain, feel her tenacity, and understand her confusion, and get to know other characters. When hope is looking for evidence to prove her brother is innocent, she looks at the crime scene photos and says, “I can’t stop staring. Coach is not so much a dead person as he is a person without life. I take in all the details of this picture…Coach faceless, lifeless John Johnson. My brother could not have done this”(Mackall, 2011, p.45).

The story begins with chapter one in the past with Hope having a flashback to the last time her brother Jeremy spoke out loud. Then in chapter two we are back to the present in the courtroom where Hope is testifying because the defendant wants to make Jeremy look crazy so he will not get the death penalty. “He wants me to tell the jury about something that happened when Jeremy was ten. That’s what we rehearsed. Only I don’t want to tell this story. I know it will hurt Jer”(Mackall, 2011, p. 9).

There are many flashbacks throughout the story that help establish Jeremy’s character and the close relationship that Hope and her brother have as well as the not so nice relationship that they have with their mother Rita. I one occasion they are at a shelter and Hope is remembering Jeremy giving away his clothes and shoes and Rita’s reaction. “I close my eyes and remember. I can see Rita’s hand reaching for something. I know it’s her hand because she’s wearing the big green ring she used to have…He gave his coat to a red-haired girl with a long braid down her back. He unbuttoned his shirt. Rita took hold of his hand, but he kept going, unbuttoning with his other hand. So she smacked him” (Mackall, 2011, p. 10-13).

 Another time Hope keeps having these images where she thinks she’s the reason her father is dead. “I hear footsteps  behind me and more shouts from Daddy...I hear thunder from the street and screeching that makes me stop so I can cover my ears. The next thing I know, I am lifted off the ground, as if an angle has flown by and picked me up” (Mackall, 2011, p. 285).

All through the story the main character Hope has an internal conflict with herself and with society. From the very beginning all the evidence points to Jeremey being guilty that even his lawyer and his mother Rita don’t try to prove his innocence they just want to make Jeremy look as if he’s crazy enough to kill. On the other hand Hope refuses to believe this that when she’s on the witness stand the entire time she’s testifying about her brother’s character, even though she agreed to go along with what the lawyer said she cannot bring herself to make him out to be a monster. After she testifies Hope says, “I feel sick inside my bones. My whole life I’ve fought anybody who said Jeremy was crazy, or treated him like there was something wrong with him. And now I’ve done that and worse, here in front of everybody and after swearing with my hand on the Bible” (Mackall, 2011, p.285).

According to Julie Paladino from School Library Journal, The Silence of Murder “very slowly (too slowly) builds to suspense as clues gradually surface” (p. 70). I would have to agree with her, even though the author does a great job of building the case, it is done too slowly where at times the reader can lose patience and discourage him from finishing reading the book. This would be a shame because the author does a really good job of bringing the story back to a full circle to the beginning of the story where Hope ask Jeremy to tell the court that he didn’t do it by writing it out. She says, “Jeremy, you have to tell them you didn’t do it. Write it out. Please? Just write down what happened” (Mackall, 2011, p. 15).

References

Fesko, Shari. The Silence of Murder. (2013). Booklist, 109(18), 69.

Mackall, Dandi Daley. (2011). The Silence of Murder. New York, NY: Ember.

Paladino, Julie. The Silence of Murder. (2013). School Library Journal, 59(3), 70.