The Other Side of Quiet

Hallelujah for birthdays and Barnes and Noble gift cards! I was so excited to add to my collection this month and decided I would pull some books from my Goodreads "to read" list for books to purchase. It can be a gamble to buy books you have never read before at wholesale, but with a gift card I feel much safer in this decision, and so far so good.

The first book I read is called 'The Other Side of Quiet' by Tara C, Allred. Mrs. Childs is a ninth grade English teacher who teaches a special creative writing class to 10 students. One of the student's assignments is to write in a journal. Mrs. Childs promises to not read the children's journals, just look to see if the pages are filled in for their grade. However, she is forced to break her promise to her students when a high school senior is found dead, and the murder weapon is linked to Mrs. Child's creative writing class. The students feel betrayed that their journals will be read by the police as well as their beloved and trusted teacher. Mrs. Childs learns secrets about her students that she wishes she never knew, but the journals also help her to come to know and lover her students that much more.

I really enjoyed this novel. The author does an excellent job with character voice and I was eager to find out who the murderer was. It has a simple and sweet writing style which you come to expect from Mormon fiction. There are a few references to the LDS religion, but it is not over-powering and is used to add to the character of Mrs. Childs, and fortunately, does not distract from the plot line. I wouldn't classify this book as a thriller, as most murder-mystery books tend to be, but it was still very good and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a light, fun mystery.