“The Silent Girls is Vermont’s own True Detective. Eric Rickstad masterfully renders Frank Rath, a PI and single father who’s been beat up and beat down but never backs off. Three-dimensional characters, a moody rural-noir vibe, and a compulsively readable story make this a stunner of a crime novel!”
Steve Ulfelder, Edgar® finalist author of Wolverine Bros. Freight & Storage
“Eric Rickstad’s The Silent Girls is a bone-chilling mystery set in one of New England’s darkest corners, the kind of place travelers are well-advised to avoid after nightfall. This well-crafted book will have you staying up late, turning pages and afraid to turn off the light.”
Paul Doiron, author of The Poacher’s Son
“Finely drawn characters, a narrative that beguiles and surprises, and stark, poetic writing make for a novel as dark and brooding as its rural Vermont setting. The Silent Girls is both an exceptional detective story and a terrifying meditation on good and evil.”
Roger Smith, international best-selling author of Wake Up Dead, Dust Devils, Mixed Blood, and Sacrifices
“The Silent Girls is a thrilling ride to very dark places. I kept turning pages, scared of what I’d find but compelled to look. It’ll keep you reading all the way up to its shattering conclusion.”
Jake Hinkson, author of Hell On Church Street and The Big Ugly
“Eric Rickstad writes with the ferocious passion a father has for his deeply loved child and with the precision of a verbal surgeon versed in terror. From the very first, a feeling of dread crept over me and stayed with me until the end, and remains with me days later. The Silent Girls is love and terror, a mix of intense feelings that seeps into your heart and does not go away.”
Stephen Foreman, author of the novels Watching Gideon and Toe Hold
Intelligent and profound, this dark and disturbing rural noir twists and turns with relentless suspense. Eric Rickstad writes beautifully, and seamlessly tucks a secret or a surprise around every corner.
Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of The Truth Be Told
Fresh, original, absolutely unexpected. A deep, dark, intense mystery that left a scar on my mind, soul and heart. There is a tight tension, an adrenaline racing through the reader as one follows along and can’t help but be mystified and enthralled by the spider web tale taking place. You’re the fly captured in that web, as the spider smoothly comes to devour its prey.
Classic Book Reader
Compulsively readable. Pitch black. A freak-out [with] an all-encompassing preoccupation with evil and innocence, a touch of Gothic motif and Stephen King, and a climax that Thomas Harris could have plotted.
Seven Days
A beautifully written literary thriller. A dark, page-turning, up-all-night story by a great novelist.
Tyler McMahon , author of Kilometer 99
Instantly elevates the rural noir genre. Every bit the novel of Winter’s Bone (a favorite). You will be hard pressed to set it aside until you reach the shocking final page.
Drew Yanno, author of In the Matter of Michael Vogel