Lake Silence (The Others, #6) (World of the Others, #1)

by Anne Bishop

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

4.5 stars

This is the sixth book in The Others series. However, this book starts a new tale in a new location in this world that Anne Bishop has created. In the first five books in the series, we followed Meg and the members of the Lakeside Courtyard. In this book, we follow Vicki and the people in the small town of Sproing. This town lives much closer to the terra indigene (shifters, vampires called Sanguinati, elementals and more) than the people of the city of Lakeside.

So Vicki has just recently divorce her verbally abusive husband. She got some of his family’s land, a run down lodge called The Jumble, in the divorce settlement. She also got some money to fix up The Jumble, which she does. The Jumble has very strict requirements for how the property is managed. The land is owned by terra indigene, Vicki owns only the buildings. She has to follow their rules for the land. Such as, she can’t put motorboats into the lake, can’t widen the roads, etc.

She gets her first tennent in the way of Aggie Crowe. Things go pretty well until Vicki finds Aggie heating up an eyeball in the wave-cooker (Aggie decided that the eye would be better warm, since the body had been dead for a bit and the eye was squishy) There is a dead body in The Jumble. Vicki quickly calls the police. Things go downhill from there.

While this story has a completely new set of characters, we do get mention of Vlad and Meg. There are references to the Lakeside Courtyard, but we don’t actually get any page time with any of them. That’s okay though, because we have a great time with all the new characters. Vicki and Aggie are both great characters. Ilya Sanguinati, who becomes Vicki’s lawyer, is interesting and I can’t wait to see where Anne Bishop takes his character. Vicki has two other shifters that come on to help her in the jumble, a cougar shifter and bear shifter. In town, there is Julian Farrow, an Intuit, former cop and the current owner of Lettuce Read, the local bookstore (can I say, I love all the store names in this series). There is also Officer Grimshaw who is assigned to handle things in the town, even though he technically works for highway patrol.

Vicki and Aggie, along with a few other terra indigene, play a game called Murder. It is very similar to Clue. Trying to figure out who did it and with what and in what room. Vicki is also asked to become the Reader. Many of the terra indigene aren’t as in tuned with humans as others, so in some towns a Reader is chosen to read stories to the ones who can’t read.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Sproingers. They are little creatures that the people of the town treat like animals. They feed them carrot pieces. But they are much smarter than mere animals. There is a scene where they want to peer into a window, so they form a pyramid so one can get high enough to see in.

There are also the beloved ponies from the earlier books too. Or, I should say, new ponies. Whirlpool, is adorable and has a great scene with Vicki in The Jumble. We also meet a few of the elementals.

This series continues to mix together humor, cute and very dark. Humans in this world are not usually the good guys. There are some good ones like Vicki and Grimshaw, but there are way more bad ones. People who don’t think the rules apply to them. They think that they have final say, no matter what the terra indigene say. If you haven’t tried this series, I highly recommend it. I do think you can start with this book, but I would recommend starting with book one. There are things that are mentioned in this book that you learn about in the first five books. While I think you could understand it, I think you would have a better appreciation after finishing the first book. Plus, you won’t regret spending time with Meg and the gang.

Narration
Alexandra Harris continues to do a great job with the narration of this series. I love how she voices all the crows, mostly. I think she is amazing with showing the feelings of every character, from Vicki when she is upset to Vicki’s evil husband to Grimshaw’s determination. She is the voice of this series for me. I can’t imagine tackling this series in any other way.

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.