The Twist of Silence Fallen

PatriciaBriggs has a steady pattern going in her Mercy Thompson series (and her Alphaand Omega series). I read them for her great depiction of long-term, committedrelationships in urban fantasy. They’re my candy reads when I need a cute,snarky, action-packed book to lift my spirits.

But Silence Fallen comes with caution tape.

“Fair warning—the timeline is not completely linear,” Briggs says in a note to the reader, as if responding directly to beta reader or editorial feedback she couldn’t quite address in the prose itself.

Onthe first read, I remember being tired, not quite tracking what happened fromchapter to chapter, and never remembering enough to be confused about thetimeline. This read, I’m not sure what my problem was. The timeline isn’t linear.Some scenes go back in time when switching POVs. Some scenes go back in time inthe same POV, showing scene B before scene A, so the readers could experiencethe full impact of conclusion C afterward.

Iliked it. I’ve certainly gone back in time when switching POVs. I trusted myreader to keep up, but it may have been easier, since most of the time when I’mdoing that, there isn’t much cross-communication between my plot lines. Orscenes overlap, and we have reference events showing how they happen relativeto each other.

Briggshandled it by having one of her main characters comment on the timeline at thebeginning of each chapter.

I’mgoing to have to keep in mind how many people that doesn’t work for.

Thereal warning I needed the first time through this book was the completelyunexpected character twist at the end. Somehow, I never saw it coming.

Thistime, I gleefully read through, picking out every detail along the way.

—SPOILERS INBOUND—

Briggsintroduces a familiar character under a false name midway through the book, andon the first read through, and I had no idea until the last chapter, when hisidentity is revealed. On the second read-through, I got to see how Briggs didit.

First,she highlighted mannerisms that were completely uncharacteristic of thecharacter we knew. Over and over, interspersed through the chapters, sheemphasized how other characters responded to this trait. It worked, becausewhat we do know about this character is that he’s a good actor, and he’s goodat going unnoticed. Now, we not only have a reference to this exceptionaltalent, we’ve seen it fool some very powerful people. Fantastic long-termcharacter development!

Second,when mistaken for a relative, he distanced himself from the relative byemphasizing the differences in their heritage. Factually accurate butincredibly misleading, even to the audience.

Third,she was intentional about his name. We don’t get a name in his first scene,despite his several lines of dialogue and the cadence of introducing all theother characters. That should have been a clue. When his name was introduced,it was at the end of a chapter, a position of importance, and Briggs spent halfa page highlighting where the name came from. Maybe that should have been ahint, too. (The next chapter ends with a full-page discussion of thecharacter’s real identity. Nicely done, Mx. Briggs!)

Next,we see our mystery character giving advice to an Alpha werewolf and that advicebeing graciously received. Sure, Briggs highlights that submissive wolvesaren’t unintelligent, and it’s not totally uncharacteristic for this Alpha towork as a team with those under his care, but from other characters’ reactions,we see that this dynamic is unexpected. It does seem a little too easy, and itshould be, since he’s not who he says.

Whatshould have been a dead giveaway was when the narrative shifts into a thirdPOV—that of the mystery submissive wolf with the totally-not-assumed name. In acritical moment, he pulls the Alpha aside for a corrective conversation. It’sexplained to other characters as a measure of their trust that the submissivewolf can confide in the Alpha from a different pack, but as the readers watchthrough the strange wolf’s eyes, we see his absolute certainty that this is theright thing to do, and that it must happen now. There is no hesitation. Thereis no deference. It’s not the attitude of anyone submissive at all. By now, Ishould have known I was misled. And he’s awfully well informed about everything…We even see the Alpha’s absolute faith in the mystery wolf, asking the mysterywolf to shoot him if things don’t go well. But, surely, Alpha is just that niceof a guy…in the middle of a vampire seethe…with his wife missing.

Wesee the mystery wolf’s POV again in the next chapter, and there’s something offabout him. As events rise to the climax and fights break out, he’s not afraid.He watches, clearly picking a preferred winner but unconcerned that the outcomewill be anything other than what he expects. He takes time to enjoy theaesthetics of the fight and mull over why it’s progressing the way it is, whichis a really effective way to communicate his age. He’s seen it all. He sees thepatterns enough to have confidence in the result, and he can take him to enjoysome aspects of it. Two pages later, we see that it isn’t that he doesn’t care.He cares enough to help the noncombatants out of the way and do so with extremecompetence. In the aftermath, he pulls together the available resources to healthe Alpha he’s traveling with.

Briggscontinues to play with her audience. In the next chapter, the mystery werewolfis introduced to a man who already knows him, but while she’s built up thetension between this man and the wolf’s true identity, the tense reunion passesquickly and almost unremarked. (Which Briggs retcons later by acknowledging arecent favor done to assuage the past hurt.)

Threepages from the end, Mercy calls out the mystery wolf’s true identity, and weget the impression he was present just in case and did almost nothing—almostnothing but the key moment of pulling the Alpha aside and talking sense intohim.

Ihope to pull off this kind of well constructed story someday. In the meantime,I just purchased the next two books in my favorite format—mass marketpaperback! I’m looking forward to some more downtime with some favoritecharacters until classes start up again.