With her mother's last words still echoing in her ears, Tyler Jones, the San Francisco-based newspaper columnist and amateur sleuth introduced in The Other Side of Silence, journeys to the family home in northern Minnesota. Tyler, directed to "find the truth," has no inkling what truth it is she is supposed to search for in this idyllic haven perched on the edge of Lake Superior. One startling truth she uncovers is that she is deeply attached to this landscape of her childhood and ancestry.

As Tyler attempts to fulfill her mother's deathbed wish, she unearths layer after layer of half-truths, legends, and lies accumulated over the years and passed through the generations, binding some members of this community to a conspiracy of silence. She explores the meaning of family in its many guises, the complexity of human nature regarding our notions of "good" and "bad," and the lengths to which the living will go to protect their dead.

There are bodies, of course, but the real mystery in Silent Words is about the secrets that hide and fester in family histories and hearts.