Whisper Creek

When it rains it pours—literally—in Whisper Creek, the latest stand-alone thriller from prolific author Allison Brennan. Set in Texas farm country north of Dallas, Ellen McKenna is the widowed matriarch of her family. With four children and a farm to manage she has more than her hands full. Storms in rural Texas are no joke; there is one on the way, and so it's all hands on deck as the family begins to prepare.

The storm is not the only trouble brewing. A series of break-ins have happened recently to neighboring farms, and the last left the owner (and his dog) shot and wounded. The thieves have yet to be apprehended, and so that's one more item of potential stress. In addition, there is an ongoing battle between farm owners in the area and Verdacorp, a capitalistic-minded corporation intent on acquiring as much land in the area as possible. Despite the encroaching storm, Verdacorp reps pay Ellen a visit, trying to convince her to sell her farm. When she refuses yet again, the duplicitous owner of Verdacorp vows to ratchet up the pressure.

But wait! There's more! Each of Ellen's children encounter some sort of peril, a local pregnant woman needs Ellen's skills as a nurse to avoid going into preeclampsia, some neighbors need help preparing for the storm, others threaten the family while navigating around road closures, the McKenna barn starts flooding—possibly from sabotage—and, of course, the storm begins to hit full-force. It's a cavalcade of unending stress for the McKenna family as one perilous situation strikes after another.

And, frankly, it was too much. There are dozens of characters and enough unnecessary "filler peril" that I found myself wishing for more focus. Also, despite the relentless set of challenges, the stakes never truly felt as tense as they could have. Ellen thinks to herself at one point, "What was going on with these people? Burglars with hearts of gold? She almost laughed at the thought." There are some head-scratching plot conveniences, and I wasn't terribly surprised by any particular direction the story took.

With more than fifty books published in the last twenty years, Allison Brennan has written dozens of different thriller scenarios into her novels. This one felt like a few too many ideas wrapped into one, and while Brennan's extensive experience allows her to take a multi-layered, complex plot and tie everything together by the end, the journey just felt a bit too muddled for me. Whisper Creek was fine, but it did not distinguish itself in a crowded genre.