Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Mute Witness
AUTHOR: Rick R. Reed
PUBLISHER: Ninestar Press
LENGTH: 349 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 9, 2020
BLURB:
Sean and Austin have the perfect life. Their new relationship is only made more joyous by weekend visits from Sean’s eight-year-old son, Jason.
And then their perfect world shatters.
Jason is missing.
When the boy turns up days later, he has been horribly abused and has lost the power to speak. Small town minds turn to the boy’s gay father and his lover as the likely culprits. Sean and Austin struggle to maintain their relationship amid the innuendo and the very real threat that Sean will, at the very least, lose the son he loves. Meanwhile, the real villain is much closer to home, intent on ensuring the boy’s muteness is permanent.
REVIEW:
I’m going to tell you now, if you have ANY triggers about child abuse, child pornography, pedophilia, etc, you might want to take some very extra caution with this book. One thing I’ve always admired about Rick’s books is that he pulls no punches whatsoever with what he writes. And he’s done it again.
The story deals with a child that has come from a broken home. The father has finally admitted his gay. The wife married an abuser and really didn’t know it until they were married. He is also homophobic as well as her parents. All she wants is peace and for her child to be happy with her and her father. But when the child ends up missing and then found severely abused, things come apart at the seams.
This is what saddens me. It happens every day in life. Some crisis happens in a family that is this horrid and instead of the family pulling together, there’s constant fighting, nitpicking and more, instead of concentrating on what’s best for the victim. In this case, their son. Growing up in a Christian home myself, I was always the black sheep. Not because I didn’t see someone’s color, sexuality, etc. But because I saw a person. It didn’t matter to me who they were in love with or whatever. As long as they were good people and good to others…hey. I’m happy. But I remember the bigotry and the homophobia in my family and honestly had to cut that toxicity out of my life. And that’s what broke me in this book. A man, wanting to be all he can be for his little boy, being shunned because he’s different.
It breaks me that families don’t pull together in times of tragedy when they all really need each other the most. But most often are too busy blaming, grieving or whatever. Thankfully this story is an HFN. You’ll see what I mean. It can’t be classified as HEA because of what’s happened. But there’s power in love, hope and sometimes just a listening ear.
This was one of the hardest I’ve read by this author. But he writes one heck of a story every time he writes. It may be an emotional rollercoaster ride, but it’s always one story you’ll never forget.
RATING: 
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