When an old Paiute woman finds a four-year-old boy tied to a mattress in an abandoned mountain shack, San Diego County Child Abuse Investigator Bo Bradley gets the case. The timing couldn't be worse, because bipolar Bo is sliding into a manic episode her meds won't subdue overnight. But when a pair of killers invade a children's hospital, attempting to shoot the deaf little boy who reminds Bo of her lost sister, she has to choose. She can save her sanity (and her job), or save the boy. For Bo it's a no-brainer, resulting in a desperate, manicky, midnight flight into a desert landscape where the line between delusion and reality vanishes.

Product DescriptionFirst in the award-winning Bo Bradley mystery series, CHILD OF SILENCE introduces the much-loved sleuth whose big heart and quirky wit help her deal with both an impossible job and a psychiatric disorder her Irish grandmother called "the sight." An amateur artist, Bo would rather be painting, but when a child is in danger she risks everything, even her life.Thirty miles east of San Diego, in the dusty heart of the California high desert, lies the Barona Ranch Indian Reservation. This is desolate country, marked by lone pines, winding canyons, and granite hills. It is here that the boy was found, tied to a mattress in an abandoned mountain shack.The case is assigned to Bo Bradley, a child abuse investigator with San Diego’s juvenile court system. It is meaningful job, and it pays for Bo’s few indulgences, like her books on Indian lore and the huge canvasses for her paintings, based on ancient Native American rock drawings.Bo takes her profession seriously, and she abides by its cardinal rule; never get involved with the child-victim. This has not always been easy for a sensitive woman whose emotions ride perilously close to the surface. Now, with this four-year-old boy, it proves impossible. He is a non-Indian who calls himself Weppo, and he has been classified as mentally impaired, making him a high risk for abuse. But something in Weppo’s intense gleaming gaze strikes a deep chord in Bo. She knows that look. In the eyes of her late, deaf sister, she has seen it before. Weppo is not at all impaired; he is deaf.Inspired by this new knowledge, Bo sets out to interview the Paiute mystic, the woman they call “Seize the Dark,” who found the boy. Driving along pine scented trails into the Indian country she so loves, Bo feels as if a strange force is leading her onward, an intuition that builds when she meets “Seize the Dark” and the old crone confides that “spirits” led her to Weppo; “I saw the boy with blood on his mouth.”After visiting the shack, Bo wonders, had the deaf child been tied up because there was no other way of saying “Stay here. I’ll be back”? An inner voice tells her as much. And she knows she must listen, for it also tells her that Weppo is in great danger.A poisoned-tipped bullet soon proves the point–as two thugs break into the hospital and attempt to murder the boy. Pushed beyond the point of no return and into a dangerous manic state, Bo bends the rules and swings into action. Risking personal involvement and professional ruin at the hands of her by-the-book supervisor, she vows to unearth the truth surrounding this child of silence. It is a mission that will take her from the ancient sands of the California desert to the gilded mansions of Houston’s political set and back, as Bo Bradley mounts a desperate struggle to save Weppo–and herself–from certain death.

It seems impossible that two healthy female politicians could have both died from a cerebral hemorrhage within days of each other. The police hire Blue McCarron and Roxie Bouchie as consultants. The two women, who are involved professionally and personally, work with evangelical preachers, former convicts, and paintball playing plastic surgeons in order to find this unorthodox killer.

His hair is ebony. His skin is ruddy brown. He is unmistakably Mayan, even at eight months. They call him Acito, or little turtle. In fact, he seems to be as hard-shelled as his animal-spirit namesake. Lucky for him, because he's just survived a near-fatal poisoning. The lab analysis reveals that the toxin found in Acito's body is a rare, deadly herb that has to be carefully cultivated, harvested, and stored. There is no doubt that someone was trying to kill the child. As she pulls strings and makes deals to place Acito in a loving home, Bo must ask herself the unthinkable: who would want to murder a little Indian baby? Could it be the seemingly modest Latino couple paid to care for him? Or his elusive mother, an exotic folk singer clawing her way to the top of the Mexican music scene? Or the strange yanqui hillbilly who performs with her? And where - and who - is Acito's father? Finally, what could possibly be the motive? Despite the not entirely unwelcome distraction of a love affair, Bo pursues a trail of misty clues to the Mexican border town of Tijuana. Here her instincts - and the heightened perceptions that ever haunt and guide her - direct her into a seething brew of drugs and prostitution, stealth, and ambition. But ancient traditions and evil spirits hover over the case, even when Bo escapes to the desert to seek solace from her own demons. And they will lead her to the answers she seeks...in the lair of an obsessed and duplicitous killer.

There has never been a place like Ghost Flower Lodge, Bo muses while recovering from a bout with depression. Located on 5,000 barren acres in the high desert land of the Neji Indian reservation, the Lodge has lived up to its reputation as an innovative psychiatric healing center. At Ghost Flower, Bo finds renewed strength and cherished friendship in the company of fellow lodgemate Mort Wagman, a brilliant young stand-up comic. But Bo's solace is shattered the day Mort's bullet-riddled body is found on the rim of nearby Yucca Canyon. Concerned that Mort's orphaned son, Bird, will be abandoned to the court system, a devastated Bo vows to find the boy's relatives - and his father's murderer. Was Mort shot by some random drunk roaming the desert? If not a meaningless crime, then who would want to kill the personable, harmless Mort? And who would have known how to find the canyon, accessible only by foot? The road to truth proves more treacherous than any desolate desert path. First Bo is plagued by a series of mysterious phone calls. Then she discovers that Mort had been a man of many strange secrets. His life may be the key to his death as Bo slowly realizes that his murder is somehow connected to unknown forces out to destroy Ghost Flower Lodge. Now Bo is locked in an impossible battle as she finds herself fighting an enormous power with the wealth and clout to vanquish anything that stands in its way...including a persistent investigator.

Three-year-old Samantha Franer is dead of internal injuries brought on by rape. Worse yet, an eerie symbol - the spiked face of a straw-like man - has been painted on her abdomen. All fingers of guilt point at the child's stepfather, Paul Massieu, known member of an obscure cult based in New York State. Pompous pediatricians, presumptive police, and an eager press cry "satanism." Bo knows better. She has long ago learned to heed her heightened perceptions and her own intuition. This time they tell her that this is no case of ritual abuse. Then the victim's sister vanishes, undoubtedly kidnapped by Massieu, and Bo is placed on the case. Tracking eight-year-old Hannah Franer leads her to the misty hills of New York's Hudson Valley and the cult's "hideout." But Bo sees no evil here, a feeling underscored by the cult leader, an Iroquois mystic who is as wise as she is ageless. Two other things Bo senses strongly: Paul Massieu is not guilty; and only the truth can free young Hannah from the psychic torment that could destroy her. Following her instincts, Bo vows to uncover the real monster and save the lives of future victims. It is a desperate search that will lead Bo into the deepest recesses of the mind and the darkest caverns of the earth. And it will place her livelihood - and her life - in dire jeopardy.