Satan's Silence: A Cassidy McCabe Mystery

The second tale to feature Chicago-area psychotherapist Cassidy McCabe (Secret's Shadow) loses credibility right at the beginning as Cassidy tosses patient confidentiality aside to discuss a troubling case with her boyfriend, a reporter. Cassidy is treating Dana, a single mother who was institutionalized as a teen for drug use and sexual promiscuity. Dana, who lives with her daughter, Cypress, and a boyfriend, is plagued by memories that suggest she witnessed a ritual murder as a child. Cassidy's lover, Zach, connects details of the memory to a cemetery where the two discover a child's skull in a covered well. As Zach sniffs a story on Satanic cults, Cassidy takes Dana to a psychiatrist specializing in cults. Then, as Halloween approaches, Cypress is kidnapped, spurring Cassidy and Zach into further action--and danger. Matthews goes out of her way to create flaws in her heroine, whose interior observations are revealed in italics, but that effort seriously interrupts the action and ill-serves the overall impression made by this uncompelling tale. (Mar.)