Ellen McKenna, a recent widow, is managing her family’s farm in Cooke County, Texas. They’ve planted a variety of crops, as well as livestock, and her kids are keen to help. But one thing goes wrong after another, and now in storm season, WHISPER CREEK is on the rise.

The threat of flooding will cut off all the families in the valley, and Ellen, as a trained nurse, has responsibility for an expectant mom nearby. First, her livestock and some neighbours will need help to weather the storm. Which makes it all the more annoying that a persistent neighbour keeps driving over to hassle her into signing a contract. Darned if Ellen is going to sell him any acreage. But Mitchell Robinson is the kind of man who won’t take no for an answer. He has secretly engaged men for shady work, so that Ellen’s ranch develops problems.  

I can safely say this storyline kept me on the edge of my seat. The reader knows about some of the sabotage from the start, but Ellen doesn’t, and I kept wanting her to discover the flooding in the barn full of hay. She’s busy trying to help her older son Jake patch a roof over the cattle shelter to protect animals from hail, and keep track of her young son Bobby, who is keeping track of a cat about to have kittens. Bobby’s older sister Avery is fifteen and smart, a driver and worker, and she is keeping track of the sheriff’s handsome son down the valley. You get the picture. Add in a set of desperate burglars, a shooting and more than one vehicle accident in the dark, cold, wet night, and the action never stops.

I am just surprised everyone didn’t end up with pneumonia. The storm is intense, people are riding, hiking and driving far more than is reasonable, the power or phones or radios are generally out, and every stream has become a torrent. Yikes!

Allison Brennan has written more than fifty novels, as this tautly plotted thriller demonstrates. She continues to keep her readers reassured that families and teamwork can win, that some ill-doers can be redeemed, and that people who care for animals are good people. I like Allison Brennan’s thinking, and I will look out for more of her books. WHISPER CREEK is strongly rooted in geography and local folks, with a fully modern set of problems and a traditional attitude to living with the land.