What We Keep Silent · 🍁 The Globe and Mail Reader Recommendation

Bri Watters is back

An amateur sleuth. A murdered mayor. A cold case someone wants to keep buried.

Meet Bri Watters in What We Keep Silent, a slow-burning, character-driven thriller about family secrets, blackmail, and the cost of silence.

Then continue with Whatever It Takes—or start here—for a self-contained mystery involving a murdered mayor, a cold case, and buried secrets in Burlington, Vermont.

In What We Keep Silent, Bri is pulled into danger. In Whatever It Takes, Bri runs toward it, this time as an amateur sleuth determined to uncover the truth and settle a score.

Buy Whatever It Takes Buy What We Keep Silent
Bri Watters at dusk on a downtown street, collar up against the cold

The series protagonist

Meet Bri Watters

Bri is not polished, perfect or confident. A struggling widow, she has a lot to deal with including a shady past. But she is loyal, loves her family, and is working hard to rebuild her life and atone for her mistakes.

In What We Keep Silent, Bri is forced to face her past when a hospital data breach sweeps up private medical files which contain long-held family secrets that bad actors threaten to expose.

In Whatever It Takes, Bri reboots her life as a PI trainee two years later. While Bri has no badge yet, she has found her calling and has something to prove. Then a stakeout goes wrong, a mayor ends up dead, and a cold case drags the past into the present. The deeper Bri digs, the more she must question what type of PI she wants to become and which lines she is willing to cross when the truth puts everyone at risk.

The series

Two books. One reckoning.

Follow Bri’s journey from Book 1, or jump into Book 2. Each mystery stands on its own.

What We Keep Silent front cover, a house engulfed in flames
What We Keep Silent back cover synopsis

Book 1 · Start here

🍁 The Globe and Mail Reader Recommendation, July 2026

What We Keep Silent

Bri Watters has always loved Paris, yet she never imagined she’d be forced to flee to the City of Lights to escape the shadow of her past crimes. But when her brother Ty is arrested for accessing confidential patient files at the Vermont hospital where they both work, Bri can’t risk being caught in the crossfire.

From the safety of her Paris hotel room, Bri learns that Ty’s crimes may be much worse than she feared. Police remain tight-lipped, and her parents and perfect older sister Amber are divided about Ty’s guilt. Bri wants to trust her brother, yet he’s been in trouble before.

Mysterious texts force Bri to investigate from abroad and she finds herself entangled in a web of deception, blackmail, and murder. Pressures mount, and she races home, one step ahead of the police, and bands together with family, her best friend Zuri, and crack PI Art Visser to dig into Ty’s claim of innocence.

Will Bri uncover the truth before it’s too late? And who is the sinister figure threatening to expose her secrets to the world?

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Who is this series for?

For readers who want a crime fiction thriller that cares about why people do what they do.

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Whatever It Takes is out now. Join the list for Bri Watters extras, events, and the occasional case note.