Silent Sentinel – A Mini Thriller by Kelli A. Wilkins

Silent Sentinel – A Mini Thriller by Kelli A. Wilkins
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

One afternoon, Valerie visits a flea market and meets a peculiar man who tries to sell her an ancient statue of Anubis—the Egyptian god of the dead. Despite her protests, the man insists that she must have the statue. Valerie gives in and brings her new “guardian” home.

Later that night, Valerie awakens to discover an intruder has broken into her house. She’s forced to fight for her life and relies on Anubis to save her.

When the police investigate, they make a shocking discovery about her attacker and his motive. Only then does Valerie realize how lucky she was— the statue was the last thing she wanted, but exactly what she needed.

Sometimes the right home décor can make all the difference in the world in an emergency.

Valerie was an interesting main character. She had strong opinions about certain topics, especially when it came to home décor. I liked the fact that the audience was mostly left to our own devices when it came to figuring out why she was so invested in this topic and a few similar ones. There were enough hints in the storyline to confirm my guess, but they also left room for other interpretations as well.

I would have liked to see more time spent explaining the motive of the person who wanted Valerie to die. The attempt on her life was such a violent one that I was surprised to see the narrator gloss over the reasons for it. She didn’t seem to be the sort of person who had many enemies at all, so this portion of the storyline never quite made sense to me. I would have happily gone with a much higher rating if it had been explained better.

Some of the best scenes were the ones that played around with the various ways in which the Anubis statue could protect Valerie during the most dangerous moments of her entire life. The author did an excellent job of acknowledging the assumptions readers might have made about how this would all work out while also gently pushing the plot forwards. I chuckled as I read these scenes. They were as clever as they were beautifully logical.

Silent Sentinel – a Mini Thriller was an exciting read.