Tara Lindsay was first to let us know about this book, then David Lahm provided us with the following review by Marilyn Stasio from the May 19, 2002 New York Times Book Review: Like every other title in Paul Charles's series of detective novels about Inspector Christy Kennedy, THE HISSING OF THE SILENT LONELY ROOM (Do-Not Press/Dufour, cloth $29.95; paper $15.95) sounds as if it wants to be a song title. Only this time the musical tonalities of the writing harmonize with the moody themes of the story, which begins with the death of Esther Bluewood, a beloved American singer-songwriter ("the missing female link between Joni Mitchell and the New Wave") who apparently gassed herself in the kitchen of her London home. If Esther gets no sympathy from those who were closest to her, including her faithless husband and her sullen lover, she is treated gently by Inspector Kennedy, whose analysis of her music and her personal journals convinces him that her death was a cunningly contrived murder. For someone who is dead when the narrative opens, Esther emerges as an extraordinarily vital character, warmed to life by an uncommonly sensitive cop."

(Contributed by Tara Lindsay, David Lahm)