Soon the two decide to marry to the dismay of both sets of parents. Both Sari and Tim find their parents agree on only one thing - the prospective in-laws of their son/daughter "are not like us" and the proposed marriage is a bad idea. Sari and Tim are determined to marry, but, less than two weeks before the big day, Tim's mother is found brutally murdered in her home, presumably by a burglar. There is considerable evidence , albeit circumstantial, that Tim's father, Warren is responsible for the crime.

Sari is torn between her love for Tim, and her desire to see justice prevail. She has information that could, potentially, convict Warren Scott, but her desire to protect her beloved prevents her from imparting this data to the police. Bullheaded, ornery detective Ray Burt is initially put in charge of the case, but is removed because his superior feels he is not handling the case properly. The case goes south for the prosecution, and Warren is released. There is not sufficient evidence linking him to the murder according to the men now responsible for the case. The murder is never solved. Years pass and Sari and Tim's marriage deteriorates due in part to the rift the murder has caused. Burt, now retired, decides to reinvestigate and enlists the aid of his one remaining ally on the police force, Kevin Day. Sari is drawn in as she holds information about the family, and has decided at last, that justice should be served.

Stephanie Kane is an excellent writer. This lady pays attention to details. All those little things happen to mean something yielding an extremely intricate, well constructed plot. The detectives don't trip over clues, and cleverly solve the case. Only through the dogged determination of Ray Burt over a number of years is the puzzle ever solved.

Given that the action occurs over an extended time period, the author is able to present a comprehensive character study, showing how events and age change the individuals involved. The reader witnesses the effect Tim's mother's death has on him, and on his relationship with Sari, as well as the utter resolve of Ray Burt to understand what really happened despite his fall from grace within the police department. Ms. Kane makes her characters real. One conversation between Ray Burt and his wife shows Ms. Kane's talent particularly well. Ray is reconstructing the day of the murder for, what seems to his wife, the millionth time. As he mulls over the facts, he seems uneasy so she give him vegetables to chop, which he , in fact, pulverizes. She is simultaneously thinking her own thoughts, including what to do with the vegetables her husband has destroyed. How realistic it seems as a long married couple listen to each other, but don't really.

Ms. Kane is also a master of description. An apt example is the verbal exchange that takes place between Tim and his father shortly after his mother's body is discovered. His father speaks, Tim nods, then they part "like filings flung from the opposite poles of a magnet." Passages such as this make Quiet Time worthy of note, but there is so much more to this work. The author gets the reader's attention quickly and holds it, making the novel a fast, but disturbing read.

--Andy Plonka