A Dangerous Silence by Catherine Palmer
"A Dangerous Silence" by Catherine Palmer is a novel that intertwines the lives of several characters against a backdrop of personal hardships and moral dilemmas. The story begins with Ed Morgan, a Kansas farmer who suffers a life-altering accident, prompting his daughter, Dr. Marah Morgan, to return from her life in St. Louis to manage the family farm and confront unresolved issues with her father. As the narrative unfolds, Dr. Milton Gregory and his associates, posing as archaeologists, arrive on the farm to investigate an Osage village, which leads to unexpected revelations and ethical conflicts surrounding their true intentions.
The novel also features Judd Hunter, an FBI agent infiltrating Gregory's group, who becomes romantically involved with Marah, further complicating the narrative. Themes of forgiveness, responsibility, and the struggle between bitterness and reconciliation are central to the plot, particularly as Marah grapples with her father's emotional neglect and the history of their family. The story culminates in a tense standoff involving the FBI, resulting in a transformative journey for the characters, especially for Marah and Judd, as they confront their pasts and seek redemption. With strong Christian themes, "A Dangerous Silence" explores how faith influences the characters’ choices and ultimately leads to their growth and healing.
A Dangerous Silence by Catherine Palmer
First published: Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 2001
Genre(s): Novel
Subgenre(s): Evangelical fiction; romance; thriller/suspense
Core issue(s):Death; faith; forgiveness; love; Native Americans; Protestants and Protestantism; responsibility
Principal characters
Ed Morgan , a Kansas farmerMarah Morgan , Ed’s oldest daughter, a pediatricianMilton Gregory , a former doctor posing as an archaeologistJudd Hunter , an undercover FBI agent posing as a farmhandPearl “Perky” Harris , the seven-year-old daughter of Ed’s next-door neighbors
Overview
Catherine Palmer tells the story of A Dangerous Silence through four point-of-view characters. At the beginning of the novel, Ed Morgan is working alone on his Kansas farm when he has a disabling accident. His daughter, Dr. Marah Morgan, is working on the staff of a pediatric clinic in St. Louis at the time. Dr. Milton Gregory closes his remote Wyoming laboratory and announces that he and a few associates will be relocating to Kansas. Finally, Judd Hunter is wrapping up a case for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in which he infiltrated a group conspiring to use fertilizer to blow up government buildings.
After losing two burn patients under mysterious circumstances, Marah agrees to her father’s demand to come home and take over the farm. Her mother has been dead for many years, and her three sisters live even farther from Kansas than she does. She has no brothers, for which Ed blamed her mother and punished his daughters by withholding his love. Marah has no intention of moving home permanently, however. She plans to get Ed admitted to a retirement community and sell the farm. Although she is a devout Christian, she observes the letter, but not the spirit, of the commandment “Honor thy father.”
Gregory and two of his associates arrive at the farm and pose as archaeologists for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In exchange for doing some work around the farm, they get permission to live in Ed’s bunkhouse while they conduct a search for an Osage village known to have existed somewhere on Ed’s property. In the bunkhouse, they set up a laboratory.
When Marah finally arrives, her first project is to clean up and paint the house. She renews her acquaintance with one of the neighbors and meets Pearl (Perky), their seven-year-old daughter, a bright, precocious child whose actions drive much of the plot. When Judd arrives, he asks Marah for a job, and she hires him. His latest assignment is to infiltrate Gregory’s team.
When a tornado passes over the farm, Marah takes refuge in the cellar, only to find an intruder there. The intruder escapes and locks the door to the cellar behind him. Fortunately, there is a window, and Judd helps her climb out. When Judd reveals knowledge of anatomy too advanced for an ordinary farmhand, she begins to suspect that he is not what he seems. They also start to fall in love and to talk about Christianity and faith.
Perky finds a Native American grave while searching for wildflowers. She falls into a pit and comes face to face with the mummified remains of an Osage woman. The arid climate has kept the body from complete deterioration. Gregory and his team remove the corpse and take it to the lab. However, instead of preparing the corpse for reburial, they determine that the woman died of smallpox and harvest the body for the virus, which has been their plan all along.
Marah finally confronts her father. Although never physically abusive, he was always verbally abusive, emotionally distant, and self-centered. Furthermore, he forced her to take care of her younger sisters when her mother died, although Marah was only eight years old at the time. She had left home for college after graduating from high school eighteen years previously and had never looked back. She finally learns the circumstances of her mother’s death, including the facts that Ed cheated on her mother and has a son by another woman.
Judd takes a few days off to visit Gregory’s former laboratory in Wyoming as part of an FBI team. However, an associate of Gregory is maintaining surveillance and informs him that Judd is an FBI agent. Gregory arranges for a bomb to be attached to Judd’s pickup truck when he returns. Fortunately, Judd survives the blast. Marah finds him in the barn and helps him walk to the house. At his request, she calls the FBI. Leaving Judd with Ed, she drives to Wichita to a Native American museum, where she learns that the Osage village formerly on the farm was wiped out by smallpox in 1865. At Wichita’s main hospital, she learns the medical reasons for her mother’s death.
While she is gone, Perky visits the bunkhouse. Gregory exposes her to the smallpox virus because he needs to test it on a human. From there, Perky goes to Ed’s house and informs Judd and Ed. They call her parents and tell them she will be staying with them. Marah finally gets home after midnight, and Judd informs her of Perky’s exposure. Just as they are leaving, Gregory and his men capture them. A short time later, FBI agents arrive. Gregory and his cohorts then hold their captives as hostages.
The situation continues through the next day as Gregory’s group remains confined in the house with their hostages. When Judd and Marah attempt to get Perky out of the house through the bathroom window, they are discovered. In all the commotion, members of the FBI SWAT team crash into the house to rescue them.
Christian Themes
In A Dangerous Silence, past and present meet to bring disparate characters’ lives together and to demonstrate their different responses to past wrongs (or perceived wrongs) and how those reactions shape their futures. Those who are able to forgive, accept responsibility, and move on in a Christian manner fare best; those who remain bitter grow worse.
The name of the protagonist, “Marah,” in fact means “bitter” in Hebrew, and her name describes how she feels about her father at the beginning of the story. She eventually forgives him for his adultery, verbal abuse, neglect, and other transgressions, however. Marah grows and changes. She and Perky have strong Christian beliefs that help them through the crisis.
Marah’s father, Ed, has always regarded preachers as confidence artists and has always hated going to church. His wife died at home in considerable pain, but he regarded doctors, including his daughter, as overpaid pill pushers. Judd, similarly, has no religious beliefs. Fortunately, both Ed and Judd eventually see the errors of their ways. Ed takes responsibility for his unhappy marriage and for refusing to take his wife to the hospital when she became ill. He finally realizes that there may actually be something to churchgoing and praying. Judd realizes that his first marriage failed because it was centered on sex rather than love.
Dr. Gregory, by contrast, considers Christians to be fools. He previously ran a successful obstetrics and gynecology practice in Los Angeles, including a discreet abortion clinic. However, he never took responsibility for a late-term abortion that went badly and led to his suspension. He has never forgiven the state of California and the medical community for having taken away his medical license and affluent lifestyle. His pride blinds him to his own contributions to his current situation in life, and he instead seeks revenge against the medical community in particular and the United States in general.
Although the novel has a romantic subplot between Marah and Judd, their romance is not consummated, because Judd is not yet a Christian. He has not learned to love God, and he is therefore incapable of truly loving another human being, although he has shown a capacity for friendship and affection. The story does, however, end on an optimistic note: Judd appears ready to leave the FBI and give his life to God.
Sources for Further Study
Duncan, Melanie. Review of A Dangerous Silence. Library Journal 126, no. 6 (April 1, 2001). Emphasizes Marah’s relationships with the other characters in the novel.
Palmer, Catherine. The Happy Room. Waterville, Maine: Thorndike Press, 2002. The daughter of missionaries, Palmer uses her upbringing as background material for this novel.
Palmer, Catherine. Sweet Violet. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 2005. Palmer cites the title character as her most autobiographical.
Zaleski, Jeff. Review of A Dangerous Silence. Publishers Weekly 248, no. 11 (March 12, 2001). Points out that the action is character-driven and that Palmer does not preach but integrates her Christian beliefs into the story.