If someone was in your house, you’d know … Wouldn’t you?
But the Hunter family are deaf, and don’t hear a thing when a shocking crime takes place in the middle of the night. Instead, they wake up to their worst nightmare: the murder of their daughter.
The police call Paige Northwood to the scene to interpret for the witnesses. They’re in shock, but Paige senses the Hunters are hiding something.
One by one, people from Paige’s community start to fall under suspicion. But who would kill a little girl? Was it an intruder? Or was the murderer closer to home?
What did I think?
There is nothing more disturbing than the death of a child so the storyline of The Silent House will be very difficult reading for many people, especially those who are parents. I don't have any children and I even found it difficult to read in places, although Nell Pattison thankfully doesn't go into too much grisly detail in her hard-hitting debut.
Having been burgled during the night when we were asleep upstairs, I do have a fear of somebody coming into my house during the night. At least I would be able to hear a noise which is more than can be said for the Hunter family, who are all deaf. The police can't believe that Alan Hunter and his girlfriend had no idea that someone came into their house during the night and murdered Alan's 18 month old daughter, Lexi. How could they know if they couldn't hear anything? Alan therefore becomes the prime suspect and Paige Northwood, whose sister is Lexi's godmother, is called upon by the police to be the sign language interpreter when all of the suspects are interviewed.
There are more suspects than you'd imagine in this case and most of them are from the deaf community, so Paige is in the unenviable position of hearing things about Lexi's death that she would rather not have known. Paige starts asking questions at Deaf Club but it isn't long before she starts receiving threats to drop her own investigation. With the threats increasing in severity, somebody will stop at nothing to prevent Paige from casting doubt on Alan's guilt.
The Silent House is as chilling as it is gripping; I couldn't tear my eyes away from the page even though sometimes I wanted to hide behind my metaphorical sofa. Nell Pattison has included an added element of menace to her compelling story by choosing to set such a heinous crime in the deaf community. It definitely made me more appreciative to have all of my five senses.
A disturbing page-turner that will leave you reeling, The Silent House is a fantastic debut from Nell Pattison and I'll certainly be keeping an eager eye open to see what she writes next.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
My rating:
Buy it from Amazon
Follow the tour:
No comments:
Post a Comment