Originally published: 5 March 2020

Author: Nell Pattison

Published by: Avon

Genre: Crime thriller

Page count: 394

Reading dates: 17-21 March 2020

If someone was in your house, you’d know…Wouldn’t you?

When Alan Hunter and Elisha Barron, wake up to find Alan’s young daughter Lexi murdered in her bed they are devastated – the crime has taken place in the middle of the night and no one heard a thing – the family are deaf.

Paige Northwood is an self-employed British Sign Language interpreter and is called upon to assist the police with their interviews and enquiries.  With everyone seemingly under suspicion, Paige starts to suffer with the stress of the interviews and the case, and then to make matters worse, she starts getting threatening text messages telling her to keep her nose out.

An excellent idea for a crime thriller – I have never read a book before set in the deaf community and it was really interesting. Paige is a really interesting character – she grew up in a deaf family and is well integrated into the deaf community.  One of her best friends is deaf and so is her sister.  The community have a strong sense of identity, and even have their own deaf club and bar where they can socialise.

With most of the suspects being deaf, the police put a lot of pressure on Paige and she finds it hard having to listen to the details of such an horrific crime.  She can’t help but start to get involved, wanting to find out what happened, especially as her sister is really good friends with the mum of the little girl who died.

I was so convinced from quite near the beginning I had guessed the plot and felt a little disappointed but it turned out I was completely wrong!  I thought it was maybe a tad long (at times there seemed to be quite a bit of repetition) and I must admit I found it hard reading about the murder of a young child, but I was still completely engrossed in the story and steamed through the last half in very little time, desperate to find out who was the murderer. An original and exciting thriller, being marketed as perfect for fans of Cara Hunter and Nicci French, I’d recommend this for a shocking crime novel, that is just a little bit different!

Many thanks to Sanjana and Avon Books for my review copy and inviting me to be part of the blog tour.
About the author:

After studying English at university, Nell Pattison became a teacher and specialised in Deaf education. She has been teaching in the Deaf community for 12 years in both England and Scotland, working with students who use BSL. Nell began losing her hearing in her twenties, but still refuses to wear her hearing aids. She lives in North Lincolnshire with her husband and child. The Silent House is her debut novel.

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Writer_Nell