"If I could smuggle you inside my head, you'd know I wasn't dumb. You'd hear my thoughts screaming. Because behind the silence everyone sees, I am screaming. I've been screaming for eleven months...
If you were inside my head, you'd know why I don't speak.
Why I can't speak again..."
"There are no words?" Tris frowned. "So she's imprisoning her thoughts as well as her spoken voice?"
"Exactly."
The Silent Child by MJ White is a tense psychological thriller/police procedural. This is the second book in Dr Cora Lael series. You can read it as a standalone, but it might help to understand the unique gift of the main protagonist, and the dynamics of the relationships if you read The Secret Voices first.
Dr Cora Lael is an educational psychologist with a remarkable talent, "an emotional synaesthesia, the ability to sense emotional echoes from discarded objects". This gift has been a curse and blessing at the same time. Cora has learnt to live with her gift, managing it, so that it doesn't overwhelm her everyday life.
When a gruesome discovery is made in an abandoned Suffolk farm, the police believe at first that the murder is related to the territorial drugs war. The victim, however, is identified as a popular local secondary school teacher. This murder does not fit the drugs wars' scenario.
DS Rob Minshull who has worked with Cora Lael on one of the previous cases, wants her exclusive insight into the new case.
At the same time Cora is invited to work with an electively mute fifteen-year-old Lottie. She is not sure how she can help, but her boss insists that Cora sees things which others miss. Standard approaches haven't worked. Lottie has not spoken for eleven months. Her family are at their wits' end, all interviews have so far revealed no reason for trauma. What has triggered this long silence?
"Lottie has received two courses of speech therapy and has been under the care of a consultant neurologist. Neither the speech therapists nor consultant have been able to identify any psychological or neurological reason for her lack of speech. Current conclusion is that she is displaying indicators of Elective Mutism".
Cora agrees to meet Lottie. "Why would a fifteen-year-old refuse to speak? Cora had to admit it was a puzzle that appealed to her".
Cora is intrigued by the case. This is an opportunity for her to explore her own abilities further, push deeper into the voices only she can hear in her head.
"But she had never encountered anything like Lottie Arundel's secret voices before. The complete absence of words, coupled with the magnified physical manifestation of emotion she experienced was unfamiliar territory to navigate".
Along the main investigation, the South Suffolk CID has to deal with a new menace, as a ferocious and pitiless vigilante group begins their own campaign of corrupted "justice". The danger is rapidly progressing in scale.
While Cora is trying to help Lottie, she realises that her silence could be connected to the main case. Cora and Rob must work together as a team to get to the bottom of the mystery of the silent child, and find the killer before they claim another victim.
"One man's death has opened a Pandora's box of horros that nobody in this tight-knit community can comprehend."
Cora is unlike any other character in the world of psychological thrillers. Her unique abilities give her an extra edge, but also underline her vulnerability. This is the gift which is bordering on special needs, as Cora would never be able to live a "normal" neuro typical life.
It is interesting to observe how her relationship with Rob is progressing through the series, from distrust and disbelief to acceptance, understanding, mutual respect and a possibility of a romance.
Lottie's character is a very complex one. You feel sad and anguished on her behalf, but also shocked with her actions. Her story is harrowing and distressing.
Sadly, fiction reflects the real life. There are too many cases when victims' voices are ignored, mocked, silenced, when the allegations of abuse are downplayed, brushed aside and disregarded for a variety of reasons, protecting the perpetrator and enabling them to continue their abusive behaviour.
It is a bleak story, where anger and desire for revenge turn into a dark force.
The Silent Child is a compelling and intriguing read, full of dark secrets, complex characters, and menacing twists and turns. MJ White creates a tense, tight atmosphere which culminates in an unsettling and bleak denouement.
The Silent Child is well-written: the atmospheric setting is the perfect background to the heart-breaking and thought-provoking plotline.
Potential triggers: sadistic murder, child grooming/abuse.
This review is one of the stops on the blog tour for The Silent Child.
Many thanks to MJ White and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!
If you enjoyed this review, you might want to read the review of the first book in the series, The Secret Voices.
Purchase Link - https://amzn.to/3yiWXZT
Author Bio – MJ White is the pseudonym of bestselling author Miranda Dickinson, author of twelve books, including six Sunday Times bestsellers. Her books have been translated into ten languages, selling over a million copies worldwide. A long time lover of crime fiction, The Secret Voices is her debut crime series. She is a singer-songwriter, host of weekly Facebook Live show, Fab Night In Chatty Thing..
Social Media Links –
https://www.instagram.com/wurdsmyth/
No comments:
Post a Comment