The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison | Book Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison
Published by Avon Publishing on April 29, 2021
ISBN: 9780008418557
Genres: Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense, Crime, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths, Police Procedural, Women, General
Pages: 384
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley, Publisher
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A FIRE. A MURDER. A SILENT SUSPECT...
On a quiet street, one house is burning to the ground...
By the time sign language interpreter Paige Northwood arrives, flames have engulfed her client’s home. Though Lukas is safe, his wife is still inside. But she was dead before the fire started...
Lukas signs to Paige that he knows who killed his wife. But then he goes silent – even when the police charge him with murder.
Is he guilty, or afraid? Only Paige can help him now...
A taut, gripping mystery perfect for fans of The Silent Patient and The Family Upstairs.
‘I was immediately gripped ... full of twists and red herrings, and I devoured the book within 48 hours!’ Philippa East, author of Little White Lies
Praise for Nell Pattison:
‘A unique, chilling, fast-paced read that plunges you into a world of silence that has so much to say’ Deborah Masson
‘A superb innovation for the crime genre . . . a brilliantly terrifying premise and a twisty, gripping tale’ Philippa East
‘Sinister, layered, atmospheric ... I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough’ Debbie Howells
‘A nail-biting page-turner of a thriller ... The sense of a community isolated, and all the conflicts and tensions that brings, adds satisfying layers of complexity’ James Oswald

They say fire cleanses, but fire also leaves a bottomless pit of destruction in its wake.  The Silent Suspect is the third book in the Paige Northwood series.  I’ve only read this one, but you don’t feel like you’re missing chunks of her backstory.  Its rounded up nicely and you are given snippets of her story through-out.  She’s a British Sign Language Interpreter working with profoundly death social worker, Sasha Thomas.  I really felt that the first half of the book was exceedingly slow, although there was action it was drawn out, and the investigating seemed to last an age.

The social worker, Sasha Thomas, is seriously grating.  She just has one of those personalities that pick at your nerves.  As a professional I found her very unprofessional.  Some of the decisions she took endangered her life and the lives of others.  As a social worker it just didn’t add up.  I get that she wanted to get to the truth but some of the things she done was just plain dumb.

Paige receives a phone call from one of Sasha’s clients, Lukas Nowalk.  He contacts her in a panicked state telling her his house is on fire and that his wife, Nadia is trapped inside.  There is so many layers to this story, with intrigue and lies at its core.  I do want to say that it was so refreshing to have a series set within the deaf community.  It is a much-needed dose of accurate representation.  It’s a series that I will be watching closely.  The Silent Suspect has moments of heartache and pain with twists to keep you turning that next page.

One thing that didn’t sit right with me was Paige’s outright disregard for her own safety.  Now, as I haven’t read the other two books in the series, I don’t know if this is her pattern of behaviour, but I did find it just out rightly reckless.  I found it very frustrating, and it did take me away from the story a bit.  The book was quite slow, and I just wanted more to happen, it just didn’t have me as enthralled as I would have liked.  I can’t fault the writing though and the dialogue of sign language was superbly done.

The Silent Suspect heralds’ characterization.  Strong women and characters that hide their genius.  the writing was brilliant, I just had a few issues with how the story was progressing.   

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ABOUT NELL PATTISON

Nell Pattison doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t have a book in her hand, and first attempted to write a novel on an old PC her dad had brought home from work when it was going to be scrapped. After exhausting the children’s section of her local library by the age of 10, she began reading Agatha Christie, and so a love of crime fiction was born.

After studying English at university, Nell became a teacher and specialised in Deaf education. She has been teaching in the Deaf community for 13 years in both England and Scotland, working with students who use BSL. Nell began losing her hearing in her twenties, and now wears hearing aids. She lives in North Lincolnshire with her husband and son.

Her debut novel, The Silent House, a USA Today bestseller, we meet Paige Northwood, a British Sign Language interpreter who is called in to support the police after a brutal murder of a child while her deaf family were asleep. In the sequel, Silent Night, a teenager from a school for the deaf goes missing on an overnight school trip.  The third novel in the series, The Silent Suspect, will be published in April 2021.

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