This book was excellent! I read it pretty quickly because I really didn't want to put it down. It just takes you along and you like most the characters. Except the ones your aren't suppose to like of course, A bit of a "who done it" kind of a book. I also learned a lot about the deaf community.

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?



#TheSilentHouse #NetGalley

a good murder mystery. I like the play on words with the title being "silent" implying the deafness experienced by the main characters.

You should feel safe in your own home, no fear of someone entering in the dead of night and brutally killing an innocent in their sleep. But that’s what happened to the Hunters. Innocent little Lexi, not a care in the world, a happy little toddler found dead in her bed whilst spending the weekend with her dad and his partner. Who could do such a thing to a child??

The investigation that ensued is a little out of the ordinary from my previous reading. The present is told from the point of view of Paige, the interpreter the police have to draft in as the grieving family are deaf. This gave the story a different voice as she is party to a lot of the intimate and confidential aspects of the investigation. Paige sees and hears so much more that she should especially given her relationship to part of the family.

Intertwined with Paige’s narrative are chapters playing out the hours to Lexi’s horrible death. These chapters alongside the investigation cast suspicion across all those who knew and loved this innocent young girl. The switches between the recent past and the present got me confused as to who could carry out such an appalling act of violence. I couldn’t settle on a suspect for long. My mind jumped from character to character each with a flimsy motive or opportunity, unable to feel sure of one person.

The Silent House is a perfectly crafted crime thriller from Pattison. I’m seriously impressed that this is her debut novel and delighted that this is the start of a series featuring Paige Northwood. It’s definitely a series I’ll be keeping up with!

This book was a refreshing new thriller book on police procedure and the deaf community. Experiencing the murder of a young child, and the difficulties in communication between the various parties who are looking to solve the crime, and the parties who are looking to feel a return to normal life. This book is written in a unique way that helps to explain the details of the story. Sometimes the story would drag, but then when the action would pick up the reader will have a hard time stopping. Please give The Silent House a try, you will learn a lot and have a great time trying to solve the case before the end of the story.

I wanted to enjoy this but it didn’t really drag me in. I’m not sure if it was the strange blurb about the author refusing to wear hearing aids that put me off. It just made me feel uncomfortable. Not my favourite story either. Sorry for a rubbish score.

Thank you to the publishers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't able to finish this book at all, there was a slow build and it wasn't too interesting for me to continue.

Wowsers. This is the first book I have ever read that includes sign language and the hard of hearing community. I loved this concept and really added to the suspense of the novel. The characters are likeable and the plot thoroughly engaging. It’s a gripping read, a definite page turner.

Ooh it’s a straight 5 stars.

A really interesting thriller that had the added bonus of introducing me to the deaf community, language and struggles.

The Silent House by Nell Pattison is an unusual detective mystery. Many of the characters are deaf and the context is changed as a result. I found it informative and interesting to gain perspective on how communication is altered when there needs to be interpretation by a third party.

The plot is strong and distressing at times and the characterisation is believable.

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins Ltd Publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

I really tried but I found that the narrative of this book just didn't gell with me. I couldn't get to like the characters and the underlying story took a long time to evolve.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

I loved this book. The atmosphere was everything I wanted it to be. I loved the plot and storyline in the book. I loved the characters in this story. It gave me all the feels I was looking for when I started reading this. I highly recommend this author. I loved the writing. I will be looking for other works in the future from this author.

I think I had too much hype going into this book, seeing the description and my love for thrillers I was very excited to read this one but was quickly disappointed. There was a great lack of character development, not a very strong plot, it was very slow, and even boring. I was really looking forward to enjoying this one and adding it to my list of loved books but sadly this one fell very short for em.
Thanks NetGalley for the advance copy for in exchange of an honest review.

An excellent debut novel. Can you imagine being deaf and having a killer in your house-chilling-and sends shivers down my spine? A good read, although I had figured out who didn't pretty early on-so a little too predictable for me. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with an advance copy for review.

This crime thriller is a debut novel, written by a teacher of the deaf, so I was really looking forward to reading it.

The story is told from the point of view of Paige, a British Sign Language interpreter, who has been called out by the police to interpret for a deaf couple. Although she knows of them she doesn’t know them that well, but as more people become involved, and the horrific crime is revealed, she realises she’s a lot closer to the case than she would likel. Despite this, she doesn’t pass the job on to another interpreter and ends up far more involved than she could have imagined.

For some reason, I really didn’t like Paige’s character at all. Throughout the book it’s clear she can’t afford to lose her job yet she knowingly acts really unprofessionally. She gets far too personally involved with the case. This irritated me as she apparently went freelance so she could do out of hours work, I.e. for the emergency services, yet she doesn’t appear to be cut out for that sort of work.

The other characters are alright but not overly well developed. I felt the story wasn’t fast paced enough for me and I wasn’t overly keen to keep reading.

It’s evident the author has experience of working with deaf people, and knowledge of the deaf community, and it’s great that she attempts to raise awareness and get people thinking. However, it feels like she’s tried to shoehorn in facts and I found it didn’t read well and was quite jarring.
There was also a huge amount of ‘hand holding’ and ‘hand squeezing’ which irked me.

I had worked out whodunnit quite early on and it certainly wasn’t a shock to me. The ending felt like it just stopped without much of an explanation but I suppose it could be left open to the reader’s interpretation.

Overall, this book was alright but maybe I expected too much.

Well written story. Kept me engaged the entire time. A page turner for sure! Looking forward to reading more books by this author!

This seemed to me to be a terrifying concept. A toddler killed in a family home, where all adults are deaf.

The investigating police employ an interpreter to assist the family and the investigators on the case.
For me it went downhill from there. Like very early chapters. The interpreter has very close connections to the victim’s family which she does not disclose. Armed with information from the interviews she turns into a Miss Marple type busybody attempting to solve the case herself.

An interesting concept but the novel lost its way with details and very unlikely scenarios. I would have thought the interpreter would have been taken off the case but that would have made it much shorter book.

This was a hard book for me, it dragged and took forever to finish, but finish I did. I had to change fonts so I could keep track of the text, who was "talking" as it all seemed to run together. Maybe it would be easier if it wasn't an ebook.
I received an advance ebook copy from Netgalley.

As soon as I read the premise for THE SILENT HOUSE, I was excited by the concept because I am no stranger to the deaf. My uncle was profoundly deaf and while I never learnt sign language (in Australia it is known as Auslan), I knew a few basic signs and finger spelling. I am familiar with the deaf community being such a small one that they see even getting cochlear implants (so they can hear) as traitorous to the world they know and are comfortable in. The hearing world is so much more different to that of the deaf, to the point the deaf are actually quite comfortable with being deaf. Particularly those who have been deaf all or most of their lives that the hearing world is a strange concept to them and being deaf is normal and comfortable.

Different and somewhat unique, THE SILENT HOUSE by Nell Pattison is her debut and takes the reader into the world of the deaf. Most of the characters are deaf and we are given plenty of background into everyone from signing and deaf clubs and how the deaf community is a small and tight-knit one.

This makes it difficult for Paige Northwood, a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter, who is part of that community being the only hearing member of her family. In the way that it is not always easy to separate yourself from the situation she finds herself in as an interpreter and the deaf community...because she already knows most of those embroiled within the case.

The story begins with an atmospheric and somewhat chilling prologue in which six year old Jaxon wakes in the night to see a shadow in the bedroom doorway and something wet and sticky on his sister Lexi's bed. Being from Jaxon's perspective, we see the spooky scene through his eyes and it is chilling.

The following morning sees Paige called to the Hunter house by police with no information bar that she is needed to interpret for a deaf family at a crime scene. She arrives to discover she knows this house and the people in it. What has happened? Elisha Barron is in tears, covered in blood and is in the arms of her partner Alan Hunter. Her thoughts goes straight to the children. The couple have an 18 month old girl Kasey and Alan has two children with his previous girlfriend Laura - Jaxon and Lexi. She attempts to find out what happened but no one will tell her anything. She is informed that she is there purely to inform Elisha that she needs to hand over the clothing she is wearing to police as she has refused so far. When she accompanies Elisha upstairs to change, Paige catches a glimpse of the children's bedroom and is horrified by what she sees. Little Lexi Hunter, the same age as Kasey, laying in a pool of blood her head bashed in.

Paige is haunted by the image of Lexi's bloodied body and wonders how she will break the news to her sister Anna, who is Lexi's godmother. Laura, Jaxon and Lexi's mother, is Anna's best friend and she knows that as soon as her sister hears of the tragedy she will want to return to Scunthorpe. Which is exactly what Anna does...after finding out on Facebook.

But Paige doesn't disclose to the police her connection to the families involved, which could possibly be a conflict of interest, as she wants to remain privy to as much information as she can in the hope that she will find out who ended Lexi's life in such a tragic way. With the deaf community being such a small one, there are bound to be crossovers as an interpreter which is how she justifies her continued involvement. To find another BSL interpreter would require the police to look further afield and it could be weeks before they could be allocated one. And in the case of a child's murder they need to act now.

As an interpreter, Paige is indeed privy to the interviews conducted on the deaf families and suspects. Using the knowledge she has gleaned from them, she endeavours to conduct her own investigation when the police seem intent on focusing in the wrong place. But then Paige finds herself the target of sinister threats - first as notes or texts sent from untraceable mobile numbers to setting her flat on fire. It seems someone is afraid that Paige knows more that she actually does about Lexi's murder.

But one thing is clear. There was no sign of a break in and as the whole family is deaf, no one heard a thing. So who walked into the Hunter home and brutally murdered little Lexi? How did they gain access? Or is it someone in the house? Someone closer to home, maybe?

THE SILENT HOUSE is in the third person primarily from Paige's perspective with every third chapter providing a narrative of one of the other characters - Alan, Laura, Elisha, Max, even Jaxon (to name a few). It is very cleverly done, giving the reader an insight to the various aspects of the story yet without giving too much away. It made for highly addictive reading, despite the slow pace at times.

The middle section of the story did appear to be somewhat slow with seemingly little progress on the case but then the reader has to remember that the story is from Paige's perspective, not the police, so she only knows the aspects to which she was privy and not the bigger picture. That being said, there were times it did feel there was little progress and not a lot happening but yet there was also a lot of to and froing with interpreting. It certainly made for interesting reading to get a glimpse into the lives of those live in a world of silence. The pace most definitely picks up with a race to the end to uncover the truth behind the unjust murder of a child.

What makes THE SILENT HOUSE so chilling is that everyone in the house is deaf so no one could hear a possible intruder enter and brutally murder a child. People assume that you would just know but in reality you wouldn't...particularly if you cannot hear. It highlighted the vulnerabilities the deaf can face in such situations. And when it comes to interpreting between the deaf and the hearing, it shows us how much the deaf rely on the hearing to translate for them accurately.

Take Laura's mum, Bridget. She is hearing and appears to have her own agenda and proceeds to converse with doctors, solicitors, teachers etc. about Laura or her children without interpreting a single word for her daughter who is profoundly deaf. Laura is completely confused and has no idea what is going on. This angered me when I read these instances as Laura had every right to know. I don't blame her for engaging an interpreter instead of relying on her mother.

I did think it was a brilliant idea to include conversations that are in sign as italicised text so that the reader can separate the signed with the spoken conversations.

I thoroughly enjoyed THE SILENT HOUSE and am eagerly awaiting Nell Pattison's second book featuring Paige Northwood once again in "Silent Night" which set for publication in November. This debut thriller is addictive, thrilling and chilling despite its slow pace at times and I devoured the story in record time.

A unique concept featuring the deaf community, THE SILENT HOUSE is a must read for fans of psychological/domestic thriller and crime fiction...particularly those looking for something different.

I would like to thank #NellPattison, #NetGalley and #AvonBooksUK for an ARC of #TheSilentHouse in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book about a toddler who is murdered in the dead of night whilst the rest of the house is sleeping. What makes this book really interesting is that it is set in the deaf community. The little girls' parents are deaf as are many of the main characters. Our lead character is Paige who is hearing but employed as an interpreter for the deaf community. What a fascinating insight into how deaf people live and communicate. I loved the little incidental nuggets of information about how houses are set up to make life safe.

The first part of the book raced by getting the reader easily invested. Towards the end, I did feel a slight sense of dragging but definitely still worth pursuing to find out the answer (Yes I did guess it but that's ok).

A good thriller for anyone who likes something a little different.

I've hesitated writing this review for so long. I hate giving negative reviews, and will often simply rate the book and move on silently, without comment.

I love the premise of this book. I enjoy stories where a character is missing a sense, especially when I can submerge myself into that character. When I read Vox by Christina Dalcher, I felt like I couldn't talk, for fear of using up my daily allotment of words, when I read Into Not a SOund by Heather Gudenkauf, I felt the deafness of her character. But for whatever reason, I didn't connect with the Hunter family. It's a promising storyline, but the pace of the book is slow, which makes the reader lose interest. Overall a pass for me.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for my review copy.