By: S Riaz TOP 500 REVIEWER on December 6, 2015Format: Kindle EditionMax Albrecht returns to his London home feeling happy and relaxed, only to find a letter from his estranged mother, Annabel. They had parted in anger, but now Annabel informs her son that she is dying and asks him to visit her so she can explain. She also includes a photograph of herself as a child with a boy, Oskar Edelstein, and asks him to trace her former playmate.
Max’s mother dies before he can speak to her and he is deeply conflicted about their relationship and his place in her life. To his surprise, he is left his family home in Vienna but, when he stays there, he feels something is very wrong and suspects there is someone else hiding in the house. What follows are a series of events in which Max attempts to track down Oskar Edelstein and make sense of his relationship with his mother.
This novel is set very firmly in the present, but there are flashbacks to the past; most poignantly to Annabel’s childhood, before and during the war years. Her parents ran an orphanage, the Albrecht Trust, which is still a respected charity. Through Annabel’s friend, Vivienne Fuchs, and through Oskar, who he tracks down to London, Max begins to discover the secrets of his mother’s past and the disturbing ways the past are encroaching on the present.
This is an unsettling read, with a ghostly feel and a real sense of the past. I liked the way that Max was, very much, a real character. He became very involved in the mystery of his mother’s life, but still had to deal with work issues and his emotions. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book and would certainly like to read more by this author. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
*********5.0 out of 5 starsFamily SecretsByturnerpageon August 1, 2016Format: PaperbackMax's estranged mother sent him a letter as she lay dying, telling him that she really did love him after all. With the letter are photographs that provide the impetus for Max to find out more about his family.
In Vienna in 1938, those closest to Annabel disappear, die or are taken away in mysterious circumstances. 70 years later her son Max unravels the sinister secrets of the past.
A ghost story with clever plotting, particularly in the last act, that kept me up late one night, determined to read to the end.
Amna Boheim's meticulous research and attention brings Vienna – then and now, and contemporary London to life. The shifts in location and time are done in such a way that enhances the storytelling: Max tells the present day story in first person and Annabel becomes the narrator in the 1930s.
A tale of secrets and retribution, that left me with a lingering sense of foreboding
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ByAwais Khanon December 21, 2015Format: PaperbackThe Silent Children is Boheim's debut novel, but it doesn't feel like it. She writes like a seasoned author of many books. The Silent Children introduces us to the complex, mostly bitter relationship between Max and his mother, Annabel. The story is set in present-day London and Vienna, but there are a lot of flashbacks into Annabel's childhood that set a very promising scene for what's to be an epic horror story full of surprises and twists.
From the beginning, Boheim plunges the reader deep in the middle of a family intrigue, and as the pages turn, it becomes apparent that this is not an ordinary story, but an extraordinary tale of deception and redemption with a generous dose of horror. The author very expertly deals with the horror scenes so that they induce genuine terror, unlike the run of the mill gothic stories that amuse more than they scare. I remember reading a particularly scary scene... I was already getting the willies and to top it off, the electricity suddenly tripped. The blind terror I felt during those few seconds the generator took to kick is nothing like I've ever experienced before. That told me something: Boheim is a force to be reckoned with. She has such a steady grip on her characters, their voices, the overall scenes that you'll be thinking about the book long after you turn the final page.
The Silent Children grips you and refuses to let go... not until you turn the final page... maybe not even then. Read it not just for the horror element, but for the endearing relationships between the characters, and most of all, the vignettes that present to us a young Annabel before the outbreak of the Second World War. Her thoughts, feelings, experiences... everything is magical. It's like dipping your feet into historical fiction while being blustered by a storm of horror.

Author Bio:
Amna K. Boheim was born in Scarborough, England. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1998 with a degree in Land Economy. She worked for Goldman Sachs and was one of the youngest women to become a Managing Director at the firm. After working briefly at the hedge fund, Moore Capital, she turned her attention towards her lifelong dream of writing a novel. While participating in Faber Academy’s six-month Writing a Novel course, she began writing The Silent Children.