This is the third book in the Paige Northwood series - you can see my reviews of the other two here on my blog - and I had preordered it as soon as I had read #2 as I really like the series. I had actually ordered this book way back in December 2020, wow! I finally got around to it and I'm glad I did. I really like Paige as a character and I like the setting in the Deaf community and in Scunthorpe which obviously does affect how people behave as there's a lot of poverty there.
So if you're not familiar with the books, Paige grew up as the only hearing person in her family, with Deaf parents and sister, Anna. Their parents are dead now, and Anna lives with Paige. Paige works as an interpretor for D/deaf people, and has previously become involved in police investigations because of her work. It's been quite quiet for her recently though - she has been doing regular work with Sasha, who is a Deaf social worker, so Paige is her interpretor. She's also been seeing Max, who she met in the first book, for about a year.
Right at the beginning of the book, Paige and Max are out on a date when he asks her to move in with him. She's quite shocked and unable to respond when she gets a phone call from a Deaf person, Lukas. He is one of Sasha's clients so he's not a total stranger to Paige. He's distressed, and signing to her that there's a fire at his house. Paige rushes across, finding the house on fire, Lukas escapes, but it turns out his wife Nadia was in the house and is now dead. Paige goes with Lukas to the hospital, where he tells her that he knows who killed his wife. But later, he clams up, refusing to say who set the fire, even when he is arrested for it and for Nadia's murder.
Paige can't act as his interpretor again as she's a witness to the fire, and has to give a formal statement and so on. However, Sasha doesn't think Lukas would have started the fire and wants to prove his innocence. While he had had his problems, he had been doing a lot better, was in love with Nadia and forging a strong relationship with his teenaged son. Sasha and Paige start to investigate the couple to see what they can come up with - Lukas had borrowed money off a local gym owner, and Nadia had run into some problems at work. Paige obviously ends up in danger!
I liked this book, I thought it was consisten and kept my interest. I'm giving it four out of five.
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