The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison - Review

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.

Silent Night by Nell Pattison - Review

As soon as I'd read The Silent House by Nell Pattison I pre-ordered the next in the series, Silent Night. I had enjoyed the first one so thought I'd give the second a go, too. Having read the second, I've already pre-ordered the third, because I think this one was even better than the first! The writing issues that I found in the first book weren't at all present in the second. It felt like a much better written book which let the story shine. 

The main character in the book is Paige. She grew up as the only hearing person in a Deaf family. Her parents are now dead which only leaves her and her sister, Anna, who is now living with her. Paige works as a sign language interpretor between the police and D/deaf people, and she is now seeing Max, who she met during the course of the last book. 

She gets called by the police to go to Normanby Hall, not too far from her home in Scunthorpe. There, five residential teenagers from a local school for D/deaf pupils have been on a weekend trip. But one of them, Leon, is missing, and the headteacher, Steve, is found murdered on the grounds. It looks very much like Leon did it and then scarpered, but his friends aren't sure that can have happened. They're keeping secrets, as are each of the teachers in the school. 

Then, it turns out that Paige's abusive ex boyfriend, Mike, also works at the school. He's determined to speak to Paige, but Paige definitely wants to avoid him and isn't thrilled about talking to him. The story of what happened with him comes out over the book, which I found compelling and a good look into her character and past. 

I generally felt like this book flowed a lot better and was really good; I'd recommend it! I would have liked a little bit more of DI Singh, because I love the sexual tension between him and Paige, but I'm just being picky! 

The Silent House by Nell Pattison - Review

My friend Kate recommended this book to me on Goodreads and it did sound like something I'd like. It was only 99p on Kindle so I bought it - lockdown requires Kindle spending, I'm sure. I mentioned to Kate that I'd bought it and she said that she is friends with the author, Nell Pattison, and that Nell had seen many of her book tours cancelled because of the pandemic, so was trying to promote her books in other ways. That makes perfect sense, and from what I've seen on Twitter she's far from the only author who will suffer from loss of income. Please support authors if you can - I've been buying books from indie bookshops, I've been retweeting like mad, and I paid to do a workshop on Editing with Robin Stevens and Non Pratt, which was £15 and which I thought was definitely worth it! I'm self-employed myself and will probably see a drop in income as there'll be less bookkeeping for me to as the charity I work for has had to cut back on its activities a lot. It's a scary time for a lot of us.

Anyway, I really liked the premise of this book and for 99p I'm often willing to give something a go. I've bought far worse things for a quid that I ended up not liking! The premise is that a little girl is murdered in the house belonging to her dad and stepmum, and no one knows who's done it, or heard anything, because they are all Deaf. Nell herself is Deaf, having lost her hearing in her twenties. The main character in the book, Paige, grew up as the only hearing one in a family of Deaf people, and she's now an interpretor. She is hired by the police to interpret as they interview the family, the little girl's mum, and so on.

Paige ends up getting involved in the case quite heavily, because this is a crime novel, and that always happens. In the house that night were Lexi, the murdered little girl, her brother Jaxon, and her half-sister Kasey. Her dad Alan was asleep on the sofa downstairs, and her stepmum Elisha was asleep next door. Alan cheated on Lexi's mum, Laura, with Elisha and both women were pregnant around the same time, meaning the two little girls are very similar in age. Because of the small nature of the Deaf community in the area (the book is set in Scunthorpe and there's quite a lot about the poverty of the area, which I liked!), Paige knows Laura - she's her sister Anna's best friend. Anna comes to stay with Paige so she can support Laura, and she ends up getting involved too.

There's two detectives on the case and Paige ends up quite friendly with one of them, DC Singh. His boss, DI Forest, is really horrible to Paige for the most part, and I didn't think her reasons really stacked up. Paige also had an experience in her teens which explain why she feels quite guilty over the case and wants to help find Lexi's murderer. She starts to be threatened and there's a suspect list of quite a few people...

I will say that I really liked the story of this book. I liked Paige and her sister, and I liked the detectives. I liked Max, too, although I won't tell you who he is. I liked the setting of the Deaf community and how that meant that the police couldn't communicate directly with witnesses and suspects and what that meant to the investigation. I fell for some red herrings, and the ending kept me guessing nearly all the way to the end, which I like. For the story itself, I'd give the book four out of five.

However, I felt like the writing let it down somewhat. I felt like it could have done with another thorough editing. There were small inconsistencies that annoyed me. Paige's friend Gem seems to disappear halfway through the book - Paige doesn't look to her for support. Then there's parts that I just felt were overwritten to death, to the detriment of the story. Some bits go really slowly because there's so much use of description and adverbs that it takes away from the action. For instance, there's a bit where Paige's car is run off the road by a van that's been following her. The action here should be fast and direct. But there's sentences like "Suddenly, the..." We know it's sudden! The whole thing is sudden! It takes away from the action. In the same bit, a person is standing by Paige's car threatening her, and then they "jump" back into the van and drive away - how? What? I couldn't get past these issues and more to give this a four out of five, so I'm giving it a three.

However! I did like it and I saw that there's another in the series coming out in October, so I've pre-ordered it. It may be that the writing issues are ironed out or improved on, and I'm willing to give the author and the series that chance!