This is the second novel by Nell Pattinson, following her acclaimed debut ‘Silent House’. ‘Silent Night’ is an absorbingly bleak tale set around Lincolnshire, which follows the main character, Paige Northwood, an official BSL (British Sign Language) deaf interpreter, hired by the police to assist in an investigation involving a local residential school for deaf children. On a snowy weekend away, one of the children has gone missing and the head teacher is discovered dead. The investigation and search are made all the more pressing due to the vulnerability of the missing child, whose parents are both dead, and who is a full time resident of the school.
Paige is quickly confronted by a close knit community of teachers and pupils who clearly have something to hide, an at-times hostile police force and a gone-but-not-forgotten ex boyfriend who has somehow managed to get himself a job at the school using BSL skills that she herself taught him. Her powers of conciliation and patience are tested whilst doing her job as the main point of communication between the school and the police, but she also cant seem to stop herself getting personally involved.
Through many twists and turns, the highly relatable character of Paige presents a unique viewpoint as the only person privy to the police investigation and the web of tangled secrets surrounding the school and the suspects, and also as an official interpreter working for the deaf community who does not have hearing difficulties. This access that she has to everyone’s secrets and the line she treads between both worlds greatly increases her vulnerability and at times throughout the book I was far more concerned about her safety than finding the killer!
This book provides the reader with a fascinating insight into the deaf community and the substantial communication barriers that are faced daily by those with hearing difficulties. Throw in murder, intrigue and a freezing, desolate landscape and you have a book that is not only a pleasure to read but is also quite unique within this genre. The character of Northwood is recreated from Pattinson’s first book and ‘Silent Night’ left me with a desire to read anything else that has come from this author.
Tara Rajan is a surf instructor, yoga teacher, scuba diver, musician and mother. She would love to add author to that list and currently satisfies herself reading everything she can get her hands on and dreaming up catchy book titles.
