Within The Silence Review: A Chilling Tale Of Family Secrets

After a spate of them I’ve been a little short on blog tour posts for you, so here’s another- this week, it’s a review of Nicola Avery’s new novel Within the Silence.

Focusing on the secrets that creep into families and tear them apart, the novel focuses on the fractured Stone family. Father Jon’s wife, mother of his daughter Maddy, died in an accident late one night, and he remarried, and is now proud stepfather to the newly engaged Zara Hopper. Keen for another baby, Zara’s mother and stepfather adopted a young girl, Pippa, on whom the wealthy family now dotes.

Maddy has always been secretive, but now she has devastating revelations for Zara. As the novel unfolds, we see the disintegration of Zara’s seemingly perfect life as she works to discover the truth and find out more about what really happened all those years ago, and how it affects her family’s life today.

Avery has a deft hand with characterisation, and is able to easily give the reader a tantalising glimpse of her characters’ morals and minds, whilst at the same time always keeping them guessing.

The family’s secrets are carefully unveiled, and every time the reader thinks they’ve got a handle on the mystery another bombshell is dropped that changes everything yet again. As such, it’s easy to become enthralled by this gripping and tantalising novel, and I personally found myself devouring the novel. Intelligent and strikingly well crafted, the novel is nonetheless easy to read, and makes for a great escapist thriller.

There are some real moments of brilliance throughout the novel, and the plot is ingeniously engineered. Everything from the dialogue through to the settings and the bracing plot itself keeps the reader hurtling through to the nail-biting finale.

With so much going for it, there’s no reason not to check out Within The Silence- I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!