A school for the deaf takes an overnight trip to the snowy woods. Five teenagers go to sleep, but only four wake up. Leon is missing, and a teacher's body is found in the forest...
Sign language interpreter Paige Northwood is brought in to help with interrogations. Everyone at the school has a motive for murder - but they all have an alibi.
As Paige becomes increasingly involved, she suspects there's something sinister going on. With the clock ticking to find Leon, only one thing is certain: the killer is among them, and ready to strike again...
***
As he stared at the body on the ground, a snowflake fell on the back of his neck, making him flinch. PROLOGUE
***
(@AvonBooksUK, 12 November 2020, 400 pages, ebook, #ARC from the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
***
***
I was really looking forward to reading this book since I enjoyed the first book, The Silent House so much, the first crime thriller I've read featuring the deaf community and an interpreter. Silent Night follow a similar vein, Paige is called upon by the police yet again when the headmaster of a deaf school is found murdered and a vulnerable student goes missing. I felt I got to know Paige much better in this book and she started to come into her own. The author delves into her back story. She was in an emotionally abusive relationship for some years with a man who controlled her. At the end, he locked her in their house with no food or drink for four days to 'protect her' and she had to escape by smashing a window open with her arm, badly injuring herself. These painful memories resurface as her ex is working at the deaf school and seems to be a changed man. Like any decent thriller, Silent Night is full of misdirection and twists and turns which keep you guessing all the way through. I'd no idea who the killer was and what their motivations were. I hope there's another thriller featuring Paige on the way.
