pamela
Andrew Taylor transports us to Revolutionary France and the sleepy English countryside manors of England. He paints a vivid and appropriately unpleasant picture of the time period, and his characters are flawed yet likeable. The pacing is perfect, leaving clues throughout the plot and creating coincidences which somehow manage not to feel contrived. His rendering of Charles, the mute protagonist is wonderful. We get a rare glimpse in to the psychology of a child who has witnessed horrors, and how he chooses to cope with them.
I found 'The Silent Boy' to be a thoroughly engrossing read, and I would recommend it to fans of both crime novels and historical fiction. Not since C. J. Sansom's 'Shardlake' series has a writer combined both genres so well.