The Silent Boy

by Andrew Taylor

From the No. 1 bestselling author of THE AMERICAN BOY comes a brilliant new historical thriller set during the French Revolution. Selected as Historical Novel of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times, and picked as one of Radio 4’s Crime Books of the Year.

Paris, 1792. Terror reigns as the city writhes in the grip of revolution. The streets run with blood as thousands lose their heads to the guillotine. Edward Savill, working in London as agent for a wealthy American, receives word that his estranged wife Augusta has been killed in France. She leaves behind ten-year-old Charles, who is brought to England to Charnwood Court, a house in the country leased by a group of émigré refugees.

Savill is sent to retrieve the boy, though it proves easier to reach Charnwood than to leave. And only when Savill arrives there does he discover that Charles is mute. The boy has witnessed horrors beyond his years, but what terrible secret haunts him so deeply that he is unable to utter a word?

• ISBN13: 9780007506606
• Publish Date: 26 February 2015 (first published 28 August 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 448
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[pamela]

A fantastic example of both crime and historical fiction, 'The Silent Boy' hits the mark on so many levels. It was confronting, exciting, visceral and deeply human and I enjoyed every minute of it.

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.