Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison

After studying English at university, Nell Pattison became a teacher and specialized in education of the hearing impaired. She has been teaching in the deaf community in both England and Scotland, working with students who use British Sign Language, for more than 10 years. Pattison appeared at Hull Noir a couple of years back, one of the online conferences during the COVID lockdown, and I have wanted to read one of her books ever since. They receive high ratings on Amazon and Goodreads.

Pattison’s series character is Paige Lockwood, a professional British Sign Language interpreter who translates for conferences and works for social services agencies that support hearing impaired clients. One way or another the non-hearing, non-speaking clients come to the attention of the authorities and Lockwood becomes essential to communication between the two. In The Silent Suspect (Avon, 2021) Lockwood is under contract to a deaf social worker whose clients are also hearing impaired. While Lockwood isn’t needed for the social worker to interact with her clients, she’s needed any time someone who does not know sign language comes into the discussions.

Lucas Nowak texts her that his house is on fire. Lockwood knows the social worker is out of town and goes to the house to find it engulfed with flames. Nowak is nowhere in sight. His wife Nadia is found dead inside. When the autopsy shows she was strangled and the house was deliberately set afire, the police assume Nowak is the culprit without much consideration of other options. Lockwood feels confident Nowak did not murder his wife and sets off on her own investigation.

The premise is unusual and informative. How the non-hearing function in the world is seamlessly worked into the story without feeling like a data dump. The mystery storyline is nicely complicated with a reasonable mix of villainy and stupidity leading to several crimes. Lockwood on the other hand oversteps her role so often I am amazed she isn't arrested herself. Her love life takes up a great deal of her time and far too much space on the page. I liked this one enough to want to look at the others in the series. For fans of amateur sleuths and for crime fiction buffs looking for something different.  

 

·         Publisher: ‎Avon (September 7, 2021)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Paperback: ‎384 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎0008418543

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-0008418540

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.