Silent Victim by Caroline Mitchell @Caroline_writes @ThomasMercerUK

** advanced copy received via author **

Author : Caroline Mitchell
Title : Silent Victim
Pages : 325
Publisher : Thomas & Mercer
Publication date : March 1, 2018

Emma is a loving wife, a devoted mother…and an involuntary killer. For years she’s been hiding the dead body of the teacher who seduced her as a teen.

It’s a secret that might have stayed buried if only her life had been less perfect. A promotion for Emma’s husband, Alex, means they can finally move to a bigger home with their young son. But with a buyer lined up for their old house, Emma can’t leave without destroying every last trace of her final revenge…

Returning to the shallow grave in the garden, she finds it empty. The body is gone.

Panicked, Emma confesses to her husband. But this is only the beginning. Soon, Alex will discover things about her he’ll wish he’d learned sooner. And others he’ll long to forget.

I’ve never been on a rollercoaster ride but I imagine coming off it, feels a little something like I felt when I finished reading Silent Victim : a little dizzy, maybe a tad nauseous and with legs like jelly.

Emma hasn’t had an easy time but now she has a loving husband and a wonderful son. Things are looking up until her husband gets a job opportunity in Leeds and is set on moving and selling their house. Because the field at the back of their house hides a secret. It’s where Emma buried the body of a teacher who seduced her when she was a teenager. Desperate to hide the traces of what she’s done, Emma returns to the grave only to find the body is gone.

This brilliant plot had me guessing until the very end, scratching my head in confusion. Full of secret and lies, I found it hard to figure out who could be trusted or not, or even if Emma was a reliable narrator. I enjoyed the alternating chapters between her and her husband, Alex, as it showed quite clearly what it would have felt like to have been in his shoes.

I was gripped from the very beginning. At times, I felt quite uncomfortable. Any story involving grooming is tough to read but I feel the author tackled it brilliantly. It’s frightening, haunting and heartbreaking but also incredibly engrossing. Silent Victim is a truly compelling read with some twists and turns and a red herring here and there. It held my attention throughout.

As a huge fan of the Ruby Preston series, I was somewhat sad to see that coming to an end but if it means Caroline Mitchell is coming up with stories like this one, I really can’t complain. This is a psychological thriller with all the right ingredients. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I highly recommend you pick up a copy as soon as you possibly can.

My thanks to author Caroline Mitchell for the advanced copy, which I chose to review honestly!

Murder Victim will be published on March 1st.

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