House of Silence

November 21, 2016
At the start of Barthel’s unconvincing first novel, set in 1875, 20-year-old Isabelle Larkin is celebrating her engagement in Oak Park, Ill., to aspiring politician Gregory Gallagher, a match that satisfies her ambitious widowed mother and her own hopes for political prominence. A few days after the engagement party, Isabelle happens to pass by a house, where through a window she spots Gregory committing a terrible crime. When those closest to her don’t believe her, Isabelle feigns a breakdown, which leads to her removal to the Bellevue Sanitarium in Batavia for treatment. There Isabelle strikes up a friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln, whose son Robert has committed her to the same facility. Mrs. Lincoln—who nursed Isabelle’s late father during the Civil War—believes her story; with support from her and an adoring young doctor, Isabelle tries to discover enough about Gregory’s background to make her claims convincing even as his actions threaten her. Marred by anachronisms and implausibilities, this historical delivers plenty of melodrama but only minimal suspense. Agent: Steven Chudney, Chudney Agency.