The Silence

May 1, 2020

DEBUT London 1997: Isla Green hasn't been home to Australia in ten years, but a phone call from her father, Joe, makes her return inevitable. The police are searching for a missing woman, a former neighbor of Isla's parents. Joe is supposedly the last person to have seen her alive and is now a suspect in her murder. Sydney 1967: Mandy says she will give up smoking. She also says she loves her husband, Steve, and wants a baby. But Mandy is a liar. Her unhappiness is accentuated by living next door to Louisa Green, who seems to have everything. Mandy is undeniably drawn to the Greens but soon discovers that her place in their lives is more dangerous than she could've imagined. This tumultuous story of two couples contains subplots of alcoholism, domestic violence, and the Stolen Generation of Aboriginal children. VERDICT Newcomer Allott does a solid job of establishing a vivid sense of place. The mystery behind Mandy's disappearance is appealing at first, but the unveiling of the puzzle doesn't allow the plot to quite reach its potential. A supplemental book for mystery collections. [See Prepub Alert, 11/25/19.]--Carmen Clark, Elkhart P.L., IN

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Starred review from May 15, 2020
Sydney, Australia, 1967. Joe and Louisa and their young daughter, Isla, recent �migr�s from Britain, are living next door to Steve and Mandy. Neither Louisa nor Amanda is happy in her marriage. Joe's alcoholism provokes blackouts and acts of physical violence. Steve's reluctant involvement in the government-mandated removal of Aboriginal children from their homes plunges him into a dark depression. Over the course of that hot summer, the tension within and between each couple spirals to murderous levels. Louisa absconds with Isla to London, and Mandy, well, who knows what happens to Amanda? One day, she's simply gone. Sydney, Australia, 1997. Mandy's unexplained 30-year absence triggers a murder investigation that exposes lies and innuendo, crime and betrayal, treachery and despair within the context of one of Australia's most ignoble historic episodes. Joe stands accused, but Isla's faith in her father brings her home from London to stand by his side; her loyalty, however, is tested in deeply personal ways. Emotionally spry, smartly suspenseful, Allott's arresting debut novel vibrates with Hitchcockian atmosphere as she dexterously deflects suspicion through multiple narratives that expose individual and societal vulnerabilities. Readers who enjoy subdued yet intense stories will cheer Allott's whipsaw parries as she sows doubt across the decades.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

June 22, 2020
British author Allot’s solid if gloomy debut touches on domestic violence and a shameful piece of Australian history. In 1997 London, Isla Green receives a phone call from Australia from her alcoholic father, Joe, who tells her he’s the prime suspect in the possible murder of Mandy Mallory, who vanished from their Sydney neighborhood 30 years earlier. Isla believes her father when he says he’s innocent, and decides to visit Sydney to uncover the truth. Flashbacks to 1967 reveal that Mandy is unhappily married to Steve, a disturbed cop who must forcibly remove Aboriginal children from their families. Meanwhile, Joe’s wife, Louisa, distressed by his drinking, leaves him and returns home to England with Isla, then a small child. Joe and Mandy’s marital woes bring them together, and they begin an affair. Back in 1997, Isla pieces together cloudy childhood memories with shocking secrets from her parents in her effort to clear Joe’s name. Allot does a good job building tension, but what happened to Mandy will surprise few readers. This one’s for mystery fans who prefer in-depth character studies to action-driven plots. Agent: Nicola Barr, Bent Agency (U.K.).