The Silent Boy

Starred review from August 17, 2015
Edgar-finalist Taylor’s outstanding second historical featuring Edward Savill (after 2013’s The Scent of Death) opens in 1792 Paris, where a 10-year-old boy, Charles, flees a bloody scene—but can’t tell anyone what he has witnessed, because someone ordered him to stay silent. Meanwhile in London, Savill, who’s acting as the agent for some wealthy Americans, learns that his estranged wife, Augusta, with whom he’s had no contact for five years, has been killed in Paris by a band of sansculottes who suspected she was a spy. Complications arise when he learns that Augusta had a son, Charles, who has been brought to Charnwood Court, an English country house. Having no reason to believe he’s the boy’s father, Savill wants nothing to do with Charles, but Augusta’s uncle persuades him to bring the child from Charnwood to London. The suspenseful, heart-breaking sections from Charles’s perspective evoke the spirit of Charles Dickens. Agent: Vivien Green, Sheil Land Associates (U.K.).

October 1, 2015

Covered in blood, 11-year-old Charles, mute from the horror he has just witnessed, stumbles through the streets of 1792 Paris in the grips of revolution. No longer safe in France, Charles is sent to a country estate in England with other exiled aristocrats. Edward Savill, the estranged husband of Charles's mother, is dispatched to collect him from the estate and deliver him into the care of his great uncle. When Charles is kidnapped, Savill, unsure whom to trust in a complicated web of spies and betrayals, must find the boy before he is discovered by those who want him dead. VERDICT This second novel starring Savill (after the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger-winning The Scent of Blood) delves into the complicated world of English and French espionage during the French Revolution. A slow start is balanced by the increased pace of the novel's second half and a conclusion that simultaneously ties up loose ends while leaving enough open for future books. Many characters are thinly drawn, but the complicated intrigue and rich historical details of London life in the late 18th century, along with vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells Charles encounters on his journey, will keep readers engaged. [See Prepub Alert, 4/13/15.]--Sarah Cohn, Manhattan Coll. Lib., Bronx, NY

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