Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Mystery Book Review: The Price of Silence by Camilla Trinchieri

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Price of Silence by Camilla Trinchieri. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

The Price of Silence by Camilla TrinchieriBuy from Amazon.com

The Price of Silence by
Non-series

Soho Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-458-3 (1569474583)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-458-7 (9781569474587)
Publication Date: June 2007
List Price: $22.00

Synopsis (from the publisher): Having taken a young Chinese woman under her wing, teacher Emma Perotti finds herself on trial for the girl's murder.

Almost five years earlier, An-ling Huang walked into Emma's ESL classroom and into her family's life. Emma was drawn to the vulnerability she perceived in An-ling. An-ling, for her part, seemed to long for a surrogate mother and eagerly attached herself to Emma. Emma's husband, Tom, resented An-ling's intrusion and his wife's affection for her. Their son, Josh, developed his own relationship with her. Dredging up painful memories and buried grief, An-ling's presence threatened to tear the family apart.

Then An-ling is found dead, suffocated. As Emma's trial progresses, An-ling is revealed not to have been who she claimed, and we learn that the family members all have their own dark secrets. 

Review: Camilla Trinchieri's electrifying stand-alone thriller, The Price of Silence, is a tense psychological study involving lies, secrets, and ultimately murder.

Emma Perotti is teacher of English as a second language to foreign students and new citizens. She is happily married to her husband Tom and they have a 16-year-old sold Josh. When a young Asian artist named An-link comes to Emma’s class, Emma immediately senses a need in An-ling for something more than lessons in English and soon realizes that An-ling wants and needs a mother’s love, understanding and support which she feels she can give her. But Tom is resentful of their relationship and orders Emma to stop seeing An-ling. Josh, on the other hand, thinks An-ling is the most beautiful creature he has even seen and would like to see her more often. When An-Ling is found dead in her loft, evidence points to Emma who was there the day she died. She is arrested and accused of her murder. But, it is later revealed, Tom and Josh had also visited An-Ling on the day of her death.

The Price of Silence has a moving backstory that plays an important role in how the current events are playing out. Told in flashback, Emma and Tom's first child, a girl named Amy, was killed when she was just 2 years old in a tragic accident when a car driven by Emma rolled over her. Emma and Tom sold their home and moved away, burying not only Amy but every memory they ever had of her. When Josh was born, he was never told of Amy. After An-Ling came into their lives, Josh sees a dramatic change in both his parents but is confused as to why they're acting this way.

During the course of Emma's trial, itself often riveting reading, the author successfully keeps the suspense level high by intermixing what Emma, Tom, and Josh are thinking and feeling, including some of their innermost secrets. Frequently heart-breaking but always insightful, The Price of Silence is an incredible journey of one family that cannot escape the tragedy of their past.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of for contributing her review of The Price of Silence and to Soho Press for providing the trade paperback edition for this review.

Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

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1 comment:

  1. I haven't read Camilla Trinchieri before but it sounds like a good one to check out! After this review, I'm thinking I would be interested in it. Thank you! I'll look for this and hopefully read this soon! I'm in the mystery mood. In fact, I recently finished a Mystery Thriller called Bear Any Burden, by Ellis Goodman. He's a fabulous English author. I'm quite fond of this book actually.
    My husband came home with it first and he said it was quite good. It's been a while since he's read a book cover to cover.
    The story rolls along at a wonderful pace, describing historical events in such great detail that you live them with the characters and feel their emotions as the story develops.

    ReplyDelete

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