NetGalley Description
An outsider threatens to expose the secrets at an elite private school in this suspenseful debut novel for readers of My Dark Vanessa and Dare Me
Louise Manson is the newest student at Highfield Manor, Dublin’s most exclusive private school. It seems nearly perfect: the high arched window alcoves and tall granite pillars, the overspill of lilac at the front gate and the immaculate playing fields, the giggling students, the dusty, oak-lined library, and the dark, festering secret she has come to expose.
At first, Lou’s working-class status makes her the consummate outsider, though all that changes when she is befriended by the beautiful and wealthy Shauna Power. But Lou finds out that even Shauna is caught up in Highfield’s web, and her time there ends with a lifeless body sprawled at her feet.
Thirty years later, Lou has rebuilt her life after the harrowing events of the so-called “Highfield Affair,” when she gets a shocking phone call. Ronan Power, Shauna’s brother, is a high-profile lawyer bringing a lawsuit against the school. And he needs Lou to testify.
Now with a daughter and career to protect, the last thing Lou wants is for Highfield Manor to be back in her life. But to finally free herself and others, she has to confront her past, go to battle once more, and discover, for once and for all, what really happened at Highfield. Powerful and compelling, When We Were Silent is an unputdownable, thrilling story of exploitation, privilege, and retribution.
Review by Coffee&Ink
This harrowing novel emotionally details the sexual abuse of teenage athletes at a prestigious school, and what both the school and society had done to make these young women (and young men) voiceless and vulnerable and nulling out their futures. And though this is a very well done fiction, unfortunately for many, this is their lives. That being said, the main character’s voice is superb in the first person. The narrator’s voice is truly lovely and captures Lou’s character and her determination.
When Lou’s friend commits suicide, she wants to find out why. She suspects someone at Highfield Manor had something to do with it. The whole mystery takes her nearly a half of a lifetime to solve.
An excellent mystery/thriller set in Ireland.
thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book to read and review.
Coffee And Ink 