My first book by K.L. Slater. Why haven’t I discovered her before? I’ll be certainly looking out for more.
A book full of twists and turns with an excellent ending that I never saw coming.
DI Conor Neary brought the two girls into the station following the awful incident involving 81 year old Bessie Wilford, a neighbour and friend of their grandparents.
The girls seem to have a pact of silence and say nothing.
There is evidence, but the girls still won’t speak. Dana, a family therapist, is brought in to help. She notices little things, not just with the girls but with their parents and wider family. Little looks between them. And she felt all was not well.
The way the villagers turned against the family was painful to read, but the way news spreads these days with social media is frighteningly fast.
It’s an intriguing story, and also surprising in parts as things from the past are dragged back to the surface.
Punishment, innocence, guilt. It has it all.
I thoroughly recommend this book.

I’ve read a few of K.L slaters books and LOVE her style of writing, I enjoy stories in the first person narrative it helps you feel more connected to the characters as if they are real life persons, the opening chapter is of two girls being cruel to an elderly lady Bessie and a terrible accident happens which will change the girls and their families lives forever...
A story of secrets and how far would you go to protect the ones you love?

5 shiny big fat deserves stars! Thank you to netgalley for my copy of this book in an exchange for my honest review. I was engaged the whole time of reading this book I’d highly recommend.

I really enjoyed this book there was plenty twists along the way & love the way it all tied up nicely at the end. A well written highly enjoyable book that I would recommend to anyone!

This is the first novel I have read by Slater, and let me tell you now, I'll without a shadow of a doubt be seeking out her other work.

The Silent Ones had be gripped from the off. It begins with telling the story of what triggers the events of the rest of the book. It's clever though. It doesn't tell us who's responsible. It simply describes two young girls who we later discover are Brianne and Maddy.

As the book unfolds you get a gut feeling about who you can and can't trust. The majority of the book is written from Juliet's point of view (Maddy's mother) however we do see parts from other family members viewpoints. It's very clear we're dealing with a dysfunctional family plagued with secrets.

In terms of my gut reaction to who you could and couldn't trust, I was more or less bang on, apart from the big reveal. I didn't see that coming at all.

This book was an easy 5* for me. It was a pacey read and had everything you want in a pyschological thriller. I didn't feel like there were any gaps in the story, and I was totally immersed in trying to find out what happened.

If you suffer from a pre existing heart condition check with your Doctor before reading! I loved this book and it kept me gripped from page one.
The premise seemed simple, two ten year old cousins Brianna and Maddie are arrested for the assault of an elderly woman. Their mothers Chloe and Juliet are brought into this nightmare world to support their daughters through the police procedure.
I didn’t have a clue where the story was leading and I loved it. The story is written in different timelines and viewpoints. I don’t think anyone would be able to guess the twists. Have read all of K L Slater’s previous novels and she just keeps getting better, can’t wait for the next instalment.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC.
#TheSilentOnes #NetGalley

Omg, I was hooked. All boils down to revenge. Those poor girls. I cannot imagine going through life thinking it was my own fault for my little brothers death. A family full of secrets with many twists.

"The girls backed out of the room and had just stepped into the kitchen when they heard it...a scuffling sound, like the movement of feet."

I just finished The Silent Ones by KL Slater. It's described as "a gripping psychological thriller," and I would say, I 100% agree. Two little girls are seen leaving the scene of a crime, covered in blood and are pegged for the murder of an elderly woman and family friend in their village. When they're arrested, as the title alludes, they are speechless. Wound in knots, they appear to have made a pact with each other not to say a word. The pages that follow took me down a curvy road of questions, darkness, family secrets, and one twist after another. There are definitely a few psychos and creeps as characters! I don't know how KL Slater did it, pulling it all together so nicely at the end. But, wow, wow, wow, you need to add this one to the top of your priority read list. The characters you want so badly to trust will leave your head spinning. 5 Stars!!

A huge thanks to @KLSlater @bookouture and @netgalley for the opportunity to get a tight grip on this page-turner for a few days.

Solid 3.5 stars. I was really interested in the story. It was kind of predictable, and the end was kind of flat. Like, you’re reading and then BAM you get the reveal...aaaand it’s done. Still, not bad. I enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an e-copy for my honest review.

K.L. Slater creates an edge of your seat read with The Silent Ones. This psychological thriller reveals the secrets of the dysfunctional Voce family.

A horrible crime was committed but was it committed by ten year olds? Are the children paying for the sins of the parents.? Juliet finally has to stop a lifetime of appeasing her family to save her daughter.

The twists and turns keep coming and the family dynamics keep you captivated. This is my first read by this author and I’m hooked! I can’t wait to read my next K.L. Slater book. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Another gripping exciting thriller of a book from K.L. Slater. Once you pick this up, you won't be able to stop until the very end. It's full of plot twists and turns and the characters are very well developed throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the plot. Was very hard to put down.
I give this book 5**** just because i loved it
Cant wait for other books

I ordered this book from @netgalley without reading the description. As I read and saw that it was about children, I wasn’t sure how I would like it. This book was very enjoyable. The mystery kept me guessing until the very end. Quick read!

K L Slater is high up there on my ‘must read’ authors. Her writing and storylines grip me from the very beginning and this one was just as amazing as all the rest and I have read all of her previous novels.

The Silent Ones is told mainly from the present day and covers two days whilst flitting into the past on several occasions looking at the bond between sisters Juliette and Chloe and the extremely different relationships they have with their parents. This storyline emerges as the novel progresses and throws up several dark twists and turns.

At the beginning Juliet and Chloe who are running their own business, mainly lead by Juliet, are taken to the police station as both of their daughters, Maddy and Brianna, have been involved in an ‘incident’. The telling of this part is brilliant as the mothers have no idea what is going on and feel scared and ill-informed. We know that they have harmed an elderly lady, Bessie, who is known to the cousins’ grandparents, but do not know the seriousness of the situation.

The local community already have the information about Bessie being hurt and have tried and convicted the two 10-year-old girls immediately with the typical backlash of social media as well as physically threatening the households of both mothers as can be common today.

Juliet has been engrossed in expanding her business and her husband, Tom, has just started a new job so they have both been working hard and could have been neglecting their two children, Maddy and Josh. Juliet seeks help from her friend Beth, who Chloe dislikes, when they sisters must stay at the police station with the two girls.

As part of the police questioning a child psychologist, Dana, also with a ‘shady’ background is brought in to assist.

I loved the novel; the storylines and the characters were excellently portrayed in what is quite a dramatic family orientated psychological thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookoutre and K L Slater for my ARC in return for my honest review.

Brilliant read, highly recommended.

Great twists in this book! The characters were well developed and I was pulled into the plot right away. I really could not stop reading! My jaw literally dropped open several times.

When ten-year-old cousins Maddy and Brianna are arrested for a terrible crime, Maddy’s mother Juliet cannot believe it. How could her bright, joyful daughter be capable of such a thing?

As the small village community recoils in horror, the pressure of the tragedy blows Juliet and her sister’s lives apart. And things get even worse when their daughters retreat into a self-imposed silence. Can anyone reach Maddy and discover the truth before her fate is sealed?

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about two 10 year old girls who are cousins that were apparently present at the beating is an elderly woman in her own home. The police apprehend them, they remain totally silent and then the woman dies.

This book was honestly pretty boring for me. It took until 50% for anything to even start happening. Up until then it was a lot of the girls refusing to talk at the police department. Once we got through that and they started talking we did find out the family has some secrets and we found out what those were. I figured out the perpetrator somewhat early on and kind of had an inkling of what the family secret was so I can't even say I was that wowed at the end reveals. K.L. Slater has been pretty hit or miss for me and this one was a bit of a miss.

Sisters Chloe and Juliet run their own business, and both have 10 year old daughters. Their daughters, Maddy and Brianna, are accused of murdering an elderly woman. Dana (child psychologist) and Neary (detective) are in charge of figuring out the truth of which girl committed the crime and why.

Just enough family drama to maintain interest, and the plot twist at the end was not something I predicted. I will say that the last third of the book was drawn out of me, and I did catch myself skimming pages. I did not skip any, but I did skim through the more redundant parts.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley and Bookouture for allowing me to read an eARC copy of this book.

I am a big fan of thriller books and this sounded very interesting from the premise and thought it reflected the way in which people do respond when children are accused of heinous crimes. I haven't read any of the authors other books so I can't say how this rates against her other books.

I can't say that I didn't enjoy the book, but it wasn't a great thriller for me. I definitely found that this book dragged and was very slow throughout. It felt a bit like I was reading the same thing over and over again. It's disappointing to me that we didn't get to experience anything after the first chapter through the eyes of the girls. They are clearly the focus of this book and yet we never experience their feelings or what is going on for them. It makes me wonder why the author chose them as the focus of the plot and then just essentially ignored them for the rest of the book.

I don't think this was a psychological thriller for me. I had guessed pretty much straight away one of the twists that Chloe was the one that injured their brother instead of Juliet; it just screamed out obvious to me. It also really frustrated me because Chloe is quite a bitch throughout this story, especially towards Juliet, and yet she's been holding this secret (as has THE REST OF THE FAMILY) and letting Juliet suffer for all these years. She just felt incredibly selfish and cruel to me and I didn't really feel sorry for her. I was just baffled about her actions she was willing to let the whole company go under instead of just finally tell the truth, and was still essentially making Juliet feel responsible for the reason the company wasn't doing well. I did think it was interesting the fact that they had Corey end up alive, but it didn't overly surprise me with his mother. To be fair I did believe that Tom and Chloe were having an affair so the reveal that they weren't surprised me.

I also figured that Beth wasn't as trusting as she seemed; they kept inserting her into the story and so I felt she was going to have a motivation against Juliet. I do honestly feel that the whole reveal of her being the murderer and having this planned for some time was just too unrealistic and too far-fetched.

Something that really irritates me in books (and shows) is when we skip the fallout of actions. And this book does exactly that. Juliet finds out all this information about her family and her life but we skip one month and we don't really get to experience her coming to terms with it or moving through it. It almost makes the rest of the book essentially pointless because we have everything building up to this point and then we don't get to experience the fallout at all. It feels like a cheat to me.

I initially rated this three stars but whilst reviewing it i've dropped it down to two stars. I wouldn't be looking to buy a physical copy of this book.

I was so happy when I got a free copy of this book, had so many expectations but sadly they weren't fulfilled. I couldn't get in the story, couldn't get interested - there was something in the writing style that blocked any interest. I DNF'ed, stopped after maybe 10-15%. Looking at the many praising reviews I guess it's just me not fitting here.
Thanks, though, to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy and I'm sure the book will find many fans!

Title: The Silent Ones

Author: K. L. Slater

Length: approx 280 pages

Publisher: Bookouture

Publishing Date: July 24, 2019

Genre: Crime Thriller, Fiction, Psychological thriller

My rating: 5/5

Summary:

Two girls Brianna and Maddy visit a neighbourhood house where they end up hurting Bessie the resident of the house. Bessie dies and the story moves on investigation of the murder only that both the girls are not uttering a single word.

My Take:

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for providing me with an ARC for reading and reviewing this wonderful thriller. I’ve loved Bookouture as a publisher for the choice of books they publish which are just brilliant.

The book started as a slow paced book nevertheless keeping me glued to the various mysteries on the way ahead. The estranged relationship of the Voce family is very evident. The story is narrated from first persons perspective i.e. Juliet’s and the third persons perspective on the happenings. The story also has flashback on a vile secret hidden by Voce family.

The character of Juliet is adorable while that of Chloe her sister is abhorred. At some point I felt the book had unnecessary details of Dana’s life who was therapist on the case but later on turned to be the most important link in solving the crime.

The second half of the book picks up pace. The revelations are mind boggling. One could never have expected the twists and turns in the book. That’s what i loved the most about the book. Absolutely no way one can predict the ending.

It’s a great book for all the crime thrillers readers so I would definitely recommend it to my friends to get their hands on this one.

One of the best books I've read this year!

I was hooked from the first few pages, the concept really intriguing me. So much so that I read the full book in one afternoon. And whilst I could see that there was going to be a certain revelation, the character involved was a real suprise to me. I will definitely be looking up more of this authors work!

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and K.L Slater for the advanced copy.