This book was an awesome page turner set in Glasgow. It keeps the reader wondering what will happen next to Anna once she has returned home to great the past that she never addressed. I highly recommend for anyone looking for a great mystery.

For a debut novel, I have to say I really enjoyed this one! I was hooked from the beginning and kept guessing (wrongly) until the end. My only complaint was the author's use of local dialect. I felt it was inconsistent and at times took away from the dialogue. I felt it was extraneous and really not necessary for the overall plot/feel of the story.

However, I look forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you #netgalley and #bloodhound books for the eARC.

As you might expect from any good murder-mystery thriller, there's more than one problem to be solved and many deeper issues and potential layers of conflict that need to be unravelled to get to the bottom of what leads to murder in M R Mackenzie's In The Silence. Glasgow probably isn't any different from other cities in how it is burdened with class differences, religious tensions, gender inequalities and racial prejudices and preconceptions, but Mackenzie not only weaves all this into the potential motivation of the crime, he manages to bring them together in the personality and the experiences of his lead character, Anna Scavolini.

Anna has been away from Glasgow for ten years, studying sociology and psychology at the Sapienza University in Rome, making a life and career for herself there as a lecturer and expert in feminist criminology. She's been away long enough for all the conflicts and differences in her home city to strike her all the more forcefully when she accepts an invitation to celebrate her old friend Zoe's 28th birthday, but she finds that those differences have also widened the gap in the once close friendship she had with Zoe. She's determined not to let that show however, but Glasgow and her own history there have a way of working their way uncomfortably back into her life.

In fact it's perhaps this distance and trying to bridge it that is the reason Anna feels some sense of guilt for what happens, as if her return to her hometown has been a catalyst that brings all those tensions to the surface, resulting in the death of an old schoolfriend, Andrew Foley. There's also the fact that Anna met Andrew at a night club just hours before, and the fact that he falls bleeding to death in her arms in the snow in Kelvingrove Park the very same night, but there's something else that makes Anna want to find out why this happened. Of course, Anna's involvement and her pursuance of her own investigation into this murder isn't going to play out well with the police, but, well, let's just say that there are issues and certain behaviours within the police force that Anna is uncomfortable with.

As is often the case when a regular citizen withholds what might be vital information from the police and starts their own investigation, particularly when they are up against what is clearly a dangerous individual (the murder of Andrew Foley is only the first), you have to wonder what motivates them to act in this way. Well, M R Mackenzie makes a better effort of this than most crime writers. He has already hinted at several possible reasons - a traditional mistrust of the police, the vulnerability women feel around physically threatening and sexually aggressive males, and just simply personal discretion and privacy - but Anna also clearly wants to be independent and take control of her own life. It is even suggested that there may be other reasons for her behaviour in her personal background and experience, and the author follows through on those convincingly.

So comprehensive is the author's interweaving of various social factors and what is clearly a close familiarity with the book's Glasgow locations and its characters, that there is the risk of In The Silence getting too preachy, academic and buzzwordy about such matters or, for want of a better description, adopting a 'politically correct' stance on them. Fortunately, Mackenzie is not latter day Val McDermid and doesn't let personal identification or virtue-signalling through right-thinking characters overwhelm the narrative. He's not afraid of allowing Anna Scavolini to make mistakes and rub people up the wrong way, acting indeed on issues where she might have an in-built prejudice, suspicion or just wariness. Neither are those social factors and background issues overplayed to the extent that they intrude on the pure entertainment of the thriller elements, but are rather a vital feature in the psychological make-up of the characters that the author clearly wants to make real, convincing and relevant to contemporary issues.

The fact that he succeeds is evidenced by the clear precise prose, the authentic dialogue and the pace with which the murder-mystery develops. The writing allows this to move fluidly along and escalate thrillingly, interweaving those necessary details of location and character that contribute to behaviour and motivation so skillfully as to be almost imperceptible, but it's clearly there and a delight to read. M R Mackenzie has created an impressive first novel with In The Silence and an intriguing lead character in Anna Scavolini who has the necessary insight but also the distance and background to be able to delve further into other colourful corners of Glasgow, as well as those dark corners that lie in relationships between men and women.

Overall not a compelling read. I particularly didn't like the portrayal of Anna's instability. The whole plot just felt disappointingly uncomfortable and contrived

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bloodhound Books for an advance copy of In the Silence, a debut novel set in Glasgow featuring criminology lecturer Dr Anna Scavolini.

When Anna returns to Glasgow after a ten year absence she is immediately whisked off to a club to celebrate her friend Zoe's birthday where she meets Andrew Foley, an old school friend. Later in the evening she finds Andrew on the brink of death, having been stabbed. Having failed to build a rapport with the police detectives she starts her own investigation.

I thoroughly enjoyed In the Silence which has a good line in Glaswegian patter and an intriguing plot with several good twists. It should be noted that non natives may struggle with the vernacular which is very funny and very typical. It had me laughing every time Zoe opened her mouth. The plotting is a bit of a mixed bag with both good and bad points, but overall it is well enough planned to hold the reader's attention. The reveals come at a steady pace and it gathers momentum as it progresses. On the downside I didn't enjoy its portrayal of the police which I feel is slightly old fashioned and it gets overly involved (for a crime novel) in the politics of prosecuting rape and the meaning of justice. It's obviously a subject dear to the author's heart but, while the statistics are frightening, distracts from the main thrust of the plot and appears like padding.

I can't say that I took to Anna as she's not very likeable. She's self absorbed, rude and very sure of her opinions. It turns out that there are reasons for this but they do little to mitigate her poor behaviour and attitude to others.

In the Silence is a good read.

Wow, while I am not familiar with this author, I love her work. Her ability to keep you guessing is amazing. I could not stop reading in fear that I might miss something. We have Anna who has gone home after being away for 10 long years. She meets a guy named Andrew that she has not seen in a long time. However, when she finds him stabbed and dying she is worried that she might be the one to take the blame. Enter Zoe her friend. They seem to be opposites yet alike in some ways. Each with their own flaws. The reader is left to figure out much of what Anna does which actually enhances the book. This thriller actually had me from the beginning. I really hope that we see Anna again in other books by this author.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

5+++ ⭐️ out of 5

A gripping novel well worth reading.
Anna hasn't been back in town for ten long years and it seems her reappearance sets off a series of murders is she to blame ????.
The story weaves its way through the past encroaching onto the present with a subject matter that is dealt with sensitively.
What would you have done in that position all those years ago and how would you go about making it right now. It keeps you guessing as to who is exacting retribution throwing up a couple of red herrings in order to keep you reading on.
Highly recommend reading this and I hope that we see more by the author.

Anna hasn’t set foot in Glasgow for ten years. And for very good reasons…
Anna, a criminology lecturer, returns to Glasgow from Rome during the coldest winter in memory. While out with her best friend from school, Anna has a chance encounter with a former flame, Andrew. Tragedy strikes later that night when Anna discovers Andrew stabbed and dying on a blanket of snow.

I enjoyed this book, even though I wasn't sure why the author set it in 2009. It was well written and kept me guessing right to the end. Anna and Zoe, her best friend from school, are polar opposites and both engaging and annoying at the same time which made them more realistic. Anna is plunged into a murder investigation when she finds the body of a man she'd had a crush on over a decade earlier. Very little is made of her being a criminology expert, it is left to the reader to link her job to her inability to leave well alone but her reactions to this and subsequent crimes seemed to suggest a naivety I wouldn't have expected from someone with her experience.
I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to Netgalley and Bloodhound Books and it kept my attention throughout.  For a first novel it ticked all the boxes; I will definitely keep an eye open for more.

Anna is a criminologist delivering a speech in her hometown when she runs across an old boyfriend, a boyfriend who later turns up stabbed to death. Police think Anna had something to do with the crime, so she launches her own investigation. This is an intense and tightly woven British mystery