This is a debut novel set in australia.
The mystery which is told in two timelines. its a emotional story that has a dark undertone to it.
Isal is called home her father was the last person to see Mandy but it was 30 years ago the story is multi-layered with deeply flawed characters.
A good book

The Silence is a book that covers some hard hitting issues through the course of the story.
The book is set in both 1967 and 1997 and is told through multiple Povs. In 1967 two couples live side by side in the Sydney suburbs. Louisa and Joe are British immigrants with a 4 yr old daughter, Isla. Next door another couple, Steve and Mandy live. Mandy often looks after Isla and they have a close bond.
In 1997 we see Isla who now lives in London, receive a call from her mother that her father is a person of interest in a missing person case. Mandy hasn't been seen for 30 years and apparently Joe was the last to see her.
Over the course of the novel we see the issue with both couples that is present behind closed doors. All of the characters have their own demons to fight including alcoholism, domestic violence and adultery. Part of the story also involves the later years of the Stolen Generation.
This is an interesting novel filled with terrible people who you just really can't like, despite that though you still want to see what happened to Mandy.
This is not really a mystery or thriller though in my opinion, more like a general fiction.
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Harper Collins Publishers Australia for this complimentary eARC.

A promising debut, The Silence is an engaging, thought provoking read. The story takes you through two separate period and had me compelled to keep reading throughout.

Susan Allcott has written a very impressive debut novel set in two periods 1967 and 1997 in Sydney, Australia.

We meet Isla in 1997, who is living and working in London as she receives a call from her mother, Louisa, to ask her to come home to help with her father’s. birthday and also who is upset because the police are investigating Joe who apparently was the last person to see one of their neighbours, Mandy, thirty years ago. When Isla Reuter’s to visit her parents and brother Scott, she starts to ask questions and seeks to find the truth about her parents and those in their neighbourhood including Mandy who appears to have disappeared and her husband Steve. This is quite a complex story with a significant number of twists and turns that keep the reader interested.

This is a melancholy story which has themes such as alcoholism, domestic violence and most significantly The Stolen Generation - Australian Aboriginal children were taken away from their parents, supposedly for their betterment; this is a very emotional issue that took a long time to be changed and the impact on those affected was incredibly traumatic.

While sad, it was an interesting read that I would recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for a copy of The Silence to read and review.

Isla is living in London when she gets a call from her father in Australia asking her to come home. It's 1997 and in 1967, their neighbour Mandy, suddenly left the street apparently to start over as her marriage had failed. But it seems that she didn't start a new life and instead has disappeared. The police believe Isla's father was the last person to see her alive and is under a cloud of suspicion. Isla's mother Louisa has her suspicions of her husband too.

This is an intriguing tale, well told, and well structured, as like an onion, the author peels back the layers on the relationship between Isla's parents and the lives of the next door neighbours, Many and Steve. Furthermore, the issue of the stolen generation is also explored from an unusual perspective. I was captivated all the way through this debut novel and look forward to seeing more from this author in the future.

This was a sad tale that captured the Australian summer against the harshness of family life, and life in the late 1960s, as wall as the late 1990s. The impact of an unhappy marriage, stolen children, the disappearance of a neighbour, and suspicion arising about everything. Isla, a young child in 1967 and in her 30s in 1997, learns more and more as she delves deeper into her parent's history and the secrets of Australia's dark history. The two timelines confused the plot at times, and the uncovering of secrets did seem a little predictable in the end. Was this a reflection of the times - see something, know something and say nothing? Was being silent more akin with not knowing how to say anything or respond? Is the silence more an absence of truth, or not being open to it? It was a compelling read and the imagery of summer definitely added to the storytelling. I could feel the sun of a Sydney summer bearing down on me as I read the e-ARC version of 'The Silence'. So much to say, and yet so much silence in this story.

‘How can someone be missing for thirty years and no one notice?’

1997, Hackney, UK. Isla Green receives a ‘phone call from her father Joe in Sydney. He’s under suspicion of murder. Thirty years earlier, the Green’s next-door neighbour Mandy Mallory disappeared, and Joe is allegedly the last person who saw her alive. Mandy’s family are looking for her: her father has died, and there’s an estate to finalise.

Joe is upset. Isla’s mother, Louisa, has not taken the news well. Isla returns to Australia, for a couple of weeks to try to help.

What happened to Mandy?

1967, Sydney. Joe, Louisa and Isla Green lived next door to Steve and Mandy Mallory. The Greens were emigrants from the UK, and Louisa was not happy. Steve Mallory was often away for work, and Mandy used to look after Isla sometimes.

Two families, each with secrets. Isla’s return to Sydney in 1997 enables her to run, for a while, from her own reality.

The story moves between 1967 and 1997. Between the tensions within and between families, between secrets
kept which have shaped and corroded lives, between memories and escapes.

This is a bleak story. As we move towards the end, through the circumstances leading to Mandy’s disappearance, we move through some painful issues including both domestic violence and the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. This is not a story to enjoy: ‘The Silence’ is a reminder of an unsettled and violent past which is a current reality for many. And the future? Talking about issues doesn’t stop them existing. And, unfortunately, cycles are often repeated. Too many of us who read this book will (unfortunately) recognise fact in the fiction.

Bleak, but worth reading.

‘Nobody looked for her … not for thirty years.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Wow, I was not expecting much from this book, but I was glad to be mistaken. I was hooked from the first few chapters, getting a serious Teacher's Pet vibe. The story is covered by multiple perspectives in 1967 & 1997 and is about the disappearance of Mandy. It also covers the removal of Aboriginal & Torres Straight Islander children from their families. The way that these aspects & timelines are woven together is wonderful. No-one in this story comes out in a positive light, but that is what makes this story so engrossing.

The Silence is an unsettling mystery which is told in two timelines. In 1997, Isla is living and working in London when she is contacted by her father, Joe, in Australia. The police say Joe was the last person to see the family’s neighbour, Mandy, before she went missing in 1967 and, if they find her body, he will be their chief suspect in the murder case.

Returning to Australia is an emotional rollercoaster for Isla. Spending time with Joe, her alcoholic father, and Louisa, her bitter mother, is not a relaxing holiday. Although in this timeline she discovers more and more about that summer in 1967, she also discovers everyone’s recollections are quite different and tainted by their personal issues. Even Isla and her younger brother's memories and perceptions of their parents greatly differ.

In the 1967 scenes Allott gradually reveals the circumstances leading up to Mandy’s disappearance. Joe and Louisa’s dramas are depicted along with those of Mandy and her husband, Steve, until the climactic scene showing just what happened to Mandy.

The flashbacks are chronological and the tension and pacing builds perfectly until the climactic scene. I guess my only complaint would be that the 1997 Isla scenes could have been much more fraught with danger.

I’d probably consider this more of a character study than a plot driven mystery novel though. The various characters all have to face up to their dark sides and the consequences of their actions. A lot of topical issues, from the time and still today, are covered including the forced removal of Aboriginal children, the lack of rights for women, alcoholism, domestic violence and police corruption.

The title of the book is very clever and refers to a few things; none which I can mention without spoiling. Apart from those tangible happenings in the book, The Silence title also added another layer to the stifling atmosphere which I thought Allott nailed.

Actually I think the main way I’d describe The Silence is 'atmospheric'. The prose is deceptively simple and whilst reading I felt like I really was in 1967, living through a hot dry summer in a world with limited or no rights unless you were a white male. The Australian-ness of the setting was also spot on and I was surprised to find that Allott only lived here for a short while (although she does have the advantage of being married to an Aussie).

I have to confess I did struggle a little bit with the dark themes of the book but this is more to do with the current events of the world than the book itself. Being so depressed by Covid and then depressed by the events of the book was not a good pairing. I definitely need to read a sunny romance next. And this is why I shaved a star off my rating. To be honest, there really was no happiness in this book. During normal times, I might not have noticed the relentless bleakness of the book but now is not a normal time.

However, if you can get past that, I'd still highly recommend the book and I'll definitely be interested in Allott's next offering.

4 out of 5

“I realised my life was going to be shaped by my husband. His choices, his decisions. Anything WAS possible, but only for him.”

Family loyalties.
The legacy of secrets.
The legacy of shame.
It was the cover of THE SILENCE which first attracted my attention, but Erin Kelly’s description was the thing that sealed the deal for me: a book that “excavates dark, decades-old secrets buried in human hearts, in families and in nations.” I can never resist a book about dark family secrets, and was looking forward to some virtual time travel to the 1960’s, one of the timelines in this story.

What can I say? THE SILENCE was five stars all the way for me! I filled four pages of my reading journal with quotes, and devoured the book over the course of a day because I just couldn’t tear myself away. Straight from the start, we get to know the three compelling, flawed female characters that are driving the story. Mandy and Louisa, who are two unhappy Australian women trapped in their boring housewife lives in suburbia during the 1960’s. And Isla, Louisa’s adult daughter, who will discover some dark family secrets when the police opens the case of Mandy’s mysterious disappearance.

Set against the backdrop of the terrible events that marked the era of the “Stolen Generation”, THE SILENCE gives a chilling account of a woman’s life in Australia in the 1960’s. Both Mandy and Louisa, bright and vivacious young women, are soon stifled by marriage. They are dependent on their husbands for everything, and have none of the liberties we now take for granted, for example being able to have our own bank account, or being allowed to work, drive a car, travel without the husband’s permission. Steve, Mandy’s husband, may be loving and kind most of the time, but suffers from bouts of depression and guilt from his role in removing indigenous children from their families. Joe, Louisa’s husband, has a dark violent side his daughter still does not want to acknowledge, but which prompted his young wife to flee back home to England with her small child during the summer Mandy went missing.


“There were happy times, weren’t there? Louisa says.
You’re never happy, Isla thinks [...] “Of course there were”, she says. “But the bad times were really bad.”


THE SILENCE was raw and gut-wrenching and got under my skin as only few books can. Each character appeared vividly in my mind, their thoughts, actions and emotions leaving their scars on my psyche. Overall, it was a sad, tragic story, but so well written and so observant that I was utterly captivated all the way. Allott’s insights into the dynamics of an unhappy marriage and the effects on the whole family left a lasting impression, as was her presentation of a woman’s life in Australia during the 1960’s. It’s the era my mother would have experienced as a young wife, and I could see an echo of her among the pages – a bright, independent woman stifled by the restrictions of her time, and by the person who she loved, her husband. It was sobering and yet very compelling. I couldn’t put the book down!

And if the personal portrayal of womanhood and marriage isn’t enough to lure you in, then be assured that there is also a very decent mystery buried in these pages. The historical background, especially the events related to Steve, also delivered a sobering message and one that may present a trigger for readers with indigenous backgrounds, where many generations have been affected by the events portrayed.

In summary, THE SILENCE was a brilliant book, the type that comes around rarely, containing all the elements of a dark family drama cum mystery that make for an unputdownable read. I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys a multi-layered mystery with compelling characters and a historical context that stays with you long after you have turned the last page. I can’t wait to read more from this author in future!