3.5 stars
This is a good read but for awareness, this book is about women who have been raped.
It’s sensitively done but I think this story could be a trigger for some people.
Gail goes to the Police after being raped in her home but is told there will be no evidence as the rapist made her wash with bleach afterwards and carried out the deed on a plastic sheet which he took away.
Gail is left feeling bereft and very annoyed with the Police.
She goes to a support group and hears a woman recount the same details that happened to her and after speaking, they realise it was the same man.
Gail is determined that this man is caught and sets out to find him.
A good read but a tricky subject to write about.
Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I approached reading this knowing rape is a difficult subject matter. Unfortunately it was harder to read than I expected and I couldn't get comfortable with it, therefore affecting my reading.

**TRIGGER WARNING** This story is about rape. It's also quite violent.

Gail wakes in the middle of the night to everyone's worst nightmare. She can't move, can't speak and a stranger standing over her. Then everything goes black. Gail knows she didn't dream it. Or him. But the police don't believe her. That was two years ago. She has tried to move on, forget what happened. Until she meets his next victim. The woman's story is identical to hers. And the attack happened exactly one year later. There is one weel left before he will strike again.

This is quite a dark read and definitely won't be for everyone, especially the fainthearted. As I'm a fan of Katerina Diamond's books, I requested this book without reading the premise. when I realised what the book was about, I did hesitate over reading it. I never feel comfortable reading about the subject matter. After saying all that, it was quite a good read. The story follows detectives who ignore reports and the victims who struggle after they've been attacked, cases are not believed or taken seriously. This is a tense and chilling read.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #AvonBooksUK and the author #KaterinaDiamond for my ARC of #TheSilence in exchange for an honest review.

Good story. Lots of twists and turns. Well worth reading

Looking forward to more from Katerina Diamond
Many thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC and opportunity to enjoy this wonderful book

Disappointed with this book. The majority of the book was extremely repetitive and boring. It was a great idea for a story just poorly executed.

This may be a very difficult read for some as it contains quite graphic descriptions of sexual assault.

When a rape victim discovers that she is not the only one but that there could be many more she vows to not only discover who he is but also expose him and get revenge for all the victims…

Super fast paced and totally gripping but not easy.

This is a book that has some trigger warnings from the publishers that some may want to take note of.

It’s been a while since I read a Katerina Diamond book. This is raw, hard-hitting and shows the despair and trauma faced by many.

Gail reports a sexual assault, only to be shrugged off by the police after pressure is put on Shona White. However, Gail meets another victim who’s story is the same as hers. This is where events really begin to unravel.

Diamond has considered the treatment of victims on social media which is enough to send chills down your spine. This is only the tip of the iceberg, as we read on we find it’s more gruesome than some comments online.

We have a multiple perspective in this book. Gail’s is compelling and heartbreaking whereas, the rapist is chilling and horrifying to the core. This is a book that’s well written and completely addictive.

I loved this book, it’s dark, raw and emotional. Diamond is back with a jaw dropping and addictive read. This is a must for the TBR.

Gail comes home from work worn out and falls asleep on the sofa. When she wakes up, she finds that she has been drugged and raped, then made to wash in bleach to remove all traces of DNA. Gail reports her terrifying sexual assault to the police who dismiss her as she has previously made a ‘false claim.’ DS Shona White regrets burying Gail’s incident under the carpet but had no choice under direction of her superior.

Gail then meets another victim who recounts her attack which bears too much resemblance to Gail’s for it not to be the same perpetrator. Gail vows to discover whether there are any more victims and wage a campaign against their assailant. As the police won’t help, she will do their job for them.

This is a really difficult subject to write about and the way the author has written this book is in such a sensitive manner. There are some very interesting insights into the thoughts and feelings of the victim, as she speaks to her attacker throughout the book, one of the view points the story is told from.

I requested this book as I have read and loved some of this author’s other books. Regardless of the difficult subject matter, I found it too difficult to engage with any of the characters. For me, this book dragged on too much and I worked out the obvious twist early on.

This is a thought provoking book. Rape can be difficult to prove leading to he said, she said and the police have a difficult job investigating. It makes a gripping thriller, although I found the transition into vigilantism hard to believe. It plainly shows how the emotional trauma can be so long lasting that women’s lives are never the same. In this case the perpetrator is so forensically aware that there is never any evidence. It is exciting and suspenseful and I enjoyed it, although dark and difficult. Well written but probably not for everyone. There will be trigger warnings.

ARC REVIEW
Publication date:-8th June 2023

This book contains trigger warnings (Sexual Assault)

Gail reports an assault to the police, but they don't believe her, but a while later there's been another assault...
Gail and Marthas most traumatic night of their life, turns into a friendship..
The attacker strikes on June 12th. But why?
Will the police finally listen in order to prevent it happening again?
Or will Gail and Martha take matters into their own hands?
The clock is ticking, who and will anyone stop him in time before he strikes again?

Such a gripping tough read.
Heartbreaking at certain parts of the book as Gail was doing the right thing by reporting her assault, but with insufficient evidence the police couldn't do anything.

Its written in multiple POV. Gail, the attacker and the detective. Which I do enjoy reading from multiple POV

#TheSilence #NetGalley #HarperCollins

I have to say that I found the book disappointing. I have enjoyed all Katerina’s previous books. This story just wasn’t for me, probably because the story was entirely focused on rape. I persevered but found that I’d soon deduced the identity of the 12 June rapist. I did read the whole book but was relieved when it had reached its conclusion.

A stunner of a book. Please note the warning given of sexual assault could be a trigger for you. Told from multiple POV’s- those of Gail, Shona and the rapist, this is a hard hitting story and although you can’t condone the women’s actions you would have to be pretty hard not to feel for them and understand their motivation.

Briefly, Gail is raped but when she reports it to the police DS Shona White is told to disregard it as there is no proof one way or the other and Gail does not know her attacker. However, the attack has a profound effect on her life as she cannot get the rape or who the rapist is out of her head. 3 years later whilst attending a victim support meeting she meets another woman who declares herself a victim of rape and from the circumstances it appears the same person is responsible and with more rapes discovered, all on the 12th June, they have just a few days to stop another one.

This was a slow burner but the pace quickens all of a sudden building to a dramatic climax. An eye opener into the effects of rape both mentally and physically and the injustice of victims having to disprove the “they were up to it” attitude of the rapists. The chapters where Gail ‘talks’ to the rapists are distressing and heart rending. A brilliant revenge thriller that had me on the edge of my seat until the bitter end.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely brilliant nail biting stuff. I loved the different obsession of the victim. Its never something you hear about although I'm sure it does happen. Great page turner of a read.

I loved this book, I've never read much thriller before but I definitely want to read more! I read this over a couple of days with only sleep getting in the way!

What I've realised as I start to read more and more books is that I really enjoy a multi narrator style. In The Silence the chapters are told by either Gail Reynolds, who in the first chapter of the book is sexually assaulted, DS Shona White, who is advised to talk Gail out of taking her complaint further due to the low solve rates of these crimes and the affect they'd have on the station's rating. Finally the the assailant tells his story of what turned him from an innocent boy to a rapist.

His chapters were so interesting, if the book had been told in a linear way there is always the risk that you might have felt sorry for him but by starting with the assault first and then straight to Gail's experience as she tries to report it to the police, you already feel so much anger towards him and the system that you never feel any sympathy towards him at all.

Gail's chapters are unusual in that she spends a lot of time talking to her attacker, wondering if he's watching her, is he someone she's seen in the seaside town that she lives in, is it someone she knows, a customer at one of the many jobs she drifts to and from as she struggles to cope following the attack. And although Shona has her chapters that talk about what she's doing, after being riddled with guilt from not taking Gail's initial complaint further, Gail's chapters talk about the investigation more and give more depth to it.

Very early on in the book there is a time jump of three years as Gail finds - through a support group of sexual assault survivors - someone with a story the same as hers, showing they were attacked by the same man. They form a friendship from this shared experience, and dig deeper into what could be the connection between them, that ultimately leads to revenge.

I genuinely loved this book and found it very easy to read and a page turner.

I would 100% recommend it to everyone I know, but do seek out content warnings.

Gail's life has gone downhill, she's never really recovered from being raped at college and has been in a series of dead-end jobs when she wakes one night to find she has been immobilised and blindfolded and is being raped again. She reports it to the police, who brush her off - her past history of rape without a conviction puts them off looking into this one at all.. Three years later Gail attends a rape survivors meeting and a woman describes an attack that she realises must have been the same man. She meets the woman and they decide to try to find the man - who seems to attack a woman on the same date every year. As they get closer to him Gail will have to decide if she wants justice, or revenge.
Brilliant pacey thriller.

Gail goes through an horrific assault only to be let down by the police, who fail to even believe her, let alone investigate.
some years later and still struggling Gail meets someone at a support group who seems to have gone through exactly the same attack as her, on the same date.
Convinced it cannot be circumstance Gail sets out to wreak revenge on the man, or indeed on any abusive man.
The book is a commentary on the failure to prosecute the majority of sexual assaults and is interspersed with the voice of the perpetrator, which makes it even more spine chilling.

This book was so good! I will always read anything by this author so when I saw this on Netgalley I requested it without even reading the description. It was much different than most thrillers and I was hooked from the beginning. Although I was able to guess the twist it was still very good and I read it in a day.

When told Katerina Diamond's books are not for the faint-hearted I became more keen to read one and have now purchased them all having read this, my first of hers! This was an emotional roller-coaster ride of a book that started of at an already fast pace and just didn't let go until the last page!
The story is told from multiple viewpoints, Gail, our heroine who just wants to stop her attacker from striking again in a few days time. Shona, the detective who hears Gail's story and the rapist, we see what made him into the 'man' he became and how his views on relationships became so warped.
The story also touches on the issues around this horrible crime, the difficulty in persecution, the low reporting and conviction figures due to the difficulty of proof and also some of the horrible darker portions of the world wide web!
It felt a fairly balanced tale which although difficult to read in places left me feeling hopeful the some people pay attention to the issues raised in this book. It was an amazing story and even though I did suspect the twist that came in the closing chapters, it was still an incredible read and I'm looking forward to diving into my next book by this author already!

I devoured this novel in a couple of days, which for me is really good. I have read most of Katerina Diamond's novels and always thoroughly enjoyed them. Easy to read and follow, amazing storylines and gripping characters. The Silence is no different and is an immense read.

We meet Gail, she wakes up in the middle of the night and finds herself being raped by someone she can not see as he has covered her head, the person makes her wash any signs of evidence from her body by using bleach. When the awful attack is over, she goes to the police but she has a past record of her accusing someone of rape many years ago. Young policewoman Shona is told to tell her to leave it and get on with her life and so Gail tries to achieve this.

We then are fast-forwarded 3 years into the future and Gail is struggling with life, she goes to a help group and there she meets someone with the same experience as hers. They both join forces and realise that this evil man is going this to many women every year.

We are told the story through the eyes of Gail, police woman Shona and the evil perpetrator.

This is a compelling read which grips the reader and then thrust into the novel. The novel obviously deals with some very awful storylines so maybe a trigger warning for people.

Thanks to Katerina Diamond, Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Trigger warning - frequent mentions to graphic sexual assault.

I love Katerina Diamond's writing and have read everything she's published so far. Therefore, I had this on pre-order for months before receiving my Netgalley copy.

This was another fast-paced mystery, with multiple perspectives - so far, so good. However, I found myself really struggling with the main protagonist, Gail, from quite early on in the book. Although her attack was horrific and she had ever right to be as angry and disturbed as she was, I found her to be quite a problematic victim, and found myself questioning the reliability of her narration. I'm also ashamed to say that the other victim characterised in the book, Martha, was somewhat suspicious to me. I appreciate this makes me sound as bad as the dismissive and disbelieving DCI from the start of the book - I'm not, I promise!

Nevertheless, as a huge fan of Katerina, I persevered!

However, by 45% of the way through the book, I was certain I had worked out who the rapist was. By 80% I knew, pretty much, without a doubt. This is my main reason for the 3 stars.

Was I disappointed? A little, yes. Will it stop me reading any more Katerina Diamond? Absolutely not! Will I continue to recommend her books? Definitely! I really do look forward to the next one.