A Stain On The Silence- Andrew Taylor

“One of Britain’s best crime writers of psychological suspense.” The Times.

The last person Jmes wants to meet again is Lily. But now she’s dying of cancer, and he is wholly unprepared for what she has to tell him. Twenty four years ago, she gave birth to a daughter- and James is the girl’s father.
James was just a teenager when he and Lily- stepmother of his best friend Carlo- had their brief affair. Practically part of the family, he would spend his summer holidays at their sprawling house in Chipping Weston, lapping up the breathtaking freedom and excitement. Though perhaps there was too much freedom and too much excitement- because those days came to a terrible end. An end that James has been trying to forget ever since.
Yet Lily has one more secret to reveal. Their daughter is now a wanted woman. She’s on the run for murder. Soon James is compelled to reach back into the past and discover the bitter fruits of his and Lily’s unfortunate union…

Andrew Taylor, author of the bestselling The American Boy is fast becoming one of my favourite crime writers. A Stain On The Silence jumps from past to present, gradually revealing long held secrets and deceptions, keeping the reader gripped and desperate to discover what happens next. Although James, the main character is a bit spineless and rather wet, I soon sympathised with his plight. There is an element of never knowing who is lying and who is telling the truth, and the reader shares James’ confusion. His friend Carlo is a dark and menacing character whom I would like to have seen more of. Lily is a puzzle, is she good or evil? Unfortunately we never really find out. The ending is a shocker, I was not expecting it to conclude this way, with no conclusion! What did happen to felicity? A sequel in the future? I certainly hope so. I still have a lot of questions. I wait with baited breath.
Taylor’s novels The American Boy (A Richard and Judy Book Club selection) and the Office of the Dead both won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Daggers. Taylor has also been shortlisted for numerous award including the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger.

"there is plenty to engage the reader in the roller-coaster plot that twists and turns until the very last page" Big Issue.

The American Boy- Andrew Taylor

"A wonderful book, richly composed and beautifully written, an enthralling read from start to finish" The Times.

England 1819: Thomas Shield, a new master at a school just outside London, is tutor to an American boy and the boy's sensitive best friend, Charles Frant. Drawn to Frant's beautiful, unhappy mother, Thomas becomes caught up in her family's twisted intrigues. Then a brutal crime is commited, with consequences that threaten to destroy Thomas and all that he has come to hold dear. Despite his efforts, Shield is caught up in a deadly tangle of sex, money, murder and lies- a tangle that grips him tighter even as he tries to escape from it. And what of the strange American child at the heart of these macabre events- what is the secret of the boy named Edgar Allen Poe?

I Have for the last 2 years, been picking this book up at the library, only to replace it on the shelf, believing that it was not my kind of read. How wrong I was! The prose is masterful and put me in mind of Dickens, evoking a compelling portrait of early 1800's London society, with all it's corruption. Edgar Allen Poe's character is peripheral, yet his role in the story is central to the events that unfold. The characters are extremely vivid, epsecially the villainous Carswell, and Shield, as the narrator has the readers sympathy and respect. I liked the short chapters, most of which ended with mini cliff-hangers, making it impossible not to read on. Both the immaculate attention to historical detail, and the twists of plot make for a deeply satisfying read, and that the ending allows the reader to draw their own conclusions enhances rather than detracts from the finished work.
Andrew Taylor's novel, "The Office of The Dead" won The CWA Historical Dagger for Fiction and featured in Richard and Judy's Book Club, 2005. I will definitely be reading more Andrew Taylor.

"A most artful and delightful book, that will both amuse and chill" Daily Telegraph.