Paige Northwood is a freelance BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter who is brought in by the police after a 15-year-old deaf student (Leon) goes missing on an overnight school camping trip. Also missing is the head teacher, Steve, who is found a short time later, murdered. The police — along with Paige — are desperate to find Leon, but the other residential students and teachers are keeping secrets and slowing down the investigation.
I know this is book two of a series, and I didn’t read the first one (which sounds exciting,) but I thought there was a lot of character development with the Paige Northwood character in this book, and I didn’t feel like I missed out on a crucial detail by starting with book two. I liked the story idea, and I really enjoyed how the author used her own experience with BSL to add more dimension and realism to this story.
However, no matter how much I liked the author’s writing style, the fact that Paige keeps finding out more and more relevant information from the students, staff, and her own work, she consistently decides it isn’t worth sharing with the detectives, even when it offers critical detail about the crime and Leon’s disappearance. It really drove me crazy through the entire book. If you can see past this, then it’s a fun read.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Avon Books UK in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.