Silent Victim by Caroline Mitchell Book Review

Emma is a loving wife, a devoted mother and a killer. For years she has been hiding the body the her teacher who seduced her in during her teens. But Emma’s perfect life starts to fracture when her Husband’s promotion means moving away and it seems inevitable that Emma’s secret from the past won’t stay buried.

Caroline Mitchell is a former Police Detective and the opening of this book seemed really promising with a good premise and interesting dilemma: what do you do if you bury someone in your back garden but then have to move away?

I was surprised how quickly Emma confessed to her Husband and from that point on her character is undermined at every turn. We are forced to question everything she says, wanting to believe her but with that nagging feeling that things aren’t quite what they seem. Her bullemia is an interesting subplot and the constant lying about her lapses only add to the sense of mistrust.

I was quite annoyed at her Husband for not being more supportive initially - instead of feeling sympathy for what Emma went through he seems to be revolted at the idea of her as a killer. But of course Emma isn’t telling the whole story.

Despite the tension I found the latter half of the book quite predictable which was a real shame as there was a lot of potential to give a killer twist which would have elevated the book. But instead it played out pretty much as I expected, which I always find a bit of a let down.