Synopsis (from
the publisher):
Having taken a young Chinese woman under her wing, teacher Emma Perotti
finds herself on trial for the girl's murder.
Almost five years earlier, An-ling Huang walked into Emma's ESL
classroom and into her family's life. Emma was drawn to the
vulnerability she perceived in An-ling. An-ling, for her part, seemed
to long for a surrogate mother and eagerly attached herself to Emma.
Emma's husband, Tom, resented An-ling's intrusion and his wife's
affection for her. Their son, Josh, developed his own relationship with
her. Dredging up painful memories and buried grief, An-ling's presence
threatened to tear the family apart.
Then An-ling is found dead, suffocated. As Emma's trial progresses,
An-ling is revealed not to have been who she claimed, and we learn that
the family members all have their own dark secrets.
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The Price of Silence
Non-series
Camilla
Trinchieri
Soho Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-458-3 (1569474583)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-458-7 (9781569474587)
Publication Date: June 2007
List Price: $22.00
— ◊ —
Review: Camilla
Trinchieri's electrifying stand-alone thriller, The
Price of Silence, is a tense psychological study
involving lies, secrets, and ultimately murder.
Emma Perotti is teacher of English as a second language to foreign
students and new citizens. She is happily married to her husband Tom
and they have a 16-year-old sold Josh. When a young Asian artist named
An-link comes to Emma’s class, Emma immediately senses a need in
An-ling for something more than lessons in English and soon realizes
that An-ling wants and needs a mother’s love, understanding and
support which she feels she can give her. But Tom is resentful of their
relationship and orders Emma to stop seeing An-ling. Josh, on the other
hand, thinks An-ling is the most beautiful creature he has even seen
and would like to see her more often. When An-Ling is found dead in her
loft, evidence points to Emma who was there the day she died. She is
arrested and accused of her murder. But, it is later revealed, Tom and
Josh had also visited An-Ling on the day of her death.
The Price of Silence has a
moving backstory that plays an important role in how the current events
are playing out. Told in flashback, Emma and Tom's first child, a girl
named Amy, was killed when she was just 2 years old in a tragic
accident when a car driven by Emma rolled over her. Emma and Tom sold
their home and moved away, burying not only Amy but every memory they
ever had of her. When Josh was born, he was never told of Amy. After
An-Ling came into their lives, Josh sees a dramatic change in both his
parents but is confused as to why they're acting this way.
During the course of Emma's trial, itself often riveting reading, the
author successfully keeps the suspense level high by intermixing what
Emma, Tom, and Josh are thinking and feeling, including some of their
innermost secrets. Frequently heart-breaking but always insightful, The
Price of Silence is an incredible journey of one family
that cannot escape the tragedy of their past.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Price of Silence and to Soho Press for providing a trade paperback edition of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read The Price of Silence? How would you rate it?
Novels by this author …
The Price of Silence
Soho Press (Hardcover), June 2007
ISBN-10: 1-56947-458-3 (1569474583)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-458-7 (9781569474587)
Omnimystery keywords for The Price of Silence ...
Location(s) referenced: Manhattan, New York City.
