Wall of Silence - Tracy Buchanan

Reading Challenge Category: Received free with Amazon First Reads

Official Blurb:

Her children have a deadly secret. Can she uncover it before the police do?
Melissa Byatt’s life in Forest Grove seems as perfect as can be: a doting husband, three loving children and a beautiful house in a close-knit community. But appearances can be deceiving.
One evening, Melissa arrives home to the unimaginable: her husband lies stabbed on the kitchen floor, their children standing calmly around him…With horror, she realises that one of them is to blame. But which one? And why would they attack their own father?
Her loyalties torn, in a split second she decides to protect her children at all costs—even if that means lying to the police. But when someone in the neighbourhood claims to know more than they should, Melissa discovers that some secrets are beyond her control…
Can she find out the truth of what happened before the rumours spread? And can the family unite to escape the spotlight of scandal—or are none of them as innocent as Melissa insists?

My Thoughts:

This had a good premise and really intrigued me when it popped up as one of my Amazon Prime First Reads. The beginning is really gripping as something has happened, but no one is speaking, so the mystery is set right from the start.
However, as the book progresses, it becomes a little monotonous and not a lot is happening. Melissa is trying to get her kids to talk and is covering up for them like they are the nicest, most darling kids in the world. Even though she knows they’ve done something terrible but doesn’t know the details she still thinks butter wouldn’t melt. I understand her wanting to be protective, but she wasn’t even a little bit afraid of what they were capable of.
As I said, not a lot happens throughout the book. It becomes very frustrating that every time she tries to talk to the kids, someone interrupts them, this happens way too many times.
The ending is good when everything is being revealed, and there are a lot of twists and turns. A lot of lies are coming out of the woodwork, and I hadn’t guessed the whole order of events which made the book exciting once more. I do feel, though, that the whole middle of the book could have been cut out. It was just a means to the end and didn’t offer much purpose.
The ending did feel very rushed, and considering the amount of time we had spent with Melissa’s point of view, it would have been nice to have a final chapter from her.
Overall, it wasn’t an awful book, but it hasn’t spurred me on to read any more of this author’s work.

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