Today I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for My Mother’s Silence. My review is written with thanks to Noelle at Bookouture for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book via Netgalley.

Blurb:

Some things you can never escape. I should know. I’ve been running away for fifteen years, and now I’m right back where I started…

Skye Turner’s family fell apart the day her twin sister Ginny died. Everyone in their tiny community in the Scottish Highlands accepted it was an accident, but more than one person in town is haunted by a secret from that night…

Skye left after the funeral, believing her mother blamed her for Ginny’s death. Skye should have taken care of Ginny, should have been there to stop her falling from the cliffs that night. Over the years, she’s barely spoken to her mother, until the day she receives a phone call asking her to return home.

As soon as Skye arrives in her childhood home, she knows something isn’t right. Her mother has kept the bedroom she shared with her sister like a shrine, Ginny’s clothes and diaries gathering dust, as though her mother thinks Ginny might come back. And there are whispers in town that Ginny wasn’t alone when she died.

Skye is desperate to find out the truth, but her mother just wants her family back together. As Skye begins to unravel everyone’s lies, she realises the truth might tear her family apart for good…

Review:

From the blurb of My Mother’s Silence, I expected a mystery full of lies and secrets. To a large extent, this is what I got, but the novel is so much more than that. Westwood’s writing is absolutely amazing and I was able to feel all the emotions of a family and community who have not been able to grieve for their sister, daughter and friend.

My Mother’s Silence is set in a small village in the Scottish Highlands, and it is easy to see that the landscape is beautiful. Westwood’s descriptions drew me into the environment in which Skye and her family lived. I also enjoyed the sense of community in the village and the way that although gossip spreads quickly, and this can often be stifling, everyone ultimately cares for each other.

From the outset, I felt sympathy for Skye and was immediately drawn into her story. The element of mystery in the novel, which grew more and more as the secrets and lies surrounding Ginny’s death unravelled, kept me reading, as I really wanted to know what happened to Ginny and who knew more about her death than they were letting on. I was hooked, and I am left with a poignant feeling that will stay with me for some time to come.

My Mother’s Silence is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: