Simone St. James

A nurse at an abandoned estate serving as a hospital for WWI veterans tries to determine why all the patients are having the same nightmare in this new novel from the author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare. Original. 50,000 first printing.

Silence for the Dead

Colleen

5 Stars
 
I was vaguely aware of Silence for the Dead when it came out, but it slid past my radar. I actually only picked this up because I have been reading books with different colored covers this year, and I was having a hard time finding books with purple covers. So I went into this with almost no expectations. I was delighted to find myself absorbed into this creepy horror story with a historical setting.
 
The story is set in 1919 in rural England. A manor house on a remote coastal area has been turned into a long-term care facility for soldiers traumatized during the Great War. Miss Kitty Weeks has just lied her way into a position as a nurse at Portis House. But she quickly realizes there are ominous secrets inside the house, and someone is going a long way to keep those secrets hidden.
 
Simone St. James set the scene so well! Her writing was atmospheric and haunting. I could easily picture the remote setting, the once-grand house crumbling around them, the desolate chill surrounding everything. I could feel the paranoia and despair that bubbled up around the characters. Although this is a slow burn story, I was engrossed from cover to cover. It’s a story full of gothic suspense.
 
This is not a sanitized or romanticized version of the time period. It paints a vivid, well-researched picture of the far-reaching aftereffects of World War I. The particular focus is on what happened to soldiers after they returned home. PTSD may be a relatively new term, but it is a psychological affect that has been documented all over the world and as far back as the Bronze Age. But WWI was the first time people had to deal with large scale numbers of soldiers affected by shell shock. Even today, mental illness is ignored and shunned. But back then it was so much worse. There was no support system for people with trauma. No real therapy. Nothing like the array of pharmaceuticals available today. Soldiers with PTSD were shunned, mocked, and emasculated. They were often shunted away to insane asylums where conditions were horrendous. The facility in this story, Portis House, is a private institution where wealthier families could hide unwell veterans away. Though better than other options at the time, the treatment of the patients is absolutely unacceptable my modern-day standards and laws. The author did a wonderful job of bringing the patients and their varying situations to life.
 
Not that standards were great for the employees either. They were understaffed, under regulated, and severely overworked. Kitty realizes quickly how tenuous her position is. As a young, unmarried woman with no family or money, she has no support system. She is in a remote location where the patients far outnumber the employees. She has no recourse if the patients or male employees do anything to her. As with the soldiers’ treatment, the author weaves the dangers which women faced into the story without moralizing about them. She just sets a compelling scene with thoughtful use of the historical time period.
 
The story is told in first person by Kitty. She was an engaging character. Although far from perfect, Kitty won me over with her tenacity and street smarts. When so many female leads turn into Mary Sues, Kitty stood out for being a flawed but well-rounded character. She was given no advantages in life and is haunted by her past, yet she struggles to improve her situation in life through her own hard work and perseverance and a slightly skewed moral code. I listened to the audio book, and Mary Jane Wells did an excellent job of bringing Kitty to life.
 
The story is split into three parts. The first sets the scene and introduces all of the characters. The second part builds the tension and reveals more about what is going on. And the third part is when all hell breaks loose. All of it is told in an atmospheric way that will make you question your sanity. The story kept me guessing the whole way.
 
I only have two small critiques. The first is that side romance boarded on cheesy at moments. Luckily that was not the main focus of the story and there was a lot of other stuff happening in the plot, so it wasn’t overpowering. The other thing is that I wish the action at the end would have been more impactful. The slow burn of the story built the tension at such an excellent pace, but I craved for the climax to be amped up just a little bit more. It was like a huge thunderstorm that built up ominously but didn’t have that moment when the heavens open up and torrentially downpour while the thunder roars. That’s not to say that the ending anticlimactic. It was good. But if it had just a bit more oomph then this book might have made my top five for the year. Still, I greatly enjoyed Silence for the Dead, and I can’t wait to check out more of Simone St. James’ work!


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 5 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 5 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 4 Stars
Level of Captivation: 5 Stars
Originality: 5 Stars

Guy Schmidt

Melissa Bragg 

Kristen Claiborn

“Portis House emerged from the fog as we approached, showing itself slowly as a long, low shadow....” In 1919, Kitty Weekes, pretty, resourceful, and on the run, falsifies her background to obtain a nursing position at Portis House, a remote hospital for soldiers left shell-shocked by the horrors of the Great War. Hiding the shame of their mental instability in what was once a magnificent private estate, the patients suffer from nervous attacks and tormenting dreams. But something more is going on at Portis House—its plaster is crumbling, its plumbing makes eerie noises, and strange breaths of cold waft through the empty rooms. It’s known that the former occupants left abruptly, but where did they go? And why do the patients all seem to share the same nightmare, one so horrific that they dare not speak of it? Kitty finds a dangerous ally in Jack Yates, an inmate who may be a war hero, a madman… or maybe both. But even as Kitty and Jack create a secret, intimate alliance to uncover the truth, disturbing revelations suggest the presence of powerful spectral forces. And when a medical catastrophe leaves them even more isolated, they must battle the menace on their own, caught in the heart of a mystery that could destroy them both.

Silence for the Dead

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