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A gripping thriller about family ties and a past that can never be buried

Silent Ground

Hilde Vandermeeren

Glasgow, 1983. One stormy November night, six-year-old Rosie Thompson disappears from the bedroom she shares with her twin sister Ruby. No trace of her can be found. Ruby and her parents are irremediably damaged by the trauma of this loss and nothing ever comes to light about Rosie’s lot.

‘Silent Ground’ possesses the most important quality of a good literary thriller: unrelenting suspense.
De Boekenkrant

Thirty years later. Donald Cunningham is an old Scots clergyman who is about to go into a care home and close his beloved chapel on Skye. But shortly before this happens, someone leaves a message in the confession book: ‘I’m sorry about what happened to Rosie Thompson. May God forgive me.’

Via the minister this cursory confession finds its way to the police and via them to Eve, a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Glasgow and the youngest sister of Rosie and Ruby. The matter was never fully discussed with Eve, but now Rosie’s disappearance is again topical, she starts delving into the past and employs an ex-policeman with a drinking habit. She tracks down a suspect, an older man who was spotted not far from the chapel. Witnesses describe a tattoo on his wrist, which turns out to be the sign of a sect, the Order of Light. It becomes a quest for survival.

A powerful and compelling read
Gouden Strop Jury
Excellent, excellent, excellent!
Josh Pachter