The Silent Friend by Alison Stockham

 

The Silent Friend by Alison Stockham.

Published 24th July 2023 by Boldwood Books.

From the cover of the book:

When it comes to saving yourself, who will you betray?

Louise has a shadowy past that she wants to break free from and when she develops an unlikely friendship with Isabelle, her neighbour, she finally finds the family she’s always yearned for.

But Louise knows more about Isabelle than her new friend realises, more specifically about her imprisoned husband – and the circumstances behind his arrest.

Louise is faced with a choice: to continue lying to her only friend or tell the truth and ruin any chance she has of starting over…

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Louise is desperate for a new start, but it is so hard to break away from the difficult situation she has become trapped in, especially as she has no one she can rely on to help her. When the husband of her pregnant neighbour Isabelle is arrested for a heinous crime, Louise suddenly finds herself making her first real friend - and the feeling of being needed makes her see that turning her life around might be possible after all.

But she is hiding secrets from Isabelle about her murky past, and her connection to the crimes of her husband. Louise must make a choice - should she come clean and put herself in the firing line to help her only friend, or stay quiet and cling on to the little 'family' she has dreamed of for so long? 

The Silent Friend is an intriguing mix of psychological thriller, crime story, and domestic noir, and Alison Stockham does an excellent job of weaving these elements together to make a compelling tale. Without giving the game away, Louise is a troubled soul with a difficult upbringing, and her vulnerabilities lead to her getting involved in the dodgy dealings of Isabelle's unpleasant husband. Isabelle is completely in the dark about the real nature of her husband's activities, and Louise's desire to protect herself ends up drawing the three of them together in a complex web of lies and deceit. Over the course of this gripping story, Louise finds herself with a dilemma when she begins to care about what happens to Isabelle and her child, and desperately wants to save them from a future with a man she knows to be violent and unpredictable.

Stockham explores some really interesting themes around childhood trauma, domestic abuse, guilt, sacrifice, and redemption, and the choices Louise makes take this story in unexpected directions. The threads twist and turn, with carefully timed reveals that change your perception of Louise over the course of the book, leading to a heart warming ending full of hope - which is a very different place from where it all begins.

This is my first book by Alison Stockham, but it will definitely not be my last. I really enjoyed how she blends her emotional themes into a proper page turner, with a title full of shades of meaning, and the story gives you a lot to ponder on about real friendship and absolution.

The Silent Friend is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

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Thank you to Boldwood Books for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Resources Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Alison Stockham’s debut novel The Cuckoo Sister was longlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. 

Having worked in TV documentary production for the BBC and Channel 4, Alison is now the Events Coordinator for the Cambridge Literary Festival.