A woman’s body is found in a river just outside of Lisbon. Inspectors Isabel Reis and Aleksandr Voronov identify the murder victim as Marta Nunes – a youth centre worker who, like Isabel, classifies as Gifted. Born with special abilities, the Gifted are often looked at with a certain level of suspicion. 

In the search for her killer, Reis digs into Marta’s past. She soon discovers that she is connected to a number of missing women. All young, all telepathic Gifted, all vanished off the face of the earth. 

Marta might have been helping these missing girls, or she might have been hurting them. But Inspector Reis needs to find the truth about who killed Marta and why, and she needs to find where the missing girls go. Because some of them might still be alive out there . . .

IN A NUTSHELL
It was a joy to see that ‘House Of Silence‘ had all the strengths of the first book, ‘The Colours Of Death‘, (original, well-thought-through, character-driven) but with a much-improved control of the pace of the storytelling. The writing was quietly self-assured and the structure was tight and effective at maintaining tension while keeping the focus on the people involved. I enjoyed the first book but the second book was even better. I’ve already added the third book, ‘Broken Oaths‘ (2024) to my TBR pile.

‘House Of Silence‘ (2022) is the second of three books set in an alternative version of contemporary Lisbon where it has been known since the beginning of the twentieth century that a percentage of the population, referred to as ‘The Gifted’ in polite society, is born with telekinetic or telepathic abilities. Inspector Isabel Reis is Gifted and a homicide detective in Lisbon. She’s also very aware that the Gifted are treated as more of a threat than a treasure: assessed as children monitored throughout their lives and increasingly distrusted by ‘regular’ people. 

The first book, ‘The Colours Of Death‘, worked for me both because of how well thought through the impact on our contemporary society would have been if we had recognised the existence of people with telekinetic and telepathic skills and because the story was character rather than concept driven. My only criticism was that the pace of the book lagged a little in the middle. 

‘House Of Silence‘ had the strengths of the first book, ) but with a much-improved control of the pace of the storytelling. Where the first book was an investigation into a spectacular murder, the second book felt more like a thriller. Inspector Reis starts investigating the death of a gifted woman washed up on the shore and quickly becomes involved in trying to uncover the truth about the fate of a large number of Gifted girls who go missing, allegedly into ‘Houses’ that are patronised by Lisobon’s elite.

Although it was structured as a thriller, the story remained character-driven. The secrets, abuses and concealments that Reis uncovers make her consider her own situation both as a Gifted person working for a government that doesn’t trust the Gifted and working with a Gifted community that doesn’t trust the police. Her relationship with her family and her colleagues continued to develop, rounding out her character and making everything feel more personal. 

The writing in ‘House Of Silence‘ was quietly self-assured. The structure was tight and effective at maintaining tension while keeping the focus on the people involved. Every scene moved the story forward and built up my understanding of Inspector Reis. 

I had an even better time with ‘House Of Silence‘ than I did with ‘The Colour Of Death‘. I’ve already added the third book, ‘Broken Oaths‘ (2024) to my TBR pile.