“‘Do you believe Will took his own life?’

The question echoed off the white tiles in the hospital’s cold, cavernous morgue, and I studied my husband in peaceful repose. I leaned down and put my forehead against his. Silent tears ran down my cheeks. They felt hot, and he felt so cold. It was five days since his death, and my grief felt heavy, like a vast, dark mass pushing down on me.

When Maggie’s husband, Will, is shot dead in their London home, she thinks he is the victim of a burglary until the police tell her the shocking news that Will was the one who pulled the trigger.

Maggie is consumed with grief and questions. Will wasn’t suicidal. He had so much to live for.

After the funeral, Maggie travels to their holiday home on a small Croatian island to escape London. She finds a disturbing letter written by Will, containing clues to a dark secret.

As Maggie puts the pieces together, she discovers Will’s death is connected to someone from his past… Someone who will go to extreme lengths to keep Maggie silent.

Three can keep a secret… If two of them are dead.

The international multi-million bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice is back with his first stand-alone thriller, a heart-racing, hold-your-breath read that will keep you hooked until the very last page.”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of Fear the Silence by Robert Bryndza. Fear the Silence was published by Raven Street Publishing on 3rd July 2023 and is available in paperback, audio and digital formats. I chose to read a free ARC of Fear the Silence but that has in no way influenced my review. My grateful thanks to the team at Raven Street Publishing for sending me a finished copy.

I am a HUGE fan of Robert Bryndza’s books. I’ve loved the Detective Erika Foster series from the very start (one of my first reviews on damppebbles was for The Girl in the Ice) and I’ve recently made a start on the Kate Marshall series, which I am loving! So imagine my joy when I discovered that Robert was about to publish Fear the Silence, his first standalone thriller. I could not wait to read it. I was excited to see if the author could turn his hand to a standalone novel. And if you’re wondering, it was as gripping and thrilling as his two series.

Dr Maggie Kendall is devastated to learn that her husband, Will, has taken his own life whilst she was on duty in the Emergency Department. Wracked with grief and confusion, she sets about saying goodbye to her one true love. Deciding to take some time away from London, Maggie heads to the couple’s luxurious holiday home on a small Croatian Island. On arrival, things start to go wrong. Then Maggie finds a letter from Will which makes her wonder what he was involved in. As Maggie begins to dig into Will’s past, she makes a number of shocking discoveries, and puts herself in terrible danger…

Fear the Silence is a tense and thrilling read which proves that Bryndza’s books are absolutely worth the hype. I was drawn into Maggie’s world, I could feel the grief she was emanating and the confusion as to why her husband, who she felt she knew inside out, would end his life in such a brutal fashion. Particularly when things were going so well for them both. I really felt for her, especially as I knew things were probably going to get a lot worse before the end of the book! Maggie was a likeable character who I gradually warmed to. Kudos to the author for making her not a thirty-something year old (she’s 47). The older I get the more it seems that all female lead characters are in their late twenties or thirties so I did appreciate this little detail.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. Fear the Silence is a brilliant addition to the author’s catalogue of work. It’s packed full of menace, tension and bucketloads of lovely suspense. The characters are engaging, the twists and turns are shocking and the direction the author took the storyline in was unexpected. It’s a well-paced tale which kept me turning the pages and immersed in Maggie’s world. I loved the setting which was a Croatian island cut off from help by the stormy weather. It added to the overall feel of impending doom and inescapable isolation. All in all, a thoroughly readable, highly compelling standalone story from one of my favourite authors. I hope there are more standalones to come (along with more Erika Foster and more Kate Marshall, of course!). Recommended.

I chose to read and review a free ARC of Fear the Silence. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Fear the Silence by Robert Bryndza was published in the UK by Raven Street Publishing on 3rd July 2023 and is available in paperback, audio and digital formats (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | Foyles | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

Robert Bryndza is an international bestselling author, best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over five million copies.

His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 1.5 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 29 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016), the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018), and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).

Robert has released a further five novels in the Erika Foster series, The Night Stalker, Dark Water, Last Breath, Cold Blood and Deadly Secrets, all of which have been global bestsellers, and in 2017 Last Breath was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller. Fatal Witness, the seventh Erika Foster novel, has just been published.

Most recently, Robert created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Kate Marshall, a police officer turned private detective. The first book, Nine Elms, was an Amazon USA #1 bestseller and an Amazon UK top five bestseller, and the series has been sold into translation in 18 countries. The second book in the series is the global bestselling, Shadow Sands and the third book, Darkness Falls.

Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels, before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time.

You can find out more about Robert and his books at http://www.robertbryndza.com