House of Silence by Linda Gillard

From Goodreads

"My friends describe me as frighteningly sensible, not at all the sort of woman who would fall for an actor. And his home. And his family." 

Orphaned by drink, drugs and rock n’ roll, Gwen Rowland is invited to spend Christmas at her boyfriend Alfie's family home, Creake Hall - a ramshackle Tudor manor in Norfolk. Soon after she arrives, Gwen senses something isn't quite right. Alfie acts strangely towards his family and is reluctant to talk about the past. His mother, a celebrated children's author, keeps to her room, living in a twilight world, unable to distinguish between past and present, fact and fiction. 

When Gwen discovers fragments of forgotten family letters sewn into an old patchwork quilt, she starts to piece together the jigsaw of the past and realises there's more to the family history than she's been told. It seems there are things people don’t want her to know. 

And one of those people is Alfie.

My thoughts

First of all can I say that I am a huge fan of Linda Gillard.  I first read this story back in 2011.  It is nine years ago since this book was released.  At the time I gave it a 5 stars or 10/10, on re-reading the story I still give it the same rating.

The reason for my re-read was down to the fact that a Book Group that I am in chose it as one of our recent reads.  The Book Group on the whole enjoyed it and gave it a combined score of 7.5/10.

Like the patchwork quilt in the story, the residents of Creake Hall and their acquaintances formed their own patchwork of secrets and lies.  As Gwen begins to uncover some of the past surrounding her boyfriend Alfie's family, as a result of finding parts of some old family letters that had been sewn into a patchwork quilt.  Many families will have secrets that they would rather had stayed hidden in the past.  Some secrets once revealed can have devastating results on families and can often see families being torn apart due to the revelations.  It's often better that secrets remain hidden, as once revealed there may be no going back.  Can this family cope with the revelations that are uncovered layer by layer?

This was a well written read that kept me engaged from start to finish.  It was every bit as good in my opinion on reading it again, as it was when I first read it.  Whilst, I remembered parts of the story some of it was as if I was reading it for the first time.

If you've not read any books by Linda Gillard then I can thoroughly recommend them, she has a great fanbase of avid readers who devour her books as soon as they are published.