1 am definitely busting my backlist so far this year!
A book that slipped through the net. I do love the stories this author weaves.

So nurse has an accident and she looses not only her hearing but her job and her husband.

That’s tragic in itself, except once she gets her helper (dog) she gets embroiled into a crime when a nurse is found dead…..but what does this mean for her?

Yep, it had me.
I happily read along with this and had a good time.

The book started strong and kept me intrigued, it's not often you have a main character with a disability. Very well written

Omg talk about a roller coaster read wow this book kept me on the edge of my seat threw out I just couldn't put it down this writer keeps you hooked and once your hooked your not letting go I found this book thrilling the characters were fantastic and well thought out and the little clues all the way threw keep you guessing until the end this book stays with you long after you close the book this book is well worth the read I promise you wont be disappointed

I found this book to be quite refreshing in an odd way. It was actually refreshing to read something a bit different. The main protagonist in this book is deaf and the author did this such justice and wrote an amazing book!

Amelia is an excellent character. The author does an amazing job with this character showing us what it would be like to be deaf and lose one of our main senses! The author makes you take a step back and reflect on life.

The book is also full of twists and turns and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I thought I’d enjoy Not a Sound especially as it’s written from the perspective of a deaf person (having personal family experiences of this) however I struggled with it and had to give up, just did not enjoy it and it didn’t hook me in.

This is a fantastic book and would make a brilliant film. It's a modern thriller which I couldn't put down. Amelia is an experienced nurse who was involved in a hit and run accident, 2 years ago. She lost her hearing and now has a hearing dog, Stitch. Amelia has spent the last 2 years drunk and angry as a result her husband, David, asked her to leave as she couldn't be trusted to look after her young step-daughter, Nora. One day out on the river near where she lives, Amelia finds the body of an old friend, Gwen. Not confident with the police's investigation into the murder Amelia decides to do her own detective work. When she gets a part time job at a hospital and is tasked with digitising the patients records she finds missing medical reports which may help lead her to Gwen's killer. Read on!

Not a Sound by Heather Gudenkauf follows Amelia Winn, a hospital ER/ trauma and sexual assault nurse for whom life is good- she's married to David and has a stepdaughter, Nora, who's six at the start of the story, and almost seven by the end. They are a small but close family and Amelia considers Nora to be her daughter after Nora's birth mother has not been in contact for years. David and she have practically bought Nora up.

After a thrilling, action-packed start in which Amelia's world is shattered when a hit and run driver runs her and her colleague Stacey down as they leave work for the day, author Heather Gudenkauf launches us straight into Amelia's life as it is two years later, where she is learning to live again after the accident left her with a severe head injury and profoundly deaf, and Stacey dead.

From that day on, Amelia fights to get her life back on track, wanting justice for her and Stacey, but turns to drink to solve her problems in life.
This, however, is not the answer, and all she does is jeapordise her relationship with David and Nora. Not wanting to give up on anything, she fights for what she feels is right, turning to those she trusts for help.

Another wish of hers is to practice nursing again in spite of her deafness, and she can't hide her surprise when she's taken on as an admin assistant by the local Five Mines Cancer Research Centre in the town of Mathias, Idaho.

Amelia is a keen kayaker, and is drawn into a murder investigation the day she discovers a body by the river while out kayaking with Stitch, and, as the only eye-witness, spends time with her childhood friend, and the town's police detective Jake and the investigation team trying to figure out what happened to cause colleague and friend Gwen's death.

From this moment, the book's plot is full of twists, turns and surprises. Despite the relatively small cast of characters, I felt I knew who was who and was cheering Amelia on in the moments she tried to take parts of the investigation into her own hands. Gudenkauf has created Amelia as a strong and resilient person who takes on the world head-on in spite of her deafness. She is a caring person who really values those who treat her well.

What she goes through in the book and her reactions to life show she is not afraid to confront everybody in her path, and show she is worth a lot as a person despite her hearing loss. She challenges misconceptions, yet creates awareness, and I think that's what I loved about this book, along with its plot.

As a person with disabilities myself, I could identify with not being understood by people and having to deal with misconceptions of people without disabilities. I, too, have a severe sensory impairment , although mine is visual and not hearing. I agreed with Amelia when she mentioned that her other senses were heightened due to the lack of one of them, and that's true because I experience the same thing whether it's because of my physical disability or my sensory one.

The book's plot, synopsis and even title grabbed me instantly and I really wasn't able to put this down. This is a very fast paced, action-packed thriller. I see it also has a very sensitive and personal side to it, too , because Amelia's relationship with her service dog Stitch and also with Jake, a childhood friend and the only person who seems to have to want anything to do with her after the day her life changed, are realistic and touching. Jake is also the only person she knows who knows American Sign Language (ASL) which Amelia relies on for communication, although she is also a proficient lip-reader.

Gudenkauf gets us right into the action at the beginning of the book, and we even learn what we later realise are important facts for understanding the entire book, whatever format we choose to access it in.

Overall for me, Not a Sound by Heather Gudenkauf is a brilliantly written and high-suspense story with elements of mystery that kept me interested and holding on every word. I loved the way that Amelia's deafness was part of, but not the whole story, and how she always saw the good in her deafness and rarely saw it as an impediment. I liked learning about the different technology and other means she had of accessing the world despite her disabilites.

Stitch was just adorable, and I got the sense that the dog, and Amelia, helped each other in complementing ways. Stitch is Amelia's ears and voice and she gave him a new life after he went through the unthinkable with another owner. The author leaves this to the reader's imagination.

This combination makes Not a Sound a truly unforgettable novel and a pleasure to read and review. It is the kind of book I felt I wanted to go back through straight after having finished it, and that means I thought it was great!
Everyone can learn a lot from Heather Gudenkauf's writing, and Amelia's character is made even more realistic because Gudenkauf lives with profound deafness herself. The book helps in raising awareness of deafness, and I think everyone will find enjoyment in it.

I'll finish this review by rating the book. 5 stars, which just isn't enough as it deserves many more than that. Read this book!
A HUGE THANKS to Heather Gudenkauf, and to her publisher for my ARC of this book. Loved it and will be reading more by Heather soon. I think I have just found another favourite author!
Not a Sound is out now!

Not a sound is a thriller with plenty of action.
Amelia and her dog stitch are the main characters in this fast paced thriller. From the opening I knew I was going to love this book due to the writing style, the action at the beginning, the ability to bring you up to speed on how Amelia had lost her hearing and Heather Gudenkaufs ability in only a few pages make me like Amelia.
This book although a good thriller does touch on other sensitive issues like cancer, murder and deafness. Amelia Winn is married to David but are separated, this is due to her accident that left her hearing impaired and made her turn to the bottle. Amelia is trying to get her life back she really wants to get back into nursing and is pleased to be offered a position in a cancer care research centre but this is just to file patient records onto a computer. Stitch is Amelia's hearing dog and are inseparable and have a fantastic bond that grows stronger as the book progresses.
Amelia's life turns for the worst when she finds a dead body whilst out kayaking. The body turns out to be her friend Gwens and she is drawn into the murder investigation when she tries to find out who murdered her friend along with the help of the towns police detective, the delightful jake!
This book made me think while I was reading it what absolute hell it must be to not hear, it made me appreciate that I could because I hadn't thought that what I take for granted like hearing a telephone ring, someone creeping up behind me! someone else doesn't get that luxury.
This was a great read and will read more by Heather in the future.
I would like to thank netgalley and HQ for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.

Great book that kept me entertained. Love the author.

I really enjoyed this fast paced thriller. For me though it wasnt so much the story as the characters. I felt that I really knew them and was concerned about what happened to them. I could quite easily read another book with these characters. I felt the lead character Amelia was protrayed well and her deafness was dealt with sympathy . I felt the relationship between her and her service dog Stitch was wonderful. The description of her home and place where she lived was real and you could sense the cold and isolation.
As for the story I did guess what was going on about a third way through and it was very fast paced and action packed towards the end.
A good thriller

Heather Gudenkauf’s books fit into a mix of genres leading with a strong element of crime fiction, defiantly thrilling whilst ultimately being triumphantly character but let’s don’t forget they also include issues as well as the spark of romance, all of which provides something for everyone without becoming a jack of all trades and master of none.
Amelia Winn is profoundly deaf following a hit and run accident. Cut adrift from the nursing work she loved she hits the bottle much to the fury of her husband David who needs to be able to trust her with his young daughter Nora. We meet her two years after the accident when out on the river with her service dog, Stitch, she finds a body. What happens next is terrifying and mysterious in equal measures.
The atmosphere in this book is ramped up by Amelia’s isolation, not only through her hearing loss but the fact that she has decamped from the marital home to an isolated cabin where she is slowly trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. It is impossible not to feel some sympathy for the poor woman who has cut herself off from her former friends, with only policeman Jake, her brother’s best friend, as a constant in her life. Jake has encouraged her to stop drinking and now she is ready to try to start work again, sadly not as a nurse but she’s applied for an admin job for an oncologist. The two strands build up a real picture of Hannah’s life and I liked the fact that although she had lost the early battles for her true self, she is no victim, she accepts that she could have handled things differently and that the loss of David and Nora in her life is as a direct result of how she acted.
There’s quite a lot going on in this book and I spent the first half or so imagining that the book was going to veer off in a totally different direction than it did but that’s not to say the author cheated the reader, the case was that I thought I knew better! As well as the well-researched hearing loss storyline the author, inspired by her son’s cancer, the strand that takes us into the files that Hannah works on as she updates the surgeon’s records. And of course at the heart of the book is a solid mystery. Who is the murderer and what was their motive?
I raced through this book and enjoyed the variety as well as the strong characters and exceptionally visual descriptions that the author paints for the reader. Although I felt there were a few occasions when the author repeated Hannah’s thoughts to ensure her readers got the point this was nicely balanced by the brilliant action scenes where the author gently reminds us how Hannah’s hearing loss means she has extra obstacles to overcome. With an ending that deliberately doesn’t sew up all the loose ends this book had a real feel of realism to it, which is always a bonus.
I have enjoyed so many of Heather Gudenkauf’'s books, each one telling a very different story but all having a solid plot, great pacing and best of all being utterly compelling.
I’d like to thank the publishers HQ for allowing me to read an advance copy of Not A Sound, this review is my unbiased thanks to them.

Amelia Winn's life is altered forever when she is the victim of a hit and run accident outside of the hospital where she worked as a nurse. Two years later and Amelia is finally starting to pull herself out of the alcoholic whirlpool of depression that sucked all that was good from her life - her career, her husband, her home, her step-daughter.

Adjusting to being deaf, Amelia is beginning to dip her toe back into the real world with the help of her dog Stitch and her old family friend, Jake. And the first step is getting a job. But just as things appear to be improving, Amelia comes across a dead body while paddle boarding and finds herself caught up in a murder investigation. Because not only does she recognise the victim, Gwen, she used to be one of Amelia's close friends until Amelia had shut everyone out after the accident.
As Amelia and Jake, who also happens to be a police officer, try to unravel the mystery behind Gwen's death, strange things start happening to Amelia. Could there be a link between Amelia's accident and Gwen's murder? And as Amelia begins to piece it all together, who can she really trust?

NOT A SOUND by Heather Gudenkauf is such a compelling and gripping story of lies, secrets, and betrayals that will leave your mouth agape in shock. I really admired Amelia as she tries to navigate a world that she once knew so well, but is now completely foreign and new to her now that she can no longer hear. She is an independent, strong, and realistic character with her own flaws which made it very easy to connect with her as a character.
Stitch is such a loveable rogue and really added that something extra special to the book. As the plot unfolds and the danger becomes more real, everything is heightened and more tense as Amelia tries to protect herself and uncover the truth at the same time, all the while not sure who she can trust. Well-paced and completely thrilling from start to finish, NOT A SOUND by Heather Gudenkauf is an excellent psychological thriller that will leave you breathless.

An enjoyable thriller with a deaf main character which brings an original aspect to the novel.

Not a Sound is a solid novel about a deaf nurse, Amelia, who is starting to put her life back together after dealing with the trauma of losing her hearing in an accident. Amelia has lost much - her family, home, sobriety, job and friends - but just as she is making positive strides, she and her service dog, Stitch, discover a body of someone she knows. Finding out what happened becomes a compulsion she cannot turn away from.

I liked Not a Sound and found it a rather tame affair. Her relationship with Stitch is one most dog owners would recognize and appreciate. The plot does hold a number of tense moments but I did foresee how events would unfold. Though it was good the story wasn't gripping as many thrillers are. But, it still manages to keep the reader glued to the pages to find out how a deaf woman will cope in her unorthodox investigation. Can she find the answers before she, too, becomes a victim? You've got to read it to find out.

Not A Sound

I've read a few of Heather's books and they never fail to grab me. Her books are the sort that keep me up long into the night because I just need to know what happens next. Not A Sound was no exception.

I'm not going to retell the blurb as you can read that yourself just fine! Told entirely through the voice of Amelia; our protagonist who lost her hearing in a freak accident, you can't fail to be drawn into her world. To feel the frustrations she feels and the sense of loss, to want her independence while being vulnerable and to want to be believed when it starts to look like she's losing her mind.

I absolutely loved this book. I love her style of writing, I love the subjects that she writes about and I love the twists that she weaves into her tales. I highly recommend this book and will now wait patiently for Gudenkauf's next novel! Five shiny stars from purplebookstand.

Being slightly hearing impaired myself I was looking forward to reading, what I believe to be, my first ever novel featuring a deaf protagonist. Amelia lost her hearing in a hit and run incident whilst trying to protect a patient. This is not a spoiler it all happens in one of the most gripping opening to a novel I have read. She then descends into depression and alcoholism and loses her husband and beloved stepdaughter. Don't panic though she does have the cutest dog in the world looking out for her (I need a Stich in my life) Whilst out paddle boarding one day she discovers the body of a former colleague in the water and becomes embroiled in a mystery that could cost her everything she has left in her life.
This is not a massive who dunnit as the cast of characters is quite small for me it was more of a why? Being British and unfamiliar with the US health system I was slower to catch on than other readers I'm sure but when I did it was a truly horrifying scenario. A great read and the final chase scene needs to be filmed. Please.

Read this book on holiday in one sitting it was that good

I'm a huge fan of this author's work and this book didn't disappoint. Full of mystery and intrigue, psychological thriller readers will love this.

We meet Amelia who is deaf following an accident at work. Amelia is coming out the other side of a depression after her accident and would love to return to work. Missing her first job interview after finding the body of her ex colleague in the water, her life takes on a different path for a little while until the killer is found. Who would harm her friend and colleague? Why are there files missing in her new data entry job? Why is her ex husband acting suspiciously? Thank goodness for her friend, policeman to help keep her safe. I really enjoyed this book and the ending wasn't what I was expecting which is always a plus point.

Heather Gudenkauf has done it again! Another thrilling read that captivated me from the start and kept me hooked all the way through. I am a fan of Heather since stumbling across her books in my local library a couple of years ago. Since then I have eagerly worked my way through her titles, and have never been disappointed. Not a Sound is no exception.

What I love most about Heather’s work is how not only does she deliver a thriller that keeps you intrigued and engaged in the action, but she will add other dimensions that as a reader I find thought provoking and increase my awareness of difference. In this book the main character is profoundly deaf following a road accident a couple of years before. Whilst I know a couple of people that have hearing impairments it had never really dawned on me what it must be like to lose such an important sense, and how much it subconsciously aids us in so many ways.

Amelia is a nurse who, like I mentioned, had her world turned upside down after being in an accident that resulted in her deafness. Since then things have spiralled downwards for her, and when we meet her she is a bit of a mess, but determined to turn things around. Whilst out she discovers a body, and having known the person, and being in a small community, Amelia wants answers as to what happened.

Cue Amelia becoming like a dog with a bone and cant let go until she knows. Trouble is that with her intrigue comes potential danger and the perpirtator wants to shut her up. And so begins a game of snakes and ladders where she makes headway, falls back, starts her come back, but will she reach the end and be victorious?

The book is brilliantly written and really did build up a sense and visual of Amelia and her service dog Stitch so well I felt like I was part of the book. Like Amelia I like to try and solve mysteries so I enjoyed being with her and tyring to suss it all out. I felt that Heather managed to create a scene that as a reader really drew me in, and it definitely had me gripped.

I really enjoyed Not a Sound, and although I did work out ‘whodunnit’ it didn’t end there, and so I still had my heart racing all the way until the end. Can’t wait to see what Heather writes for us next.