4-5 stars

“Three may keep a secret if two are dead“. Benjamin Franklin, “Poor Richards Almanac“ 1735.

Will and Maggie have been married for twenty four years, she’s an A&E doctor at St Thomas’ Hospital and he is a former forensic pathologist, now a property developer. It’s near the end of Maggie’s long nightshift, when a man is brought in with a gunshot wound, and, despite the best efforts of the team, he dies. To Maggie’s sheer and utter shock the victim is Will. The police believe he has taken his own life but Maggie refuses to believe he was suicidal as he wasn’t depressed and his new career going well. As for possessing a gun, absolutely not. After the funeral she travels to their Croatian island home where things get even more strange and scary. Does the answer lie in Will‘s past?

This standalone is the novel I’ve enjoyed the most from Robert Bryndza as it’s so easy to read and it pulls you in effortlessly right from the start. It’s action packed and you become desperate for answers. Parts of the book are fear inducing, creepy and chilling and like Maggie, you can scarcely breathe as the tension is sky high. As things, escalate, it’s no longer possible to attribute things to coincidence as the danger levels rise exponentially. The setting on the small Croatian island is fantastic, the atmosphere is menacing and electric with the house, the sea and local characters adding to the suspense and tension. Stormy weather matches the potential storm of Maggie’s discoveries in an exciting fast paced plot that constantly changes with some good twists and turns. I gasp in shock towards the end which is very satisfying as one character gets precisely what they deserve.

This is a very compelling, thrilling, edge of your seat, page turner, and one I recommend to fans of the genre.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Raven Street Publishing for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Excellent story. Fast paced. Very exciting dramatic with great characters.
Loved it from cover to cover. I can't wait to read more books by this author.

Fear the Silence by Robert Bryndza will cause extreme sleeplessness: firstly, because you cannot stop reading, and secondly, because you cannot sleep in the aftermath of the terror you felt reading the book.

I have read all of Robert Bryndza's books. They are all fabulous, but his newest installment is different from his usual mysteries. Fear the Silence is a mystery, but also a bit of a horror novel and is absolutely terrifying. My knuckles are literally white from tensely gripping the book while reading. I'm not typically interested in having the bejesus scared out of me, but this novel is the exception.

A pure adrenaline ride with enough mystery to make me co sistently wonder "how is it going to end?!" right up until the last few pages. Fear of Silence is completely worth the dark circles under my eyes!

I had mixed feelings about this book. The plot is very intricate and the story is very engaging. In a thriller, there will always be a certain amount of suspension of disbelief required, as improbable events will occur, especially in relation to the main character(s). However, in this book the improbable events seem excessive, until very late in the story.. Maggie, the main character, has gone to her summer home on a Croatian island to collect some items belonging to her deceased husband that need to be returned to his family. She receives a letter from her husband, Will, that he wrote years ago and entrusted to a solicitor to mail to her upon his death, and which hints at secrets. So far, so good.

However, as she begins unraveling the secrets her husband had been hiding from her, which involve events that occurred in London, she experiences break-ins to her home and threats on her life, even though the island she is on is very sparsely populated, as it is winter and therefore the off-season for tourists, It also makes no sense that anyone would know what Will had hidden in the summer home or would know or suspect that Maggie knew about the secrets or posed a threat to the person/people whose secrets would be exposed. It is not until very late in the story that the author reveals how these seemingly improbable events were potentially probable.

It is that revelation, along with the overall intricacy of the plot, and the creative manner by which the villain meets her downfall, that made me rate the book as four stars instead of the three star rating I had been anticipating giving.

My thanks to Raven Street Publishing, Robert Bryndza and Netgalley.
I'm all aboard the Bryndza train, but I'll admit that I should have stepped off this one from the beginning.
This is a standalone from this author and I absolutely loathed this book! It started off clumsy and simple? It just felt like it had been written by an inexperienced author. I kept waiting for things to improve, but they never did.
I would recommend every other book from this man. But not this.

Robert Bryndza is one of my favourite authors on the planet for an excellent reason! He’s a writer of extraordinary talents, his first stand-alone thriller Fear The Silent showcases just what a versatile author he is. The book opens with a bang and from there on it an intense read chock full of suspense, action, mystery and the most delicious hidden secrets.
Whilst at work, Maggie’s husband, Will, kills himself in their London home. Maggie is consumed with grief and questions about his death. Something doesn’t add up. After the funeral, Maggie escapes to their holiday home on a Croatian island. She finds a disturbing letter written by Will, containing clues to a dark secret. As Maggie begins to unravel the clues, she finds her own life is in danger.
Tišina a small Croatian island, is the perfect backdrop for this thriller. The authors’ descriptive writing conjures up a place that feels abandoned, claustrophobic, and menacing. You can’t help fearing for Maggie as she’s left isolated, alone and vulnerable. Bryndza expertly plays on this, creating tension and suspense that grows at every turn of the page. One of the strengths of this book is you never know whom you could trust, so the paranoia grows.
This book definitely falls into the category of just one more chapter. It’s not often I struggle to put a book down, but I did! Hence the bags under my eyes from the lack of sleep! So be warned, buckle yourself in for a hell of a read, Fear The Silent is a high octane thriller, it’s nail biting, unpredictable, creepy, and makes for a cracking read. The plot is fast-paced, with more twist and turns than the proverbial roller coaster. This may be Robert Bryndza’s first foray into standalone thrillers, but I am hoping and praying it’s not his last. Highly recommend by me!

My review will be shared to my Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/thebookreviewcafe and all relevant book sites

Awesome thriller!! This book was extremely fast paced with non-stop action, suspense and terror! I felt like my eyes were glued to my Kindle. I just could not put this story down. I personally wanted a little more justice at the end, but I still felt satisfied with the conclusion. Bryndza is a new author to me, so I will definitely be looking for more of his books to read. I think the mystery and thriller fans are going to really enjoy this one!

Thank you to the author, Raven Street Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me digital access in exchange for my honest opinion!!

Thanks Netgalley and the :Publisher. Another page turner from this author. Had me gripped from the beginning.

I'm a huge fan of Robert Bryndza books and immediately had to request his new stand alone thriller, Fear the Silence. However, I am in the minority here as I really didn't like it. I always love a thriller that has some believability about it and I found my imagination stretched to the limits here. A highly successful couple, Will from a wealthy family, formerly a forensic pathologist and now an architect/designer and Maggie a doctor working in A&E. Will commits suicide and Maggie is distraught and cannot believe that he would do this. His family practically immediately freeze her out. She heads to their holiday home in Croatia and is sent a letter from Will from an independent (not the family's) solicitor, written some 6 years earlier. And from here it gets ridiculous. Maggie turns into a super sleuth, able to take pictures off church walls, dive under the sea to a cave where they previously stored wine, all these places that the set up of clues in Will's letter takes her, along with almost getting killed several times in one day. Unfortunately this was a DNF for me, and I am really sorry as I hate to not finish but the overly descriptive paragraphs coupled with the unbelievability of the whole plot had me skimming pages at 50%.

Thoroughly enjoyed this latest novel by Robert Bryndza which kept me enthralled until the final pages. Can't wait until his next book! This wasn't part of a series but was a stand alone book and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who loves a good thriller! It is about Maggie being told by police that her husband Will who she was told had been shot dead in their apartment had in fact committed suicide. Once the reader has read this novel, they will want to read all his previous books which were all excellent!

This is a true thriller of a book, full of menace. I was personally holding my breath for most of the book.

Maggie is a trauma surgeon in a busy hospital in London, happily married to her husband Will, who works as a property developer. Their big personal debate is whether to have a child or not. Will is for it, Maggie is ambivalent since she has a punishing schedule already.

Then the unthinkable happens. Maggie leaves to go to work as usual one day, and Will is shot in their home. Maggie finds out in the worst possible way when she is called to treat a patient with a gunshot wound in her hospital and discovers it is her husband.

Will doesn't make it, and Maggie is devastated. She decides to get away for a while, and travels to a house they own on a small island off the coast of Croatia. Once she gets there, however, it is not the safe, familiar retreat that she was hoping for. Some of the locals she encounters seem vaguely menacing, even the ones she knows well, and she does not feel safe. She doesn't know if she is imagining things or if the danger is real.

Then she receives a letter from Will, telling her that he is afraid that they may not live to grow old together, and giving her a clue for 'the key to her future'. What follows is in a way a treasure hunt, where Maggie feels hunted and watched, and doesn't know who to trust.

When she finally escapes from the island and returns to England, she discovers even more shocking news (and one piece of good news). This is one of those books you don't want to put down, and I highly recommend it for readers who like suspense.

I received an e-ARC from the publisher Raven Street Publishing via NetGalley. It was my pleasure to voluntarily read and review this book.

Terrific thriller that I simply could not stop reading.
Maggie's husband Will is brought into the ER, where she works as a physician, dead of a gunshot wound. She is told by the police that it was self inflicted but she has difficulty reconciling the Will she knew with this version that is being discussed: depressed, unhappy with his job and the list goes on.
None of this is her Will and as she grapples with it all amidst her own sorrow, trying to find a way forward, she starts to wonder just how well she really knew him.
Until it all starts to become a little clearer.
She receives a mysterious letter in the mail from him, mailed by an attorney at her husband's request, should he die. The Ietter changes her entire perspective and Maggie goes on a quest for the truth, visiting their getaway house on the Croatian coast, where it suddenly appears that her life could be in danger.
The story takes off and there is no looking back.
Suspense is non stop as the story line becomes riveting. Characters are so finely developed that you can almost see them standing right in front of you.
Maggie is strong, determined and completely fixated on getting to the truth, despite the threats suddenly springing up all around her.
Great read.
So what's next from Bryndza?
I am very anticipatory👍

So…my husband may be divorcing me because I canceled dinner plans to finish this book. It’s ok, it was worth it.

Maggie Kendall was at work as a trauma surgeon when her husband was brought in. She is told that he took his own life, but she’s struggling with that. Why would he do that? In her grief, she travels to Croatia where she and her husband own a holiday home. While there, she finds herself in perilous circumstances over and over again. She wishes she would have had her husband educate her on the use of their Smart Home technology so things would stop malfunctioning. She’s having trouble settling in due to her constant sense of uncertainty. She wants to leave this menacing island but this is proving difficult due to an impending storm and the fact that someone is terrorizing her.

This thriller is an intense, immersive experience from the very first page. I highly recommend it to all of you adrenaline junkies. Five stars. Thank you, NetGalley and Raven Street Publishing for the ARC. This will hit the shelves on July 6, 2023.

“How can it be that the worst day of my life started out as one of the best?” When Maggie says goodbye to her husband Will, she has no idea that the next time she will see him is when she sees his dead body in the the ER of her hospital. And, believe me, this is not the worst day of her life. For Will, who may or not have committed suicide, has left her a trail of clues and secrets that will lead her on a harrowing search from a nearly deserted Croatian island to parts of Eastern Europe and finally home to England, staying only steps or minutes ahead of some very dangerous people.

Fear the Silence alternates between terror and suspense. You share Maggie’s feeling of not knowing who to trust or where to hide. The scenes on Tišina will have your heart pounding. All the locations are well described and visual. Robert Bryndza never disappoints. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Raven Street Publishing and Robert Bryndza for this ARC.

By adding a bit of fantasy to his conspiracy thriller “Fear the Silence”, Robert Bryndza expanded his genre of published books. It was just as audacious, imaginative and unfailingly fascinating as his other published books.

A thank you to both NetGalley and Raven Street Publishing for this eARC to review.

I've been a fan of Robert’s writing for a long time. I’ve read and loved the Erika Foster series, the Kate Marshall series, and even the earlier Coco Pinchard stories. I just love how he always gets the balance of description and dialogue just right. When he describes the scene, it’s perfect, you get a sense of being there and it all seems effortless. I was delighted to be approved for his first standalone psychological thriller.

Well what can I say? Tense? Terrifying? Terrific? All that and more.....

Following her husband’s horrific death, apparently by suicide using his own gun, Dr Maggie Kendall travels to their remote holiday home on a Croatian island to clear her head and sort out her husband's belongings. It’s out of season – everyone has gone and the hotel on the island is shuttered and boarded up. Only the island caretaker and his son are still on the island. She’s met on the mainland by the man who keeps an eye on their property and does some maintenance but who doesn’t live on the island. He drives her to her house, helps her in, then leaves to catch the ferry. The agreement is he'll be back on the next ferry in a week's time.

Just after he leaves, the postman arrives with some mail which includes a letter addressed to her in her husband's handwriting. She had never really believed her husband had shot himself and she is rather freaked out by the contents of the letter, which suggested he feared his life was at risk. She decides to leave, and go back to London, but misses the ferry and is stuck on the island for a week.

The tension really starts to ramp up. She realises she is very much alone and vulnerable. The first night she makes a 'bed' in the bathroom and locks the doors. When she wakens later she thinks she hears a noise in the house and opens the security app on her phone but discovers there is no wifi and the security cameras aren't working. The alarm hasn't been triggered. A message later pops up on her phone saying there was a power cut lasting 25 mins. She is still terrified and spends a wakeful night in a state of panic, imagining all sorts, going through the contents of the letter, wondering if someone was in the house. If so, who?

She must have fallen asleep eventually and when she wakened it was morning, the cameras were working, the sun was shining and things don't seem quite so terrible. Checking all through the house, knife in her hand, she comes across something that might explain the noise she heard – a bag containing tins of food seemed to have fallen off the counter during the night and some of the tins had rolled across the floor.

But then ... more incidents. A terrifying experience in the swimming pool... immediately followed by an even more terrifying experience when she tries to retrieve her ring which had fallen into an air vent under the windows. while lying on the floor with her arm in the vent trying to get the ring, the electronically controlled glass doors start to close, her necklace catches on a bit of the vent, she's lying across the runners and she can't move.

There's another incident when she falls asleep under a blanket on the sofa watching a film and wakens to hear someone in the room and they seemed to be searching for something. She manages to phone the police on the mainland and gets a message to say they will arrive at 7 am. However when the police boat arrives it can't land because of the adverse weather.

Then, other things happen that make Maggie think someone wants to silence her and she really must leave but her attempts to get back to the UK give rise to even more heartstopping moments.

It's a roller coaster of fear and terror. The pace is relentless. My heart was pounding just reading the story! The story is told in the first person and I felt I was with Maggie all the way.

Robert Bryndza’s crime thrillers are brilliant. He’s a master at setting a scene. When you read his words, you're there and you can sense the atmosphere. There’s a wonderful balance between description, action and dialogue. I’m always hooked from the first pages and unable to put the book down, usually reading into the early hours. Fear the Silence, his first standalone psychological thriller, is no different and takes tension to another level! 

Brilliant!

I was pleased to receive an ARC of this book on NetGalley. I have already read several of the Kate Marshall detective series by this author. I was attracted to read a standalone novel. This book is rich with details, many of Croatia, but also of medical details, diving and traversing across Europe. The protagonist is an emergency doctor whose husband has supposedly committed suicide. Soon, she receives information that his death may be much more complex than it first appears. Then the wild adventure begins, and she is running for her life! This book is fascinating, and his ability for in-depth is great. Though detailed, this book reads surprisingly fast. And the tension builds throughout. I like how he wraps everything up nicely. I will continue to read more novels by this author!

Maggie thought she and Will had the perfect marriage after twenty-four years. Although they were childless by choice, they were getting ready to adopt Luna, a cat, and had just spent a wonderful day together before Maggie had to go to work.
Maggie is shocked when the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot room comes to her ER and turns out to be her husband, Will.
After the funeral, Maggie returns home to find Will’s overbearing mother already there rearranging things in her house. She informs Maggie she had been left Will’s business and their island house in Croatia.
How did she not know he kept a gun in the house? Why would Will take his own life when he seemed so totally happy with everything? How could she survive without him? Maggie will head to the island of Croatia to, hopefully, find the answers to these questions.
But, she is not alone on the island. There is the driver, Branko, and the caretaker, Dragan, and his son, Luka. Can she trust any of them?
Maggie, with the help of her friend, Eric, and her stepfather, George, try to get to the bottom of what was going on with Will. This book will lead you on quite a harrowing adventure as Maggie finally figures everything out. It is a real “page turner”!

Definitely one of the best he was written, I’ve read all his books and they keep getting better and better

What a crazy ride! Once you start this book, you won't be able to put it down. I mean, how much can one person take? The descriptions of being on the island and the diving are incredibly creepy along with the ever changing suspects.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy!