The Soundless Scream
Description
Hidden memories haunt a woman whose past holds the key to her unstable present, in this twisty, terrifying psychological thriller.
Sally Baxter has been a victim of trauma almost as long as she can remember. It's what she can't recall that's the problem. After her parents were killed when she was just a teenager, an uncle enrolled her in a French boarding school. What happened there to get her sent home is lost in the deep recesses of her mind . . .
Sally seeks answers while in the care of an unconventional therapist. But when she finds the woman dead--apparently pushed from a window--she becomes the prime suspect in her doctor's murder. An unexpected reunion with a former classmate gives Sally a chance to get away from it all, at least for a while. The longtime friends embark on a road trip through France. But the excitement of Paris, the peace of the countryside, and the sunny beaches don't stop Sally's ghosts from following her. What should be a relaxing jaunt turns into an ongoing nightmare that drains the last of Sally's sanity, sending her spiraling into the heart of madness.
"Gruesome . . . chills." --The Times Picayune
"An accomplished, original and slightly disturbing first novel about a somewhat hysterical young woman given to blackouts, who did not know whether she had thrown her psychiatrist out of the window in one of them or not. Nor will the reader, until the very end." --The Guardian
More details
Person
Michael Butterworth was born in Nottingham in 1924 and served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy during World War II. After the war, he studied and taught art for some years. He turned from drawing children's comic strips to writing scripts for them, quickly graduating to an editorship. Ten years later, he was an editor of women's magazines. Later, he became a full-time writer, which he did with a pet mongoose on his knee. He also had a hawk, peacocks, swans, a Newfoundland dog the size of a donkey, and many cats. He passed away in 1986.