Prey Silence

by Sally Spedding

After enduring six years of his wife Kathy’s depression, Tom Wardle-Smith moves his family from England to Phoenix’s Nest in the South of France, in the hope of saving his marriage from the flames. Their new neighbor, farmer Samson Boeuf, has other ideas – he had failed to secure the land the Wardle-Smith’s purchased, and his hatred of these ‘rosbifs’ fuels his ill-will as he plots to destroy them. In a strange new country with hostile neighbors, homesickness spreads through the family and Kathy plummets deeper into misery, and begins to turn her children against their father. The family’s deteriorating psychological condition is exacerbated by grave events in their new community - people vanishing; menacing phone calls; criminal activity. As Tom starts to believe that Boeuf is behind all this and that his family is in imminent danger, he turns to Natalie Musset, a fearless animal rights campaigner, and together they race to find a way of saving both his family and his marriage.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 29, 2006

Reviews

[Mrs Susan J Bociek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of two halves

The first half of the book gives background.....the welcome of rural France that hates foreigners, blames especially the British for all their woes while they lie idle, on state benefits and unwilling to change. Factor in the abomination of veal production and it's a grim place. The second half deals with the depths that some of these people may go to. After ten years of French life, I was glad to leave. An uncomfortable read.