Unspoken

by Samantha Hayes

A devastating emotional thriller, UNSPOKEN is a roller-coaster ride of trauma and suspense .A secret is about to destroy a family in Sam Hayes' breathtaking follow-up to BLOOD TIES...Mary Marshall would do anything for her daughter Julia. A devoted grandmother to Julia's children, she's always been the rock her family can rely on. Until now. Mary has a past Julia knows nothing about, and it's come back to haunt her... Murray French is walking a tightrope. A solicitor struggling with an alcohol problem, he's about to lose his wife Julia and his children to another someone successful, someone they deserve. Someone who's everything he's not. Can he ever get his family back? Just when Julia Marshall thinks life is starting to turn around, she stumbles upon the brutalised body of a girl she teaches. And as the terrible present starts to shed light on her mother's past, Julia realises her family's nightmare is only just beginning...

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Fiction, Crime, Suspense

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Hello!

Thanks for stopping by my Goodreads page!

My latest psychological thriller THE ENGAGEMENT is out on 10th January 2023 from Amazon, available in ebook, paperback and audio formats. I do hope you love it!


If you love a good 'domestic noir' thriller that will mess with your mind and keep you turning the pages, then my books are for you! You can check out all my titles on my Amazon page here:

https://amzn.to/3jZ83zU

I do hope you'll love getting stuck into my books and enjoy reading them as much as I love writing them. And do let me know what you think - it's great to hear from readers! You can get in touch via my website where you'll find lots of info about me and my books - www.samanthahayes.co.uk or come and 'Like' my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SamanthaHayesAuthor or follow me on Twitter too @samhayes or @samanthahayes.author on Instagram.

Happy reading!

Samantha xx

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Marshall has been a loving mother to her daughter Julia and she adores Julia's children. Mary has always been the strong one in the family always doing what she could whenever she could. Nevertheless, it seems, Mary has been hiding a secret from her past which might be about to come back and haunt her. Could this ruin her family?

In the meantime, Julia also has her own troubles, but just when things look to be improving they get worse and Julia's not sure how or if she will be able to get through it all.

Unspoken was an enjoyable read which had a few twists and turns throughout the story. Worth reading.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a strange read for me. At times, I felt the story to be so compelling that I couldn't put it down. Then it would take a turn for the worse and I couldn't wait for it to be over. It was almost as if two different people wrote the story. I loved Mary's POV and Julia's left me bored. Murray's POV was a bit more interesting than Julia's, but not much. I think Mary's parts of the story were the most riveting and intriguing. The ending was okay, I had begun to suspect who had attacked Grace, but I wasn't entirely sure. This is one of those books that I'll probably forget in a couple of days, none of it stands out enough to remember.

[Ros Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up. Had potential but found all the characters annoying and the plot unrealistic. Annoyed me greatly to realise that the characters were much younger than they read, therefore the grandma (one of the main characters) is late 50’s tops, but we had to hear about her long grey hair and being unsteady on her feet etc. This woman is my age. Infuriating!! Good plot twist at the end but the rest of it could take or leave.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pacy page turner, but I became infuriated by the female protagonist. Julia was a complete nitwit. I wanted to give her a good slap. Highly improbable story line but a good quick read.

[Fictionophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review of "Unspoken" can be found on my blog: Fictionophile

[Fiona BookDragon4Life · Rating 3 out of 5]

The storyline was ok. Didn’t really get attached to any of the characters and basically called the ending half way through

[Lorna · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review will be similar to some others I'm afraid. A real mixed read for me. I like alternating chapters, giving the story from different views and that worked well here, although it did (intentionally?) give away a major plot element early on, and left me feeling quite uneasy about the whole story going forward. Strangely, I read all the characters as much older than they turned out to be so had to rethink that slightly.

Mary's story was compelling and believable. Murray made sense. Julia was just plain irritating and honestly, a good read could have been made just out of Mary's story and seeing that through to the end, without Julia even being there (with tweaking obviously - says me, who has never written anything in my life!). The twist at the end was good and I didn't see the ultimate reveal coming until very close to the end.

Not a bad read at all, and I can be a bit impatient with flakey or overly emotional characters sometimes, so that may account for my irritation with Julia. Worth a read just for Mary's story.

[Horace Bear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julia leaves her alcoholic husband and goes to stay with her mother, Mary, but when she gets there instead of finding her usually active, happy mother she finds her mute, sitting in a chair and having not washed for a couple of days. Mary has had a shock when she visited the new local doctor to find it was someone from her past, someone bad enough to shock her into inertia.

Julia comes across a badly beaten school pupil whilst out walking her dog and is shocked when her new love interest, her mother’s new doctor, is under suspicion. She refuses to believe he is capable of such an act but Mary hopes he will be convicted.

I think the reveal of the story was utterly unbelievable and it made me question whether I would read another of Hayes books, as this is the second one I feel she has stretched the bounds of imagination too far.

[Hans Brienesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that I initially found difficult to get into due mainly due to frequent changes of narrator. Once I overcame that however I found myself getting really involved especially with Mary. An unforseen subtle twist at the end completed this book nicely. A book for thinkers.

[Lizzy Appleby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowzers! what a great read!

I wasn’t sure about this story in the beginning… but the more I read, the deeper I became invested. I’d kind of guessed the storyline, but even then, there were twists and turns. Revelations. Really good story

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A secret that unhinged a family is about to come out unless Murray can uncover and stop it

[LaNae Cherry]

Stupid

[Maureen Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good until the end. I didn.t like the ending, it was just wrong

[Susan Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Winner!

I recently discovered Samantha Hayes and have since read about 6 of her books. I recommend her- for this genre, she is one of the best!!

[Rach ~ bookishreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read by Sam Hayes!

[Kathiey V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will round this one up to 4.5 it was worth the read.

[Olga Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, right up until the disappointing ending...

[carolyn croft · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book to read well written right to the end Mary's story through 30 years and Julie and Murray growing up and there love life .

[Dennis Elten · Rating 4 out of 5]

NL Versie:
Unspoken is weer een geweldige thriller uit de pen van Samantha Hayes toen bekend als Sam Hayes. Unspoken neemt je mee in het verhaal van een stel dat in scheiding ligt met op de achtergrond het verhaal van de moeder en een geheimzinnige dokter.

Het boek Unspoken heb ik gekocht bij een kraampje in Liverpool dat tweedehandsboeken verkocht. Dit een paar maanden nadat ik Samantha Hayes in levende lijve had ontmoet. Dit maakte dit boek heel bijzonder omdat het in het land van de auteur zelf gekocht is.

Maar terugkomend op het verhaal. Het verhaal wordt verteld uit het perspectief van de moeder, de dochter en haar bijna ex man. Het bijzondere is dat de flashbacks van de moeder verder terug in de tijd gaan. Om er zo achter te komen waarom zij niet meer praat. Door het hele verhaal krijg je puzzelstukjes die naarmate het verhaal vorderd op hun plaats vallen. Het nadeel is dat een van de grootste twists in het verhaal van makkelijk te raden is.

Het liefdesverhaal van de twee bijna exen is stevig neergezet en boeit ook tot de laatste zin. Het verhaal van de moeder ging mij iets te lang door en gaf al veel weg van de grote twist aan het einde. Desalniettemin is Unspoken een razend spannende thriller die de lezer bij de keel grijpt en niet laat gaan.

English Version:
Unspoken is another wonderful thriller from the mind of Samantha Hayes, then known as Sam Hayes. Unspoken is the story of a couple in the motions of getting divorced. On the background we have the story of the woman’s Mother and a mysterious doctor.

I bouth the book Unspoken in a secondhand store in Liverpool. A few months before I had a chance to meet Samantha Hayes in real life. This makes it a very special book to me, also because I bought the book in the author’s country.

The story is told from the perspective of the mother, the daughter and here ex-husband to be. The mothers perspective is told in flashbacks with the meaning to find out why she does not speak anymore. The story is made up from pieces of a puzzle that keep you invested in the story. The only I had a problem with was that one of the biggest twists was very easy to guess.

The love story of the two almost exes was very believable and interesting. The story of the mother was a bit to dragged out and gave a very big hint to a giant twist at the end. But in total Unspoken is a extremly exciting thriller that grabs hold of the reader and does not let go.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book written from the viewpoint of a couple, Murray and Julia, on the verge of divorcing and Mary Julia's mother.

Mary is found mute by her daughter who visits for Christmas Day and the story revolves around what happened to cause this. Running parrallel is about a local girl who Julia finds badly hurt nearby. The local GP David steps into help with Mary and Julia falls hard for him.

I'm not going to ruin the story because although a lot of it is fairly obvious I found myself eager to find out exactly what happened to all concerned. Some parts of the story are not convincing at all but still well worth a read.

[ZiWei Puah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The books was... average at best. It was written from the perspective of three characters (Murray, Mary and Julia), and it was excuted quite well. Mary's storyline was, by far, the best. Although, it did get confusing to read at times as the writer jumped from the 70s to present day in a matter of paragraphs without prior notice. Murray's was good, it made you feel for him. It was the romantic part of the story. Julia's, however, felt very forced. And in a way it was forced as without this character the story would not exist. She's the mandatory glue that bores you.

2.8/5 stars.

[Doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

i have mixed feelings towards this book. i dislike julia very much, i guess one has to forgive her since she was on a rebound. but still… come on! just because an older man (a second one btw) sorts of took a liking on you, it didn't mean that he was into you.
apart from her, the story is good (though a tad long-winded to me) and it is something that one would expect from the author.

[Marisa Fidalgo Barrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante libro cuya trama engancha de manera progresiva. Curiosa estructura con los tres personajes principales como narradores de manera alternativa. La historia de una mujer que guarda un oscuro secreto que afecta a la vida actual de su hija, ya de por sí complicada, a la del marido de esta y a la suya propia. Uno pasa por sentir aprecio por los personajes o odiarlos y querer que se espabilen de una vez y aprovechen su vida.

[Gail Burns]

This book was unputdownable! Written in the viewpoint of each main character in individual chapters, storyline overlapped each other. This is always an interesting way of reading, as you get everyone's perspective on the issue. Only thing is it builds the suspense to screaming pitch! Didn't suspect the guilty party at all - a total surprise. Breathless

[Judith Yeabsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chose some chick lit for the holidays but didn't get around to it then. This was a great plane/beach book. Pacy, interesting, lots of twists and just a good fun read. I would read more of her books (if my library stocked more than one of each author besides the LCD Danielle Steels etc.).

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing story with twists and turns that kept me eagerly reading and guessing until the end! Fortunately all questions were answered and it was a fulfilling conclusion...a feature I believe is a must in this story genre. A most satisfying read.

[Lynette · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointed in this novel as I generally enjoy this author. Really thought it went on
and on about nothing much and I can't find much to say about it that is positive! Did like her
usual twist at the end though.

[Maya Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Julia had a right to read the content of the letter!! How ever loathsome she was she deserved to know who her father is. David deserved to go to jail yes, but not for murder or kidnapping. He should've went for the rape.

I

[Estelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

So well written. Fantastic charcters that could be truly identified with. Can't wait to read more by this author

[Estelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful plot with lots of twists.
Dealing with the full range of human emotion