Muted Veil

by Elizabeth Hamilton-Smyth

When Frances concocts an elaborate plan to escape today's world of surveillance, her hopes are soon crushed by long-buried secrets, entwining her life with others forever. Having fled to a remote village in the south-west of France, she employs Julien, a mute builder, to renovate her house. Communicating by notes written on pages torn from a jotter, they form a strange, silent bond, but when a newcomer moves into the neighbouring property, followed by furtive men inspecting her land in the dead of each night, Frances' concerns for her privacy spiral. While fighting to defend her covert existence, fear soon turns towards murder, and Frances finds she uncovers a series of gruesome, historic events...

386 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 20, 2019

Reviews

[Peter Cameron-Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most intelligent and absorbing books that I have read in a long time. Having lived in France, the setting is familiar and beautifully described, and it makes a perfect backdrop for the enthralling story that unfolds. I'm a huge fan of books that allow you to see a story from different angles, and this book is a perfect example of that technique. There is much more that I would like to praise, but I don't want to spoil the surprises that await the reader. Highly recommended. Just one word of advice, don't read this book just before bedtime - it's almost impossible to put down, and you'll still be engrossed at 3 in the morning! (Just one more chapter ...!)

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muted Veil tells the story off a woman named Frances who decides she wants a new start and to go off the grid, but even off the grid dangers arise. That is, of course, a very watered down version. She finds herself ill, meeting mysterious friends, and in very strange circumstances, giving you a thrilling page turner.

I think we can all identify with Frances a bit by wanting to completely go off grid. However, while reading the book I did feel as though she was a bit paranoid. Then again, when you have had all the experiences she has, I don’t blame her.

I also found it a bit funny that she escapes to France and still finds herself in trouble. I have to say, this is the first mystery thriller book I read that takes place in France. Typically with a French backdrop you expect some long lost romance to pop up or a mysterious family heirloom. Surprisingly refreshing and I enjoyed the authors take on it.

[Valery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muted Veil by Elizabeth Hamilton-Smyth is a beautifully written book, and Smyth is an author to watch. The story is intriguing right from the start as the main character Frances has a ton of issues, surveillance paranoia being at the top of her list. When she is further diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, she makes the decision to escape the overly watched England, and moves to France. A hefty inheritance helps her in that endeavor, and we feel as readers that she is on the right track to find some serenity in her life. But all is not as it seems, as the house she buys has secrets of it's own. The quality of the writing flows so well, and is so melodious, that you might forget the author is crafting a substantial plot. Unnerving, yet with a message that resonates on many levels, this novel is highly recommended. Looking forward to more from this author.

[Thomas Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Hamilton-Smyth has France in her bones

This is a story that could have been written by Victor Hugo and filmed by Alfred Hitchcock. It's an intriguing mystery revolving around a family, artfully narrated by three people. The plot twists are unpredictable but reasonable and keep the reader engaged to the end. But the best part of the book by far is Hamilton- Smyth's depiction of the French countryside and its citizens. It shows a deep understanding of France that will delight anyone who loves that country and its people.

[Janet Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story of self-preservation, loyalty and connection. Hamilton-Smyth steers us into a dark world of secrets, revenge and murder while pin-pointing aspects of human nature not often discussed. The style of writing is almost hypnotic, each sentence flows at a beautiful pace, and the reader cannot resist being drawn into the plot. Told in three parts by the three principle characters, little by little the pieces fall into place. I have not read anything so well-written for some years and would recommend this novel to anyone.

[Dana klingler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this

Very exciting I really liked it. I finished it in one day as I couldn't put it down. I kinda wanted more at the end

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Don’t worry, Pierre-Yves. Don’t worry. There will be no digging done on that piece of land. You can leave that with me.’

British author Elizabeth Hamilton-Smyth began her career owning and in charge of a manufacturing company. En exposure in translating another author’s book from French to English provided the spark to begin writing her own books. MUTED VEIL is her debut novel that deals with analyzing the intricate details of the human mind and its response to external provocation – a subject that is very much in the forefront of the minds of is all as we move in to the era of AI and IT and the loss of privacy. Elizabeth lives in Devon, England.

As in a moment of secret confession Elizabeth’s main character shares her mental and physical state – ‘A violation of my core, my being, my mere existence has forever troubled my soul. From childhood to this moment, this terror has possessed me, confined, threatened me, and hindered my evolution. Cold, vile hands feed upon my affliction. Fingers tighten, constricting my throat, striving to expel my last gasp of breath, ruthless, malignant, and determined to provoke a premature end to my ineffectual life. I have endeavoured so very often to conquer this beast; so many times, times now countless, have I struggled to escape its disparaging wrath.’

Elizabeth has created a spellbinding novel, exceptionally well written, and has molded our near universal fear of paranoia in an age of surveillance of every kind – outside intruders, the deprivation of privacy working with computers and cell phones and social media etc – and used this issue of fear in a most unique manner. How to retain our individuality in this encroaching atmosphere is key to the driving force of her debut novel.

Her synopsis distills the plot without depriving the reader of the resolution of the mystery: ‘When Frances concocts an elaborate plan to escape today’s world of surveillance, her hopes to live off the radar are soon crushed by long-buried secrets which will entwine her life with others forever. Having fled to a remote village in the south west of France, she employs Julien, a mute builder, to renovate her house. Communicating by notes written on pages torn from a jotter, they form a strange, silent bond, but when a newcomer moves into the neighbouring property, followed by men inspecting her land in the dead of each night, Frances’ concerns for her privacy spiral. While fighting to defend her covert existence, fear soon turns towards murder, and Frances finds she uncovers a series of gruesome, historic events…’

Thrilling mystery of a terrifying nature fill every page. This new writer has not only the gift for writing fine literature but also the creative imagination to spin tales that are unique and keep us guessing. Highly recommended.

[The Endless Unread · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very cleverly written book. I devoured this in one sitting as it I just wanted to keep turning those pages to find out what happens. I cannot recommend this book enough. Absolutely first rate work and I look forward to reading more from this author.

[Clifford Thurlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spiders build intricate webs from fine translucent material designed to draw in their prey. Elizabeth Hamilton-Smyth has concocted the same stratagem to draw readers into 'Muted Veil' and, once you have entered the pages, you can’t get out. Not that you want to.

And speaking of webs, that’s just what Frances wants to avoid, not those spun by the arachnids, but the world wide web, the six million closed circuit cameras across the United Kingdom, that tightly-woven electronic imbroglio that reaches into our lives like a cloud of poison to realign our thoughts, words and deeds. Frances escapes to the countryside in France here she communicates in antediluvian script, that is hand-written notes rather than MSN, with the tanned mute constructor remodelling her maison de campagne.

Then a stranger appears. There are noises in the nightly. Footsteps. Frances came to la vallee de la Leze to find privacy and finds herself drawn into a dark mysterious and violent past from which she may never escape. The book enters a new phase and you are gripped - in the web.

But enough of plot. There are secrets and secrets must be learned first hand. 'Muted Veil' is a wonderfully written mystery by a writer at the height of her powers and, to draw on that old cliché, I really couldn’t put it down.

[Loren Lockner · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I felt transported back in time during the first chapters of the Muted Veil, feeling like I was imbedded inside a Poe story. Then, using the artful descriptions and narrative style of Mary Stewart, the story advances to the next stage and the reader is hooked in a modern-day psychological mystery, The narrator, a graphic designer named Frances, has an extreme paranoid personality, and, as the novel begins, lives her life in isolation, absolutely certain she is being surveilled and followed by who knows who. She is subject to nightmares regarding a decaying corpse and Frances always feels intruded upon and under attack. A chance friendship with an elderly Frenchman sets the wheels in motion for her to start a new life in France after learning she is his sole beneficiary. Suffering from Ménière’s Disease, she finds a new home in a quaint French village where no cameras lurk and she can live her life in peace. However, her serenity begin to unravel as she discovers a cover-up involving her mute handyman, Julien, and newfound friends, Pierre-Yves and his wife, Valarie. This exceptionally well-written and engrossing mystery, entraps the reader in its pages to the shocking end. Highly recommended!

[Pegboard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through the information provided by her client, Frances, realizes the extensive surveillance in her community. She already had issues, preferring solitude over companionship, but this new knowledge started a downward spiral into paranoia. Her discovery of having Meniere’s disease only makes matters worse since the intense vertigo, ringing in the ears, and headaches require her to avoid too much stress.

After receiving an inheritance, Frances begins her escape from England to France. She finds the perfect private house and hires a handy man to begin renovations. She left the city only to find that small villages often have secrets buried, literally, on her new property. This starts a whole new surveillance she tried avoiding when a neighbor starts building on the border.

The Muted Veil will touch your heart with the intense struggle for love, freedom, and forgiveness the three main characters seek. Elizabeth Hamilton-Smyth has a unique style of drawing the reader into the lives of Frances, Pierre-Yves, and Julian. I really enjoyed reading this novel and look forward to other books from this author.

[Sanjin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good mystery, it kept me interested from first to last page. Frances is our main character here, and she moves from England to France trying to move away from everything and seeking peace of mind from constant surveillance in her country. But, quickly things become not so pleasant for her and all kinds of troubles come right in her lap.
Main thing that I love about this novel is great pace and suspense, the author really knows how to keep her readers on the edge of the seat. This is one of those books that you swear are glued to your hands because you can’t put them down before last page. And there is my second favorite thing about this book, the ending. I won’t spoil it, but it works really well and I was surprised. This is simply an excellent thriller/suspense/mystery novel and as such, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

[Jimmy Jefferson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystery, murder, running to a new life far away

This is a great story of our main character, Frances, running to a far away village with the thoughts of dropping off the grid and living a humble quiet life. After a short time in this new French village , a neighbor moves in and the beginning of the end could be coming at Frances like a storm on the horizon. Night visitor come in search of buried secrets and the battle for survival begins. Follow Frances as she tries to keep her sanity among the danger and deciept growing on her land. Great story and we'll developed characters. A must read for all the mystery murder fans. Check it out folks this one is a keeper.

[Ted Tayler · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Remarkable"

I admire writers with the skill and intelligence to produce work of this quality. The plot is intricate and totally believable. Characters have complex backgrounds and ambitions. Everything that can be included to raise this story to another level is there. The French setting was perfect. This won't be a quick or easy read for many, but every now and then we need to absorb ourselves in something that offers a different perspective on life. This could be what you're looking for.

[Sarah Woodgate · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the French countryside as a beautiful backdrop, Muted Veil draws the reader into an intricate tale of secrets, murder and revenge. The story is narrated by three of the characters and spans a thirty-year period. The author’s style is almost hypnotic while linking each event with panache. A real page turner and one not to be missed.

[Nigel Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book not only for the crafted plot, but the quality of writing and unnerving style. A brilliant compelling read.

[Lynne Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever, intriguing and thoroughly entertaining

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamilton Smyth takes what might have been a routine mystery story and turns it into an extremely tense adventure by creating a heroine with an unusual personality disorder. Frances is obsessed with her personal privacy—so much so that she takes medication to help her control the anxiety her disorder causes her. Unfortunately for her, the modern world is not kind to people who don’t want others knowing what they are doing. Google and its corporate pals spy on everything. The government keeps humongous volumes of information on all of us. Cameras mark our cars’ comings and goings in the streets. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg when you start thinking about shopping, banking, and everything else we do.

Frances decides to leave England and resettle in a small town in southern France to escape everyone’s prying eyes and live quietly with her four cats. She plans her escape in meticulous detail and carefully settles into her new property where she hires (for cash) a handyman to fix up the house and put a fence around her land. Then things go crazy. A new boisterous neighbor buys the house next door and immediately starts intruding on her property. He claims the fence is on his land and his building plans would steal from Frances her sense of safety from prying eyes. She reluctantly engages a lawyer to fight his plans and he physically threatens her.

Now this is the part of the tale where a normal person would go to the police and lodge a complaint—but Frances can’t do that. Police keep records and her disorder doesn’t permit her to get help in the normal fashion, so she has to figure out what is going on and find a solution to her problem on her own.

All of that (Part I of the novel) is great! It’s fast moving, engaging, and suspenseful. I was particularly pleased that I solved the mystery on my own (I don’t always do that) and was shocked by the eventual solution to the problem. Unfortunately, Hamilton-Smyth then spends the next two-thirds of the novel giving details on how the problem that caused the land dispute occurred. I thought all of this was implicit in what Frances discovered in her investigation. I would have much preferred the author to show how Frances—with her peculiar disability—handled the aftermath to the solution to her problem with her neighbor. I see no way for her to keep the authorities from becoming involved and the stress this would have caused her would both further stoke the reader’s sympathy and create a different kind of drama. Perhaps Hamilton-Smyth will show us that in a later book.

That being said, the basic mystery is a very good one and the decision to go with a heroine suffering from Frances’ disability was ingenious. This one is well worth reading.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Anne Secher · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.*

Until I reached part 2, I kept thinking I'd give this thriller 3 stars, but I was wrong and I'm glad it happened.

In the first part, you think this is more of a cosy mystery; one that was to be solved by Frances, the MC presented to you in that section. Frances moves from England to France, where she means to hide from the world and makes some friends she, at some point, doubt are such. She starts investigating and finds herself in trouble.

She reminded me to Eleanor Oliphant and the narrator was quite flat in her voice.

However, the author has several surprises and twists that take you into a world in which nothing is at it seems. A horrible father and a few affected people who end up being unjustly accused of crimes the did not commit, a couple out of their mind forever.

I absolutely loved the twists and how she reveals their background stories.

The narrator did not help the story. I think she should have given a different voice to each character and given more emotion to each one of them. This is why the book did not get a higher rating from me.

I'd recommend reading it.

[Elle Klass · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't quite what I expected but was good nonetheless. Frances I thought was quite paranoid, anything beyond normal. She wanted to get away, hide herself from the world. She finds a house in the country and thinks she can escape being "watched". When the new neighbors move in that changes.
I thought the story had a slow beginning. It builds and the information is important for how the story unfolds. It intrigued me enough to continue listening. I even looked up Frances disease mentioned in the story to see if the side effects to medicine were paranoia and researched the symptoms thinking maybe that was it. I didn't really find any answers there but as the plot builds more pieces fall into place.
There's a lot readers don't know about her from the beginning and its a good mystery that really picks up in the second half of the book. It's well written and the characters are easy to identify with even those I didn't like so much. I would recommend the story to anyone who enjoys a mystery.

[Paula Dyches · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thriller fail, but had a good narration

Content Warnings-Rated R level
Language: moderate but no F bombs
Violence: murder, suicide ideation, rape, suicide, incest, drug use/paraphernalia
Sexual content: sex scene, rape

Frances has some serious paranoia that seems to be unfounded but provoked through a series of events. The story itself is painfully slow with random moments of interest... like crumbs that you hope will turn into a real meal sooner rather than later. Despite background being supplied in alternate accounts, this story continues hobbling along as it has been from the beginning and I suggest you skip this book if others paranoia gives you a sense of anxiety.

Narrator: soothing, good French pronunciations; could have benefited from separate narrators for the different accounts.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Paula Dyches · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thriller fail, but had a good narration

Content Warnings-Rated R level
Language: moderate but no F bombs
Violence: murder, suicide ideation, rape, suicide, incest, drug use/paraphernalia
Sexual content: sex scene, rape

Frances has some serious paranoia that seems to be unfounded but provoked through a series of events. The story itself is painfully slow with random moments of interest... like crumbs that you hope will turn into a real meal sooner rather than later. Despite background being supplied in alternate accounts, this story continues hobbling along as it has been from the beginning and I suggest you skip this book if others paranoia gives you a sense of anxiety.

Narrator: soothing, good French pronunciations; could have benefited from separate narrators for the different accounts.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This suspense story is told from the perspective of three main characters in three main parts, so the audiobook would have been an excellent candidate for utilizing two or three narrators, one female and one or two male narrators. However, Claire Vousden delivers an excellent performance all on her own.

The story is set in France, but there's enough description that intimate knowledge of the area isn't necessary.

I found it pretty easy to guess the overall mystery early in the story, but how the characters got to the end makes for an engaging tale.

Note: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Samantha Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good book by this author. It took me a few days to read but it was totally worth it! Yet again had many twists and turns that I was like wait? What! This author is amazing when it comes to writing this genre of suspense! All Frances wanted was a new beginning...but....a a lot happens in the process. Being sick....meeting new people. Very well written, and formatted. It was easy to write. This author is amazing, and I would love to recommend this to someone who loves this genre for sure!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suspenseful and entertaining!

Psychological thrillers are my favorite genre! I enjoy them because I want to figure out the ending and enjoy the edge of your seat feel. Muted Veil did just that! It kept my interest, characters were well developed, and left me shocked haha I don't want to give anything away. I do give a lot of credit to the author and look forward to more of her work !

[Brigitte Morse-Starkenburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was suspenseful with brooding and mysterious characters that you just wanted to know everything about. The story was cleverly divided in three parts and I really liked getting those three different stories and points of view. In places shocking and tragic but handled with sensitivity and making you really understand how the characters felt and why they acted in the way they did. Looking forward to reading more books of this writer!

[Alison Barnicott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly inspiring!

Fantastic read leaving the reader wondering at every page. So well written with detail making you feel you are there with the characters. Worth every bit of it's 5 star rating!

[Deedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book.The novel incompases generations of murder and hate in one French town.The story is amazing but has some continuation issues.Claire Vousden was a wonderful narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Mary Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and cannot wait for my by this author. I was unable to put it down !

[Shanell Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read full of twists and turns.

For being a debut novel I am pleasantly surprised. The story line is intriguing, the characters are very well written and interesting. Hamilton-Smyth really does an amazing job of creating a scene and keeping her readers invested in the plot. It was very well paced and moved smoothly, something I rarely see in a debut novel. It’s not often that I find a new writer who really presents such a unique storyline and manages to build a picture of the setting so skillfully. The author obviously has a deep understanding of life in a small village in France and has built such a great job with most every aspect of it. I am really looking forward to reading more from her in the future! I just hope I don’t have to wait too long! I am sure she has another great read that needs to be released very soon!