The Secrets in Silence, Nicole Trope's third book, is an emotionally charged and gripping novel.

As Minnie stands in a bathroom stall, swaddling a mewling newborn infant in her scarf before placing her gently in the shopping bag she is carrying, Tara lies in a hospital bed, her head turned away from the concerned gaze of the doctor, the worried eyes of her father and stepmother and the frown of the policeman hovering in the doorway. 'Where is the baby?' they ask again and again, but Tara can't tell them anything... and Minnie, cradling a miracle, won't tell anyone.

From the dramatic opening scene of this story I was hooked and couldn't put this intense, moving novel aside. With compassion, tenderness, and searing honesty, Trope exposes a young girl's anguish, a lonely woman's joy and the two shocking incidents that bind them.

Each of the characters that help to tell this story take refuge in silence. While Tara feels she is literally unable to communicate, others elect to remain silent, Minnie to protect her love of baby Kate, Alicia to avoid confronting some uncomfortable truths, and Liam to avoid revealing his weakness. Eventually though, they must all find their voice in order to save each other, and themselves.

There is a constant undercurrent of anticipation throughout the novel and this tension compensates for some of the minor plot contrivances which connect Tara and Minnie in the aftermath of Kate's birth. The brutality of the conclusion is unexpected and a happy ending is not assured for any of Trope's characters, speaking out will be just the first step.

Like Nicole Trope's previous novels, The Boy Under the Table and Three Hours Late, The Secrets in Silence is an engrossing, affecting and poignant story I devoured in one sitting, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend.