#BookReview Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James

Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In 1919, Kitty Weekes, pretty, resourceful, and on the run, falsifies her background to obtain a nursing position at Portis House, a remote hospital for soldiers left shell-shocked by the horrors of the Great War. Hiding the shame of their mental instability in what was once a magnificent private estate, the patients suffer from nervous attacks and tormenting dreams. But something more is going on at Portis House—its plaster is crumbling, its plumbing makes eerie noises, and strange breaths of cold waft through the empty rooms. It’s known that the former occupants left abruptly, but where did they go? And why do the patients all seem to share the same nightmare, one so horrific that they dare not speak of it?

Kitty finds a dangerous ally in Jack Yates, an inmate who may be a war hero, a madman… or maybe both. But even as Kitty and Jack create a secret, intimate alliance to uncover the truth, disturbing revelations suggest the presence of powerful spectral forces. And when a medical catastrophe leaves them even more isolated, they must battle the menace on their own, caught in the heart of a mystery that could destroy them both.

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I read Lost Among the Living last year and loved it. Since then have I tried to get hold of Simone St. James other books. Silence for the Dead intrigued me with its stunning cover and interesting blurb. What is Kitty Weekes hiding? What's wrong with Portis House? And, what's Jack Yates, the war hero doing there? And, his the place really haunted?

Silence for the Dead is an interesting book about a haunted hospital and patients that have mentally broken down by the war and basically are sent away since it's shameful to have a nervous breakdown. I was curious to see how it all would end, what haunted the hospital. However, I have to admit that even though the story was interesting did it lack thrilling elements and I never felt that I connected with any of the characters. It's a good book, just not so thrilling that I had hoped it to be. And the mystery, well, I was not overwhelmed by it, to be honest.

This is not one to read if you want a chilling storyline. it felt more like a tragic gothic story with some romance. However, I think that the setting of the hospital, the brutal reality of the effect of the war had on the soldiers is what really captured my interest. If the book had been more about that and less about ghost had I perhaps liked the book more, which is strange since I did read it because I wanted a ghost story...