Breaking the Silence by Diane Chamberlain

Laura has just lost her dad. On his deathbed, he leaves her an intriguing message to ‘look after Sarah Tolley’, because she ‘has no family’.

Laura is puzzled by this. She has never heard of this woman. Little does she know that her father’s request was going to change her life.

Just as she is grappling to come to terms with her father’ death and his strange wish, her husband commits suicide and her 5 year old daughter, witness to her father’s suicide, stops talking. Completely. Laura, a renowned Astronomer, gives up her passion and career to help her daughter come out of her trauma. One of the things her daughter’s counsellor advises is to get in touch with her daughter’s birth dad, a person who she has met just once.

Despite her worries for her child, Laura is unable to forget Sarah Tolley. She visits Sarah in the old age facility that she lives in when she discovers that her dad had paid for Sarah to live there. Sarah is alone, nobody has ever visited her and is suffering from Alzheimer’s. She does not recognize Laura’s dad, nor does it seem likely that she and her dad might have ever met. Puzzled, Laura delves deeper into the mystery of Sarah Tolley and how her dad knows her.She comes across some shattering secrets that some people are trying very hard to keep hidden.

A wonderful book. One that refused to let me stop reading it. It keeps you hanging on, keeps you guessing and then some more. I would definitely recommend this book.