A Deafening Silence

In a decade of researching and writing about crime, Simon Farquhar has met many of those professionally or personally affected by it. They all carry with them stories that the rest of the world has forgotten, but which to them remain unforgettable. In A Deafening Silence, five of these stories are told, in full, for the first time. Retracing these historic tragedies with a modern eye, talking to surviving witnesses and police officers, exploring Home Office files and even previously unseen evidence, each investigation reveals powerful truths about those who take away a human life and those bereaved by their actions, while shining a new light on how our society has changed - or still needs to change. Time is also taken to explore the untold stories of what happens after sentence is passed, after the press packs up and leaves, once the rest of the world has moved on. What becomes of the survivors, and what becomes of the criminals? What traces of these crimes still remain today? Exhaustively researched and sensitively written, these remarkable accounts are both harrowing and heartbreaking, presenting us with humanity at its cruellest, at its most vulnerable, at its most compassionate and at its most courageous.

SIMON FARQUHAR is a writer and broadcaster. His first book, true crime memoir A Dangerous Place (The History Press, 2016), was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-fiction. His plays include Rainbow Kiss, which played at the Royal Court Theatre in London and has since run in New York and Rome, Candy Floss Kisses and Elevenses with Twiggy for BBC Radio 4, Dream Me a Winter (Old Vic) and Wassail Play (Theatre Royal Dumfries). He has also written and presented documentaries including A Sympathetic Eye for BBC Radio 4, and writes regularly for The Guardian, The Times and The Independent. He has appeared on many true crime documentaries and podcasts.