My Guilty Pleasures : Nell Pattison's Paige Northwood series

I'm always on the lookout for series that push the boundaries, show different cultures and allow me to experience, second hand, things I might never experience for myself. I also love narratives that shine a light on areas of society that are often ignored and Nell Pattison's novels fulfill all of that criteria with bells on. Then there's the fact that I recently met Nell at Hull Noir 2021, where I had the undoubted pleasure of chatting with her (and Alex North and Russ Thomas) on the In Cold Blood panel and she's lovely and very entertaining. 

So far I've read the first three of the Paige Northwood series and am most definitely hooked and hope their will be more to come from this author. 

The books are set in the deaf community which was illuminating for me as I'd never spent time with a deaf person before. Paige Northwood is a British Sign Language interpreter who is the only hearing person in her family (her sister is the only member of her family still alive). As such signing is an equal first language for Paige and because of circumstances I won't reveal (read the books to find out) she has had to give up her university degree and now makes a living as a self employed BSL signer. 

Whilst Paige gets on well with DS Rav Singh, she doesn't get on so well with his boss and is often brought to task for pursuing her own instincts. However, her skill as an interpreter makes her indispensable to the police as does her insights into the community.

The novels are a lovely blend of police procedure and private investigation and each novel has it's own insight into different aspects of the deaf community. In Silent House, we become acquainted with issues around deaf children in mainstream education, the deaf culture and the community that holds them together. In Silent Night we learn more about deaf teenagers and deaf children in state care at a school for the deaf. In Silent Suspect we learn about a deaf person accused of murder and the process involved in interviewing him.

These books are gritty and compelling with a touch of romance as well. As the series progresses we learn so much more about the characters and their backstories which I absolutely love. I found myself rooting for a particular outcome for Paige (but again no spoilers here)  I found the writing and representation of the deaf community to be authentic (although to be fair I have nothing to compare this too, but it felt real) References to adaptations to home security, interpreting to accommodate the varying need of the individual and the specific culture of the deaf community, felt real to me. The characters were three dimensional - some I disliked intensely, others I loved, a few made me frustrated and all of them were believable.

Here are the blurbs

The Silent House 

Available here

If someone was in your house, you’d know … Wouldn’t you?

But the Hunter family are deaf, and don’t hear a thing when a shocking crime takes place in the middle of the night. Instead, they wake up to their worst nightmare: the murder of their daughter.

The police call Paige Northwood to the scene to interpret for the witnesses. They’re in shock, but Paige senses the Hunters are hiding something.

One by one, people from Paige’s community start to fall under suspicion. But who would kill a little girl?

Was it an intruder?

Or was the murderer closer to home?

In the first book in the series, Silent House, Paige is enlisted by the police to sign for members of the deaf community who are at the centre of a young child's murder

Silent Night

Available here

What happened while they were sleeping?

A school for the deaf takes an overnight trip to the snowy woods. Five teenagers go to sleep, but only four wake up. Leon is missing, and a teacher’s body is found in the forest…

Sign language interpreter Paige Northwood is brought in to help with interrogations. Everyone at the school has a motive for murder – but they all have an alibi.  

As Paige becomes increasingly involved, she suspects there’s something sinister going on. With the clock ticking to find Leon, only one thing is certain: the killer is among them, and ready to strike again…

The Silent Suspect

Available here

A FIRE. A MURDER. A SILENT SUSPECT…

On a quiet street, one house is burning to the ground…

By the time sign language interpreter Paige Northwood arrives, flames have engulfed her client’s home. Though Lukas is safe, his wife is still inside. But she was dead before the fire started…

Lukas signs to Paige that he knows who killed his wife. But then he goes silent – even when the police charge him with murder.

Is he guilty, or afraid? Only Paige can help him now…

About the Author

Nell Pattison is the author of a crime thriller series featuring British Sign Language interpreter Paige Northwood. Her debut novel, The Silent House, was a USA Today bestseller.

After studying English at university, Nell Pattison became a teacher and specialised in Deaf education. She has been teaching in the Deaf community for 13 years in both England and Scotland, working with students who use BSL. Nell began losing her hearing in her twenties, and now wears hearing aids. She lives in North Lincolnshire with her husband and son.