The Girl Without a Voice

Paul (Dead Girls Don’t Talk) is at her best in this pitch-black thriller about Alice, a young woman who’s told by her controlling parents that she was born without the ability to speak. As a result, she’s been locked inside her childhood home, with books and whatever soap opera she can watch in secret her only contact with the outside world. When she’s 24, trees are cut down outside Alice’s window, allowing her to see into the bedroom of her neighbor, Hailey. The two start communicating via sign language and written messages. Then Alice’s domineering father is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and in his final days of delirium, he tells Alice that he may have murdered a string of young women. After he dies, Alice teams up with Hailey to determine if her father’s confessions were true—and if so, what they might mean about her own past. Paul doles out the plot’s secrets gradually, maintaining taut suspense, and her portrait of Alice as a neglected child (she concedes that she’d prefer her distant mother hit her over “never being touched at all”) is wrenching. This isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s a twisted ride worth taking. Agent: Melissa Vandeputte, Hamley Books. (Aug.)