‘Never Say a Word’ by C J Carver

Published by Bloodhound Books, 
5 February 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-91770564-6

There's a theory that it takes three elements to make a good story. How about these three? A former paramedic suffering from flashbacks and hallucinations after a deeply traumatic experience in a war zone. A small boy, apparently mute and terrified, who appears naked out of nowhere in the middle of a stormy night on a remote Welsh hilltop. And hundreds of miles away, a teenage girl who went missing several years ago. 

The other thing a good story needs, of course, is someone to write it. C J Carver has picked up these three elements and run with them, all the way from the twisty lanes of rural mid-Wales to the litter-strewn seedy side of England's second city. 

Tom, the paramedic, lives in a camper van which he parks close to a place where he enjoyed family holidays as a boy. He encounters the boy he names Wren, who is clearly running away from something; they form an unlikely bond, and Tom makes it his mission to find out where the boy came from.     

It's as much a journey of self-discovery as a hunt for Wren's origins. Tom has suffered from crippling PTSD ever since he returned home; he has rejected therapy, which made things worse, in favour of self-medication with alcohol and solitude. Caring for Wren and looking for the child's family gives him a sense of purpose – and also puts him in the worst danger he has ever faced and forces him to connect with people and the real world again. 

The result is a tense rollercoaster of a psychological thriller, with a cast of bad and good guys so well realized that they jump off the page. There's Vanessa the trainee psychologist, who makes Tom face up to the deep-seated causes of his PTSD; Xantha the investigative journalist, a thorn in Tom's side at first, but later an unexpected ally; Lana the self-styled anti-ageing therapist, and Trevor her ingenuous husband; and a wide   assortment of villainous types of both genders. Forming a richly detailed background to Tom's quest are Felicity, the best kind of social worker; a Indian couple still mourning the loss of their daughter; a host of immigrant workers, some legal, others more dubious; and a policeman doing his best against the odds. 

Remote Welsh hillside villages contrast with run-down city back streets, as do a factory owner's mansion with cosy cottages and Tom's compact camper van. All have a part to play as the gripping story is played out, Wren's origins are revealed and Tom's personal journey reaches a conclusion. It kept me on the edge of my seat and could do the same to you.   
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Caroline Carver was brought up on a dairy farm. At 18 she headed for the bright lights of London and four years later took a holiday in Australia which turned into a ten-year stay, working for the Sydney arm of several major international publishers. Between jobs, she travelled widely and adventurously: back-packing in South-East Asia on $10 a day for nine months, walking in New Zealand, trekking in Nepal and riding a camel through the Thar Desert are just a few of her travel experiences. Her first novel Blood Junction won the CWA Debut Dagger and was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best mystery books of the year.

http://www.cjcarver.com

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.