Strangled Silence by Oisin McGann
Strangled Silence by Oisin McGann
Price: £6.99
Online Discount: 10%
Your Price: £6.29

Availability: Available for dispatch within 1-2 working days.

Add To Basket

EAN: 9780552558624
Format: Paperback
Published: 4 Sep 2008

Other Editions:
ebook

Synopsis

When pretty, talented and very ambitious Amina Mir manages to land a newspaper work experience placement she thinks it might just be making coffee and following-up tame stories. But then, when by chance she’s sent to interview Ivor MacMorris, a veteran of the war in Sinnostan who’s just won millions on the lottery, but bizarrely hasn’t spent a penny, things start to get interesting . . . and dangerous.

Ivor thinks he’s been made to forget what happened in Sinnostan. He believes false memories of how and why he lost an eye have been planted in his brain and that he’s being followed by threatening faceless people. At first Amina thinks Ivor’s suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder, but soon Ivor, conspiracy theorist Chi Sandwith and events persuade Amina that she could have stumbled into one of the biggest and most terrifying cover-ups ever.

What the critics say

Oisin McGann is truly an authentic Aristotle of adolescent fiction, writing with as much means to entertain as well as to educate. There is something wonderfully akin to the exploits of Robert Muchamore as Oisin blends compelling action against a realistic and forceful narrative. Wielding an inventive flair all of his own Oisin McGann is by far one of the most exciting authors you could hope to grace your bookshelf.
- John Lloyd, Waterstone's Bath

pacy and direct and energetic, and it might also wake up the political sensibilities we're always bemoaning twenty-first century adolescents have forgotten all about . Recommended. 4 and a half stars
- Jill Murphy, The BookBag

This book has a no-nonsense start. Straight into the drama and intrigue, setting up an unusual story...this is a hard-hitting novel...Challenging and intriguing.
- Chris G, Chicklish

Strangled Silence is a gripping, and well-paced book that, while ostensibly written for the young adult market, has appeal for all people of all ages and riffs brilliantly on very contemporary themes...it's not a finger-pointing, fist-waving book. At it's heart is a great story played out by a rich selection of nicely realised and well rounded characters, each with their own agenda but well matched as a team. The dialogue crackles along nicely and there is a neat sub-plot involving Amina's brother and a military training program at his school that plays nicely into the main story at the end.
In the wake of recent events in Iraq and Afghanistan and the questions in some quarters about why and how we came to be involved in them, the issues raised in Strangled Silence are a whole lot darker and more complex than the average teenage genre fair and I applaud the author for going there.
Strangled Silence starts out well and maintains a kinetic energy that keeps going right to the last page. It's quick and clever and presents its ideas in a no-nonsense way that, hopefully, will rouse the current crop of adolescent readers to question what goes on around them in a way that, sadly, most adults do not.

- Sci-fi London

Strangled Silence is one of the most menacing looking books I’ve seen for a while...This feels very real, and very scary.
- Bookwitch

Editor's Comments

This is a fantastic, utterly contemporary, spine-tingling new novel from Oisin McGann. It's incredibly thought-provoking - I really began to wonder what do we know and what do we just think we know? What's true and what's spin in this media-age? Oisin is a truely versatile author and never writes the same story twice. You're in for a treat!

The Author

Oisin McGann

Oisin McGann

Born in Dublin in 1973, Oisin spent his childhood there and in Drogheda, County Louth. Unable to conceive of a way to make a living from writing fiction, he decided to fund his dreams of being an author by working as an illustrator (yes, he was that naive). He signed up for a design and print foundation course and then studied animation at Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design. Setting up as a freelance illustrator/artist, he then took up a position at Fred Wolf Films, working on the animated series of Zorro. After completing his contract, he decided to expand his horizons and left for London to seek his fortune. He found gainful employment as a security guard, watching over trains and then hospitals. Following three and a half years of working in advertising he became increasingly concerned for his immortal soul. He returned to Ireland much as he had left - with no job, no home and some meagre savings. Ever the optimist, he now works once more as a freelance illustrator and mercenary artist by day and escapist writer by night. He hopes one day to have a decent job, with a pension, a health plan and paid annual holidays.