The Silence Factory is a troubling read, slowly drawing us in. There’s a lyrical quality to the writing which made reading feel a little slow on occasion, but as the story progresses it becomes quite mesmerising.
The main part of the story focuses on audiologist Henry Latimer who is tasked with visiting the home of Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy in order to try and help his daughter to hear. Sir Edward is heir to a fortune, but his business is focused very much on his family history.
Alongside Henry’s increasingly disturbed experience in Telverton we also, through a diary found in the property, learn more about how the Ashmore-Percy fortune was made. We see the obsessive hunt for this fabled spider, whose silk has properties that are much in demand (though it comes with great risk).
The story behind the silk was intriguing, but I also found myself caught up in the intricacies of the story in the present. The silk factory, with its rather grotesque experiments, owed much to the Gothic genre and it was fascinating to see how the focus on madness linked to notions of submissiveness. None of the characters were particularly likeable, but it was hard not to feel sympathy for those caught in the spell of the very thing they were trying to control.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this in advance of publication.