Review of “In Silence Cries the Heart” by Catherine Hughes

Score: 91/100 (9.1 out 10)

In Silence Cries the Heart is an inspired and ambitious historical fiction novel by Catherine Hughes.

It centers around the forbidden romance between Donal Donn, a heroic raider, thief, and poet (whom we could probably compare to Robin Hood), and Mary McElroy, the daughter of the lord of Undlay in 17th century Scotland.

It also features several menacing villains like George Campbell, the clan leader of the Campbell estate and a sexual predator who perpetually abuses his power and authority, and the Camerons (Blake & Drew), a pair of sadistic, murderous siblings. If Donal and Mary are comparable to Robin Hood and Maid Marian, then George is comparable to the Sheriff of Nottingham. George is every bit as vile, vicious, and unlikable as Nottingham, if not more so.

Each of these villainous characters seems to serve as a kind of foil to Donal who, though a criminal with savage inclinations himself, is also heroic, romantic, and noble. Also, unlike George (or Mary), Donal is not a high-born and valued member of society. Following a popular trope, he is a vagabond and an outsider who succeeds on his wits, skill, and efforts rather than on where he was born or whom he was born to. There's something instantly relatable and admirable about that.

Donal also shows himself to be a leader, having the respectability and charisma to attract people like Owen Gilchrist, a reverend, to assist him in his activities. To make a niche A7X reference, we'd almost compare Donal to a Shepherd of Fire-type character—someone who wanders and rights wrongs, inflicting severe retribution on evildoers. He is a rather interesting character.

We're not sure we can say the same about Mary though. Mary McElroy just seems like a vary passive protagonist most of the time. We know that might not sound like the kindest thing, but that's just the way that we felt about her. She spends a lot of this book doting, yearning, and going about rather mundane activities and conversations. Almost every time there's a section that's exclusively about Mary, we kept hoping that the author would move on. That's a bit unfortunate because, apparently, Mary McElroy was a real noblewoman who lived in Scotland during the time of the reign of Charles II (as the novel establishes). And, apparently, Donal Donn was an actual poet whose words reverberate throughout the book. They were an actual historical couple (apparently)--and a very unlikely one at that!

Like the book tells us, at that time and in that society “...a lady does not risk everything to run away with a commoner.”

If Mary has any commendable aspect of her character, it's that she's extremely eloquent. Her thought-process and speech are both elaborate and, at times, flowery. They make up some of the most beautiful passages of the book, albeit somewhat-distractingly so. There are times when it can get cloying.

We guess another commendable aspect of her character is that she can see and chooses to judge people based on who they are and how they are rather than how wealthy or powerful they are. She also knows her self-worth, and knows that she's not for sale or an item to be pimped out, bought, and sold.

Her eloquence is a trait that seems to be shared by Donal, who, as a poet, can also be flowery in his thoughts and speech. It's a trait that seems to unite them.

Some of our favorite passages from this book are from when Donal thinks about or describes Mary's eyes:

“Words betrayed him now. What were they but an empty compilation of lifeless sounds? They never truly captured the flashes of emerald in his lovers eyes or the dancing rays of light as they shimmered off her russet tresses.”

“I opened my eyes and looked deep into hers, losing myself in the flashes of light that sparkled within those emerald pools.”

There is a real gravitas to going above and beyond just saying, “the girl I like has nice green eyes.”

Framing this story is another story, that of Caitlyn Hegarty, an American teacher who takes a trip to Scotland and is captivated by the historical story of Donal and Mary. Caitlyn is almost certainly a stand-in for the author, Catherine Hughes, who was inspired to write this novel in a similar way. With that said, Caitlyn kinda disappears into the background for most of this book, though she does give us a more modern, 21st century perspective of things.

A great thing about this book is the writing. Hughes, a long-time fan (and scholar) in English literature, captured the speech patterns of the region in the 17th century. You can laugh and say that it's mostly a whole lot of “ye's” and “yer's” but that would be simplifying quite a bit. There's only so much inflection you can pull off without confusing your audience, so Hughes walked a tight rope and made a valiant attempt at balance.

Now, if there's any weakness of this book, it's that there are times when it feels like not much is happening, even when there's a lot happening. Characters constantly have time to sit or stand around, chit-chatting about the cows or the rocks in the stream. Now, while that sometimes helps to set the scene and establish that we're not in Kansas (as a bit of world-building), there are so many times we found ourselves saying: get on with the main plot already.

There are two big, thrilling, exciting scenes that we remember from this book.

SKIP TO THE END OF THIS REVIEW OR CLICK AWAY TO AVOID SPOILERS!

Anyway, there's a scene in which retribution is taken on one of the book's key villains. It's extremely brutal, some would even say sadistic. Yet, there's a strange, disturbing catharsis and satisfaction that comes from this terrible, evil person having something terrible and evil being done to them. The problem is, they no-sell this for much of the remainder of the book. It's almost like it never happened. The dude gets his arm burned, beaten within an inch of his life, and gets impaled, yet several pages later, it's like he's fine—same 'ole, same 'ole. It's like he was just mildly inconvenienced rather than horribly maimed and almost killed. It's also strange that this happens in the middle of the book (at like page 135) rather than at the end, almost making it seem unearned. Well, it was earned, but it could have been more earned and, thus, more satisfying, if you get our drift. Like, what would it be like if, in The Bible, the devil got completed and totally defeated in the Book of Malachi or something. Then, what's the point of the New Testament in that context? Or what if Batman killed The Joker in like episode 8 of the animated series?

Perhaps the most thrilling, exciting, suspenseful, and intense scene in the book was the execution scene. Gosh darn, there was so much build to this scene! You could just hear the kettle drums leading their way to the gallows. They built gibbet cages for the bodies and everything. The characters kept talking about every aspect of what was to come: that the convicts might take a long time to die, their necks wouldn't break, to hide the children's eyes. Now, that's a way to build suspense!

Well, in a scene that seems straight out of Cat Ballou, things naturally don't go as expected. Ok, well, to be fair, they go 25-50% as expected. This helps to establish Blake Cameron and his crew as an even bigger and more formidable threat than before. Yes, the guy who killed someone by feeding them excrement while they were hanging upside down had room to become more menacing.

It's funny that we mention Cat Ballou because, to be honest, there were times in this book when it didn't feel like a 17th century novel at all, it felt more like a mid-20th century spaghetti western. Seriously! The outlaws, the sheriff, the highwayman/thief, the studious home-bound woman, the slow-hanging at the gallows Iranian-style, the horse riding, the leaving of the bad guy out in the wilderness to drink his own poison... those are like things you'd expect to see in a John Wayne movie.

We were half expecting someone to pull out a pistol and meet at high dawn, but instead they pulled out claymores and swords.

But, ultimately, this is a really admirable work that clearly had a lot of research, time, and effort put into it.

Check it out on Amazon!