I loved the settings, particularly the incredibly atmospheric opening which really set the scene for the rest of the novel.

Historical novels are by far my favourite genre of literature and mix in a little mystery and I'm a happy reader. I do think the last bit dragged a bit and the “climax” didn’t quite hit in the way it could’ve, hence the four stars.For me, however, the most interesting element of the novel was when it was dealing with Jean's deafness and the prejudices deaf people faced and to some extent still do today.

Just listen to this description: "Every bit of sinew and muscle in operation, the slight flap of aged skin escaping from her tightly rolled sleeves. He is tasked to help Jean Campbell (also a real person) when she is in jail on a charge of murdering her baby by throwing it off a local bridge. The downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 was an event shrouded in misinformation. That is precisely the story Sarah Smith tells in her debut novel Hear No Evil, which is partly based on the real-life case of Jean Campbell, a Glaswegian who in 1817 was the first deaf woman tried in a Scottish court, accused of throwing her three-year-old child into the Clyde from the Saltmarket Bridge.It takes the bare bones of what is known about the real life 19th century case of a young deaf women, Jean Campbell, who was accused of the murder of her child and knits them together into an engrossing story.

There is a curious scene where MacDougall watches an old man get beaten and robbed while touching himself sexually. This production uses a fusion of sign language, image and performance to tell the story of Jean Campbell, a Deaf woman in Glasgow, who in 1817 was accused of murder when her young child fell from her shoulders and drowned in the Clyde. He is our eyes and ears in the story, following Jean’s life in the poverty stricken slums of Glasgow, experiencing her difficulties and finding out what happened in the final days before she came to be alone on the Old Bridge with her baby. But as the novel shows, the appearance of respectability is not the same as its reality, and it is often the most vulnerable, like Jean Campbell, who are the victims of upper-class venality. The author’s interest seems to be deaf communication and education and the sections delving into that were by far the strongest.Soon after her arrest, the Glasgow police discovered their prisoner was deaf, could not speak and thus could not tell her side of the story. But in many ways this is no bad thing: Smith’s exploration of deaf experience makes for a unique piece of historical fiction.

Because ‘the name is common in towns or villages throughout the country where there once was a row of tumbledown cottages infested with rats’. It's based on a landmark case and brings the period to life incredibly well, I felt I was walking the streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow alongside the characters! Overall, the conclusion was well rounded and satisfactory as all the interwoven stories came together.This is a fascinating and thought-provoking read but most importantly a compelling and satisfying read. Her trial made legal history for another reason: the court employed Edinburgh deaf school owner Robert Kinniburgh to help in her interrogation.