British author Rosamund Lupton has already made a name for herself internationally with her terrific thrillers, SISTER and AFTERWARDS. Her latest effort, THE QUALITY OF SILENCE, may finally put her on the map domestically. This is a pure psychological thriller that does more with the perception of fear than actually knocking you over the head with it. It is set amidst one of the most stark and foreboding landscapes on the planet: the Alaskan wild in the heart of another brutal winter.

Our heroines are quite unique and easy to root for, even if their motivation and decision-making leave something to be desired. Yasmin and her daughter, Ruby, are way out of their depth having traveled from their native England to the bleak heart of winter in the Alaskan wilderness. Yasmin is an astrophysicist but is not the more interesting of the pair. Ruby is 10 years old, addicted to her personal blog and full of energy. She is also completely deaf and communicates purely through sign language.

"Lupton does not need slick prose or over-the-top scares. The elements take on their own supernatural feel, and it will be difficult to decipher what is actually happening versus what is in the mind of the deeply grieved Yasmin."

Yasmin's husband and Ruby's dad, Matt, is a wildlife filmmaker on site in the primal village of Anaktue, where he is filming the native people he has lived with and befriended. He has disappeared, and everyone outside of Yasmin and Ruby believe him to be dead. The village where he was last seen has been burned to the ground entirely, and it does not seem plausible that anyone could have survived this conflagration.

Captain Grayling of the local law enforcement team attempts to convince Yasmin of Matt's death and tries in vain to persuade her not to go off in search of him. Neither Yasmin nor Ruby will have any of this negative talk, and they proceed to borrow a truck and head off for the several hours-long trip through the heart of Alaska in search of Matt. However, both human and natural elements will strike hard at them, making the journey that much more perilous.

As they journey on, Yasmin and Ruby believe that a crazed tanker truck is hot on their trail and tracking them for some reason. The other truckers that they communicate with via CB all insist that no such tanker truck exists, and they urge Yasmin to turn back instead of attempting to drive on through a brutal snowstorm. THE QUALITY OF SILENCE takes on an interesting mood as you are placed right within the claustrophobic truck cabin while the storm rages on and the temperature drops to sub-zero levels. Like viewers screaming at the screen during a horror film, readers may find themselves yelling out loud for Yasmin to turn around before the worst happens.

Lupton does not need slick prose or over-the-top scares. The elements take on their own supernatural feel, and it will be difficult to decipher what is actually happening versus what is in the mind of the deeply grieved Yasmin. It is through Ruby that you feel the most humanity as she is convinced that the emails depicting various animals found brutalized must be coming from her father as a cry for help. Ruby's world, like the deepest reaches of space, is a place of utter silence, and you will feel for her right up to the wrenching conclusion of this taut thriller.