Tess Moreau and Jason Hallam never married but lived together for years and had a daughter named Poppy. They eventually split up and are now sharing time with their three-year-old girl. Tess is overprotective, and Jason has moved on with his life. He married a woman after dating her for only a few months, and now she is pregnant. This throws Tess into a depression, especially since Jason claimed not to believe in marriage. But she tries to overcome her shock and maintain a civil relationship with him for Poppy’s sake. Everything in her life revolves around the welfare of her precious daughter.

"The clues and red herrings add a sense of drama to the story, and despite Tess being out of her mind with fear and grief, she garners a great deal of sympathy from the reader."

One day, after spending time with her father and his new wife, Poppy comes home withdrawn and sullen. She presents her mother with a packet of drawings that seem to be upbeat until the last one, which is dark and violent. It depicts a woman falling off a tower, and Tess wonders what she could have witnessed to inspire such a creepy picture. Poppy says that someone killed the woman in the drawing, and she starts to use smutty language while exhibiting violent behavior.

Tess is beside herself when Poppy begins wetting the bed again and seems to drift into a little world of her own. She misbehaves at school, bites her friend while shouting obscenities, and destroys her favorite doll by cutting it to pieces. A frightened Tess finds the doll sewn back together with its limbs and head on askew. Jason does not seem bothered by Poppy’s behavior and makes Tess feel more alone than usual, even though she is secretly having an affair with her upstairs neighbor, Aiden.

Alone in her thoughts and routines, Tess reaches out to the police and to her doctor. She is convinced that Poppy must have witnessed a violent act and begins to wonder if the death of a local woman could be connected to her in some way. Tess soon realizes that she and Aiden were confronted by the victim in a restaurant one day, and she believes that her suspicions deserve further investigation. She receives little cooperation from law enforcement mainly due to the fact that the young lady’s death was initially ruled a suicide, and it took a while for them to conclude that she was indeed murdered.

As the narrative unfolds, the suspense ratchets up and readers will find themselves unable to put the book down. The clues and red herrings add a sense of drama to the story, and despite Tess being out of her mind with fear and grief, she garners a great deal of sympathy from the reader. After all, her main purpose in life is to protect her daughter, and she will go to any lengths to do just that. THE UNHEARD is a gripping tale of love and betrayal mixed with human angst.