The Silence is a gritty novel set in Glasgow at the time of the Ice Cream Wars in the 1980s. A bloody raid on a family celebration leaves Paddy Coyle's only daughter so traumatised she loses the power of speech. Blaming his sworn enemies, the McClellands, Coyle seeks to destroy the family in revenge for his daughter. The McLellands have no alternative but to flee the country and adopt new identities. Almost penniless desperate to support his family, Pete Mack, together with the help of his old friend and mentor, Canon O'Farrell, soon establishes a lucrative but vile trade in human trafficking. A holiday romance between Erin Coyle and Bobby, the son of her father's enemy, sets off a chain of events which no one could have predicted. Kidnapping, drug smuggling and murder ensue in this fast-paced novel.