Hear No Evil: Shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger 2023

Product Information

Set in 1817 Glasgow, and based on the real-life case of Jean Campbell, a young deaf woman, accused of infanticide. Due to her inability to communicate with the authorities, Robert Kinniburgh, a teacher at the Edinburgh Deaf & Dumb Institution, is hired to interpret Jean's account of what happened. Can he ease the truth out of Jean and help her receive a fair and just trial? There is a curious scene where MacDougall watches an old man get beaten and robbed while touching himself sexually. It comes out of nowhere and clearly exists to show us how awful MacDougall is, but if it was excised entirely would anyone have been in any doubt about this? It’s told to us in multiple other far less crass ways. I found out so much about deafness and speech, ways of communicating and the birth of sign language. What a story! I am now inspired to learn sign language as it’s something I have wanted to do for ages but never have. It would be wonderful if BSL was taught in schools but that’s another story. George Paterson, The Girl, The Crow, The Writer and The Fighter (Into Books). An epistolary tale of murder and chicanery which spans continents and lifetime by a writer, DJ and musician.

The novel centres around the potential injustice faced by a poor deaf woman and the man who supports her in the fight against that. To have two such sympathetic characters as Jean Campbell and Robert Kinniburgh at its heart and for there to be such a tense edge to the story all the way through is a real achievement. Smith uses a roving perspective and this is handled effectively, her shifts in register and tone consistently applied. This aspect of the writing gives room for many of the other characters to emerge strongly and helps give the novel a strong and realistic texture. Alongside that, there are wonderful sensory descriptions of life at that time in urban Scotland - I can still smell the streets! The story was borne out of frustration, really. I began looking at the court records and there was very little about Jean herself. She was an important figure in Deaf history because she was tried on the same basis as a hearing person. In the absence of facts, I decided to fictionalise the reasons for Jean’s crime; what had led her and her child to be on that bridge in the first place? I hoped my fictional Jean could give the real Jean a voice that was denied her at the time. The plot may not be the strongest, but Hear No Evil is one to read for its brilliant historical world-building and captivating exploration of deaf experience. Glasgow, 1817: Jean Campbell – a young, Deaf woman – is witnessed throwing a child into the River Clyde from the Old Bridge.

Recent News

The story unfolds at a fairly slow pace as we slowly learn more and more about Jean’s life, often through her recounting her story and Robert travelling to meet people she shared her life with, sometimes through swapping to the perspectives of the people involved in Jean’s story or Jean herself. I don’t really want to get into the details of the story at this stage as I actually think it’s best enjoyed going into it blind and spoiler-free – which is why I also made sure not to google Jean Campbell until I had finished the book. There are different forms of justice meted out to various characters and this raises some interesting questions about punishment, revenge and rehabilitation. As much as I make an effort to read diverse books, I can’t remember ever reading a book with a deaf protagonist. That is the main reason I requested Hear No Evil. It actually isn’t set in a period I’m particularly fond of reading about, but it had enough subject matter to hook me. A compelling and thoughtful exploration of a deaf woman's struggle for justice in Regency-era Scotland * Rebecca Netley, author of THE WHISTLING * A fascinating exploration of deafness and human value amid the sights, sounds and smells of urban Scotland in 1817.'- Sally Magnusson

If found guilty she faces one of two fates; death by hanging or incarceration in an asylum. But Jean’s deafness leaves her isolated and unable to defend herself, until the authorities call in Robert Kinniburgh, a talented teacher from the Deaf & Dumb Institution.The use of Scots words and phrases scattered throughout the text was a great touch that added to the sense of place and time. There are aspects to this book that I really enjoyed. The author’s interest seems to be deaf communication and education and the sections delving into that were by far the strongest. The scene in the deaf church explaining the manner in which the service was conducted and the town hall meeting in which Robert describes the nascent BSL he uses and how he teaches his pupils at the deaf school were both excellent scenes. What a debut from Sarah Smith! The writing talent coming out of Scotland at the moment is immense and Smith is right up there with the best. For a story that centres around some weighty themes including infanticide, poverty and domestic violence, Hear No Evil is a surprisingly gentle novel. The prose is measured and a little underwhelming at times, although I did enjoy the Victorian-style short chapters and character descriptions. Smith uses Jean Campbell’s case to explore the lives of deaf people in Regency-era Scotland, and as such the plot is often secondary to the historical context.

What happens when a person who is deaf and without speech, is accused of murder? What if this happens not in our time, or even in Helen Keller’s time, but 200 years ago - before sign language was standardised (s

If found guilty she faces one of two fates; death by hanging or incarceration in an asylum. But Jean's deafness leaves her isolated and unable to defend herself, until the authorities call in Robert Kinniburgh, a talented teacher from the Deaf & Dumb Institution. Through the inclusion of sign language, and discussion around the provisions for deaf people at the time, I gained a valuable insight into the deaf community. I was also fascinated to learn about Robert Kinniburgh and the Deaf and Dumb School in Edinburgh. I found the process of development, and standardisation, of sign language extremely interesting, as well as the links between signing and etymology. These things all make sense, they make the book easier to read and perhaps in some ways more appealing, and they’re certainly not issues specific to this book, but for me at least they make the whole thing naggingly and frustratingly anachronistic. An immensely important debut that gives a voice to those from our history who are often forgotten, who didn’t have their own voice and who have always been here. Most of the truth of Jean Campbell’s life has been lost to history. But Sarah Smith’s novel ensures we never forget. The importance of belonging and community is paramount. Jean has many friends and protectors who would rally around her but how do they convey her character and intellect when she herself cannot communicate it without an interpreter?

I will say that unfortunately it felt like Jean, the truth of what happened to her son, and the court case, was more of a subplot, the trial itself was rather brief and the verdict not particularly the purpose of the story but a formality, which was a little disappointing. Richard is the main character to this story in that, at least to me, his presence was stronger, not Jean, which, for a book about how deaf people can be devalued and silenced, again was a little disappointing. I wish the narrative had allowed Jean to have more of a voice, to hear her thoughts, understand her feelings, as was given to Richard. At one point there is even a conversation about translating vs interpreting Jean in Court and how it would be possible to deny her truth and reword it for the sake of the jury, again this highlighted how even those sympathetic to disability hold the power. Possibly this was the purpose of this but it felt incredibly out of character for a character, Richard, and his wife, who talk throughout of empowering deaf people to consider such a controlling method. She is take to Edinburgh and help is sought in the form of Robert Kinniburgh, a teach from the Deaf Institute. It's his responsibility to establish communication with Jean, decide whether she is fit for trial and try and get to the bottom of what happened.

The author has taken the scant details of the case and created an immersive tale. Despite the book being based on Jean’s story Robert Kinniburgh vies for the central character spot. Kinniburgh, a teacher at the deaf school is called in to communicate with Jean when she is imprisoned in Edinburgh's tolbooth.