Mute

Connor makes the wish in the rear of his stepfather's Ford Sierra. "I wish the world would just shut up." It's not really a wish - a throwaway comment at most - and like most wishes he doesn't expect it to come true.

It's 1986, the second week of June. England take on Paraguay in the Mexico World Cup, Karate Kid 2 launches at the local Odeon, and Katie Jones is preparing to throw the biggest house party in school history. A party she personally invited Connor to. It should be a week to remember.

But there's a catch.

Connor's nine year old brother, Isaac, is shutting down again. He hasn't spoken for six weeks, since the two year anniversary of their father's death. Their mother thinks a short break might do the boys good. A week away by the sea, two-hundred miles from home, cooped up inside a ramshackle caravan with no television or telephone. The death of Connor's social life.

And now, hundred miles into the journey, Isaac has started talking again. Nothing coherent or meaningful, just random words over and over. This, and the constant repetition of the car radio, is why Connor makes the wish. A wish that might just change everything.

That night Isaac disappears from the caravan. No clues or signs of a struggle. It should be easy to find him in the small seaside town of Bartleby, but not when the entire bay has mysteriously stopped speaking. Because sometimes wishes do come true. And now Connor must search for his brother in a world where language no longer matters, where actions make the only noise.

With only an old mix tape and a handful of movie quotes for clues, Connor finds himself enmeshed in a mystery that stretches back to the night of his father's death. And it is Isaac who seems to be pulling all the strings.