It Happened in Silence

by Karla M. Jay

Published by Book Circle Press (October 30 2020) Cover design by Emma F. Mayo

I must preface my review with a caveat. I struggled to finish this book and wrestled with my review not because it was written poorly or the author failed to draw robust and interesting characters, quite the contrary, but because of the disturbingly poignant subject matter which assaulted my sensibilities filling me with dread at the turn of every page.

It Happened in Silence is a disturbing historical fiction told from multiple points of view and based closely upon events and people in 1920s Georgia. A time when Ty Cobb batted his 3,000th hit, Georgia permitted women to vote and the Ku Klux Klan might have died in obscurity if a sinister, racist woman hadn’t come along. Elizabeth Tyler was a public relations mastermind for the Ku Klux Klan and, arguably, the most influential person in the KKK at the time.

Karla M. Jay is a gutsy and consummate wordsmith painting word pictures so vivid you will smell the convicts’ sweat and wilt under the sultry heat. Her character images both real and imagined are so well crafted and so powerful you’ll find yourself empathizing with their profound personal demons in a world where God, family and food are some of the most important aspects of a southern life and in Georgia you can include tradition.

She describes an oppressive milieu where racism is woven into the social fabric, political and social institutions and born and bolstered in classrooms, bedrooms and bars, town halls and assembly lines and stitched together with the threads of faith, love and courage.

Karla M. Jay is truly a master of her craft.

Be sure to read Karla Jay’s previous novels Speak of the Devil, Speaking in Tungs and When We Were Brave.

James D. A. Terry