Secret Signs

Amy Kellen has just landed a job: she works as a sign language interpreter for a company that provides video relay services for people with special communication needs, interpreting by video call between deaf clients and hearing callers. The work seems calm and repetitive—until, during an ordinary video call, a political strategist dies on camera. As the interpreter, she witnesses the whole thing, but professional ethics and the law bar her from freely disclosing what she saw during the call. America at this moment is caught in the turmoil of a fierce presidential campaign, and any testimony can be amplified and distorted by the political machine. Torn between the "code of silence" and telling the truth, Amy decides to investigate on her own. She soon discovers she is more than a bystander: an inadvertent action of hers made her the "trigger" of the political assassination. When the assassin behind it turns his sights on her and her young daughter, she must choose between upholding her professional code, protecting her family, and uncovering the truth. This is the suspense debut of former CIA officer TJ Waters, winner of the 2011 International Multicultural Fiction Award; the original English title is Secret Signs. The author transplants an intelligence background into a case built around new technology and the deaf community, while bringing deaf characters into genre fiction in an everyday, equal way—a distinctive feature of the book.