Newshound J.R. Deo has spent his life pursuing tragedy to the darkest corners of the globe, reporting on places like the Killing fields and the Middle East. He has not emerged unscathed from this quest: he has a history of violent outbursts, and following a savage attack on fellow journalists in a bar, Deo’s mental state and criminal accountability for the attack are assessed at the Institute for forensic observation in the Netherlands. Here, he goes from observer to observed. The calm in his cell is initially ideal for taking stock of horrors past and present. But gradually, sinister figures take control of his pen and begin dictating their confessions through his writing. Meanwhile, his fellow inmates at the Institute also become increasingly restless. The violent, paranoid men he is among begin to wonder what exactly Deo is reporting on, and more importantly, to whom. The unsaid is the last in the trilogy that began with De Nooy’s acclaimed novel Six fang marks & a tetanus shot (2008), followed up by The big stick (2011). The series can be read separately and in any order. All three were first published in Dutch.

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