In The Silent Partner, Herb Curtis stakes out new fictional territory: Silver Rapids, a twenty-minute drive from Brennen Siding and twenty years after the famous Brennen Siding trilogy. One bitter winter day, motherless young Corry Quinn loses half of his tongue on a railway spike; he will never speak clearly again. Then his Toronto-bound father deposits him with his Uncle Kid, a greying hippie. Strange to say, these disasters improve Corry's life.

Kindred spirits, he and Kid grow up together, sharing tragicomic adventures involving girls, fish, and the perhaps extinct eastern cougar. Finally, inspired by Sally Nutbeam -- now a strapping beauty -- Corry abandons the last shred of self-pity to become a man with a voice.