Howdy mind readers,

Five clues were marked with a "*":

23A) Expense report attachment [RECEIPT]

32A) Archipelago component [ISLAND]

41A) 17th-century English diarist Samuel [PEPYS]

53A) Bring charges against [INDICT]

60A) Casper or Moaning Myrtle [GHOST]

So we had

RECEIPT

ISLAND

PEPYS

INDICT

GHOST

...in that order. The key to figuring out what to do with this somewhat eclectic set of words was the puzzle's title, "Silence is Golden". Each of the five theme answers has a silent letter: receiPt, iSland, pepYs, indiCt, gHost. Take these letters in order and they spell PSYCH, the meta answer.