No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall [Book Review]

No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall is a mystery about trauma and family secrets – read my book review.

Kate Alice Marshall’s latest novel, No One Can Know, is an intriguing mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. It’s a story of family secrets, unresolved trauma, and the search for the truth. Read more about the book and learn why I gave the mystery 3 out of 5 stars below.

What is the book about?

Emma hasn’t told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead, and she hasn’t spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she’s pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red.

That’s when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents’ house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can’t sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion and that her parents died there.

Were murdered.

And that some people say Emma did it.

Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don’t want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again. [GoodReads.com]

My review

No One Can Know centers around Emma, who returns to her childhood home after discovering she is pregnant and that her husband has lost his job. The fact that the house holds painful memories of her parents’ murder complicates her decision, but it’s her only reasonable option. As Emma navigates the rooms of her abandoned home, she must confront not only the ghosts of her past but also unresolved tensions between her and her sisters. Each with their version of the truth surrounding their parents’ deaths.

Kate Alice Marshall has an incredibly readable style. Throughout the book, she blends the past and present, revealing more about the mystery surrounding the terrible night that changed their lives forever. The tension builds as secrets are disclosed and suspicions grow, resulting in a dramatic finale that leaves readers questioning everything they thought they knew.

As a newbie to Kate Alice Marshall’s writing, I thought No One Can Know was a fun introduction to her work. Although it wasn’t one of my favorite books, I enjoyed diving into this intriguing mystery and can’t wait to read more of Marshall’s novels in the future.

If you’re a fan of murder mysteries, No One Can Know is one you’ll want to check out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for this advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest and thoughtful review.

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