No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
Flatiron Books (January 2024)
336 pages; $25.53 hardcover; $14.99 e-book
Reviewed by Chandra Claypool (Instagram) (TikTok)
“Three sisters. Two Murders. Too many secrets to count.”
My third book by Marshall, with a few more on my shelves. I always get excited when I see her name pop up as she writes middle grade, YA and adult thriller and horror novels and I’m a fan of it all.
No One Can Know opens with the sisters at the murder house waiting on the authorities as her parents are dead within. They clearly have a secret between them and no one is talking. Are they, or is one of them, responsible for the murders? Color me intrigued! But then they cut off contact with each other until Emma has to come back as her husband has lost his job and she has just found out she’s pregnant. So to the house they go to live. Oh, did I mention that Emma takes the brunt of the blame for the murders even though nothing was ever proven?
Beginning pulled me right in, the middle was a bit of a slog, and the ending bamboozled me with a lot of information. I have questions. When the big reveal comes… I certainly had my brow furrowed. There are so many red herrings but I was definitely a little suspicious of this villain. Then again, I was side-eyeing all the characters if I’m being completely honest. That is actually one of the things I loved best about this read. And while I can suspend reality with the best of them, I wondered a little bit at one particular character and what they were able to accomplish considering a variety of factors. I’m being vague on purpose because I do not want to spoil anything for you, dear reader.
Marshall always sets a suspenseful atmosphere that keeps you glued to each page. Even when a book doesn’t quite work completely for me, I still find myself fully immersed in the story and satiated at the end. The complex family dynamics sets the stage from page one and never lets up. This is a tense story about the dark secrets and emotional abuse between these sisters, festering over decades. Strap yourself in and see if you can figure out how their parents died and if they can repair all the damage that has happened.
3 stars
