This was the first time I had read a novel by Claire McGowan and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Built on a plot that rests on contemporary ‘nanny murder’ press coverage, this novel introduces two characters that merge into each other as it becomes clear they are the same woman who has adopted a new identity: Rachel, who panics upon coming across the body of a deceased woman in the forest, and Casey, who two decades earlier was imprisoned for the murder of a family she nannied for. Exploring the darker sides of human nature and trying to generate answers whether it is truly ever possible to be exonerated from serious allegations, this is a novel that deserves its title of domestic noir and all the positive publicity it has been getting. Thank you to the publishers and to NetGalley for the ARC provided in return for this honest and unbiased review.

There is no question. This is a very good Murder mystery plot with two mysteries to be solved. I read this book in two days which makes it another fast-read for me.

I really don’t want to give out any spoilers and make the review minimal. Rachel comes across a dead body during her everyday walk in the woods. And she flees. She doesn’t phone the police until they walk up to her to let her know that it is her boyfriend’s ex who is dead and that she is the main suspect. This brings back the horrendous past that she had to endure and the murder mystery that needs to be solved.

There were several suspects in both the situations although I hated how naive the main character was in so many places. Also, i was able to figure out who actually did the second murder and wondered why there is no search done regarding a person she knew 20 years ago. Albeit the obvious plot holes and plot lines I loved the book and enjoyed it.

Wow, what a story.

Rachel stumbles across a body on her daily dog walk, but instead of alerting the police she runs away, scared. As it’s not the first time this has happened!

I really enjoyed this fast paced book, it kept me hooked and I was so eager to find out what had happened in LA many years ago and how it related to her finding this body in the woods.

I liked how it went back and forth, from past to present to tell the story. Each chapter revealing a little bit more.

There was a good mix of characters, some you liked, some you didn’t and I liked trying to form an opinion and guess what had happened.

Overall another fab read from Clare McGowan, I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more of her work. Recommend if you enjoy a good crime thriller.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon publishing for allowing me this opportunity to read and review this book.

Is anyone ever free from their past? In this mystery thriller, Casey/Rachel finds out that she can run but cannot escape.

Casey was in prison in the USA on death row for a family destruction -- there was one survivor, a baby boy -- but she was later exonerated and so she returned to the UK and hid in the Lake District. She changed her name to Rachel to avoid being discovered, but everything comes back to haunt her when the estranged wife of a man she was seeing is found dead in the woods close to Rachel's home. When her history is exposed, she is the main suspect and Rachel fears she will end up behind bars again, this time permanently. No spoilers.

Although this started out well and I had high hopes, it was very predictable and didn't hold my interest for the duration though I finished it quickly. The narrative is told in two time periods -- when Casey was in LA working as a nanny for the Safran family and flash forward 20 years to her time as Rachel in Cumbria. The author attempts some twists, but my suspension of disbelief was not enough. This was the first book I've read by this author and not sure I will try another. A lot of repetition and I never got to the point where I liked Casey/Rachel or felt much for her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this e-book ARC to read and review.

This was a perfectly passable thriller. I think any lack of excitement I have about it is a "me" problem, in that I read too many thrillers and I'm hard to please/surprise.

I Know You is the first book I've read by Irish author Claire McGowan. The unique plotline of this thriller hooked me from the first pages, and McGowan's impressive writing skills kept me reading. The story surrounds a woman named Rachel who's arrested for failing to report the body she found in the woods, and later for the murder of that person. Turns out, Rachel was once called Casey and served time on a previous murder charge that was later dismissed. Did she commit these crimes or was she also a victim of a psychopath intent on ruining her life?

The ARC I read of I Know You was an Uncorrected Proof still in need of formatting and editing, but the book has since been released in its final form. The version I read needed a good bit of editing for length, and perhaps the final version has been tightened up. I was impressed by the author's writing skills, but have a bit of an issue with her misconceptions about Americans, and found her sweeping statements about us and our justice system somewhat irritating. I promise, we don't all carry guns and shoot people.

Overall, a good read. Many thanks to Amazon Publishing UK, Thomas and Mercer, and NetGalley for providing an ARC for review. *NetGalley Top Reviewer*. This review will also appear on Bayside Book Reviews at https://BaysideBookReviews.com

I couldn’t put this book down as I had to know the truth!
Lots of twists and turns!
You certainly won’t regret reading this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

3.5 Stars
Claire McGowan takes a look at what happens to a young woman, wants to be an actress, and puts her into an environment that is dangerous. As the nanny, she is there watching how this family she lives with is falling apart. There are lies and secrets, bankruptcy around the corner, and a mother who has lost touch with her children and sanity.

When the unthinkable happens, all of the family dead except the baby and the nanny, it is the nanny that is tried and convicted for the murders. Eventually, she is acquitted and tries to lead a new life somewhere else.

What happens years later is like a sick joke. Her boyfriend is separated from his wife, our gal discovers the ex-wife dead in the woods near their home. What are the odds of this happening again...what does she do...

Ms. McGowan takes all of this and weaves a tale.

I Know You may have been my first Claire McGowan thriller but it certainly won’t be my last. I was totally gripped from the outset, and found myself reading it at every available opportunity, so desperate was I to have the mystery solved.

I think the dual timeline narrative and utterly contrasting locations is what really hooked me in this one. Rachel is a fascinating character, who I ended up really empathising with, even when she made questionable decisions! I’d say perhaps that parts of the plot are guessable but that didn’t affect my enjoyment at all – I really enjoyed it!

With thanks to the publisher for gifting me a digital copy to review.

I really enjoyed reading this book....poor Rachel/Casey to be in that predicament again! At times, I wanted to shake some sense into her and stop her from making matters worse. At one point or another, I suspected half the characters in the book to be the ones setting her up...little did I know!!

Thanks NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Claire McGowan for this ARC!

I Know You by Claire McGowan is a thriller about Rachel, who is out running one day and finds a dead body. She doesn't report it because the last time to reported a dead body, she was arrested for murder. Twenty years ago, Rachel was Casey, a nanny in LA. She came home one day to find the family she worked for had been murdered. She went to prison, but finally got out on appeal. Now, she's trying to make a new life for herself, but her secret might end up getting out. This story was really intriguing, especially since two murders were being investigated and solved in the same book. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I Know You by Claire McGowan was absolutely fantastic, and my apologies it has taken me this long to review it.
Firstly, we meet Rachel. Rachel keeps herself to herself; she volunteers at the dog rescue center, she’s in a heady relationship with Alex, and owns a (really cute) dog called Brandy.
Pretty straight forward stuff here, right?
Wrong!
One morning, when Rachel is walking Brandy her usual path in the woods, she comes across a dead body.
And Rachel does do what any nice, normal, law abiding person would do…
She runs.
Immediately, we question why she feels the need to run if she’s done nothing wrong.
Meet Casey.
Casey is Rachel’s ‘real’ name. Casey (now goes by the name of Rachel) was just nineteen when she was convicted of a multiple murder back in America, where she lived briefly.
How did a young girl like Casey end up in a cell on death row?
This book skips between Casey and Rachel's unfolding lives. Although some people may not enjoy this aspect of the book, I really loved it. As a reader we get the full picture of why Casey did what she did and how it’s impacted the decisions Rachel makes now.
Things in this book get darker and darker for poor Rachel, as the body in the woods is non other than Alex’s wife, Anna. Anna, who Rachel was seen arguing with in the street last week. Anna, who is going through a divorce with Alex and is less than amicable.
The police investigation inevitably leads them to Rachel, as she seems to have more motive than most. And, of course, her mysterious and horrific past makes itself known.
Someone knows what she did…
Someone knows everything…
But who?

I REALLY loved I Know You The story manages to remain detailed and fast past at the same time. I did manage to work out one of the mysteries in the story, but a couple of them really shocked me.
The characters are really believable, even though Rachel/Casey is in an unbelievable situation for the second time in her life. As a reader, you end up questioning (or I did anyway) Rachel’s sanity and her reliability as a narrator.
I’m not going to say anymore as I don’t write spoilers, but if you aren’t already familiar with McGowan's amazing writing, I urge you to go and check her out.

Thanks netgalley for giving me an early copy of this book to read.
It was ok but overlong.
Poor Casey her life in America was awful, and ended up on death row after bern found guilty of killing a family where she was as a nanny.
Then found innocent went back to England where she came from changed her name but someone knew her, and was once again found guilty of murder.

This was a sad book in many ways. Imagine spending 5 years on Death Row for a crime you didn't commit. Then years later you are again, being falsely accused of murder. This was a very absorbing story and there was a satisfying conclusion.

First of all thank you to #NetGalley for giving me an advanced digital reader's copy of #IKnowYou by Claire McGowan. Oh wow, this book got me hooked! The very first time I've seen the cover I was already like - I feel like I am gonna love this book. It didn't disappoint me at all - Claire knows how to draw you into the world of her characters and get you sucked in there for good. When I'm not reading this book I was thinking of the characters! She's that good. She is a master of her craft and there were tons of interesting plots. Plenty of twists and turns as well and it kept me entertained. Can't wait to read more of her books.

This is a carefully constructed story designed to grip your attention from beginning to end without letting go! It is also written pressing all the right buttons. Rachel who is really Casey is hoping to live anonymously in the Lake District having put her Los Angeles past behind there. She went there as a teenager nanny hoping to break into acting but it all unravelled as the family she was working for fell apart. Convicted of three murders, then acquitted, she returned to Britain to hide but the internet never let her disappear. Then she gets involved in another murder, not randomly but because someone knew her past and thought she could be used to take the blame for his actions. This is a really good read. I recommend it.

I enjoyed the read but some of it seemed, if not far-fetched, then at the very least not so well thought out. Seemed a lot of coincidence, and while I felt for Rachel and did believe her story there was something that didn't sit right. I felt some of the outcome was flimsy. The twist was good but not enough substance to raise this above three stars for me. #netgalley #iknowyou

Wow. I just finished reading this fast paced thriller. Rachel had spent four years on death row before coming back to England after her exoneration. Now her lovers wife had been murdered and it was set up to make her a suspect. Would she be able to escape justice for a crime she didn't commit?

I’m a fan of Claire McGowan. She writes psychological thrillers which take the ordinary just that little step further. In I Know You, the central, character discovers a body whilst out walking the dog. Familiar scenario, but immediately the stakes are raised. Why does she panic and run home? A strange reaction, but more explicable if this isn’t the first time….and it isn’t..

Rachel, the central character claims she panicked. It’s a déja vu moment. The central premise relies upon plausibility and for a while, it works. I really enjoyed The Push by the same author. That kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. I Know You lacks that grip but I’m not sure why. The writing and characters are fine, but somehow it doesn’t have quite the same gripping central narrative. I didn’t quite buy in to the backstory which left me in. no man’s land for plot and character development.

Overall, a little disappointed in terms of earlier books.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Rachel has been through A LOT. And still perseveres. This book had a slow beginning. I was getting a bit bored, but trust me, it's worth sticking with. This book is highly intriguing and filled with twists and turns. And Rachels happy ending in the end, makes all of her struggles worth it.