What are the chances of being involved in not just one murder but four? This is the question Rachel, formerly known as Casey, asks herself when she discovers a dead body in the wood on her daily walk and runs away, thus making herself a person of interest. As the story unfolds, told in two parts alternately, by Rachel in the present day and Casey, twenty years ago, when she was a naïve nineteen year old out to make it as a star in Hollywood, only to find herself embroiled in an extremely dysfunctional family as the maid of all work. Far from the glamorous life style she imagined. When tragedy strikes and the family is murdered Casey becomes the fall guy. Clair McGowan does a brilliant job in describing, as Casey, the terrifying reality of being accused of murder in a foreign country where the rules are very different, where dressing as a normal teenager and the slightest inconsistency in your story is seen as a sign of your guilt and death the ultimate punishment. Her descriptions of the court case and Casey’s years on death row are a very powerful incentive to abolish the death penalty.

It is because of this experience and trial by social media that Casey, upon eventually winning her appeal, returns to Britain and becomes Rachel. Her past is deeply buried and she is untraceable. Or is she? As the investigation into Anne’s murder unfolds Rachel becomes convinced that someone from her past has come seeking revenge. Based on her past experience she is determined that she has to help herself and attempts to turn detective thus putting herself in grave danger. Will she succeed in bringing Anne’s murderer to justice before she becomes the next victim? Is someone from her past involved in her present dilemma or is the answer much closer to home?

I have to admit to reading this book in a day. I love a good psychological thriller and this was a great psychological thriller.

I was caught up from the start. The writing draws you in and keeps you ensnared. I felt the pacing set ths tone of the story and it gripped me.

The Mary Poppins killer.

Racy Casey.

Every true crime podcaster knows the story. The Hollywood Hills House of Horror, where a film producer, his beautiful actress wife and their cherubic 5-year old daughter were brutally murdered by the 19-year old British nanny. Everyone loves a good murder, especially when the perpetrator is young, beautiful, and scandalous.

Four years after her conviction, though, Racy Casey is released on appeal. Even more scandal, even more outrage. And she disappears from public view, refusing to even peek online to see the forums full of scathing discussion on how the Bitch Got Away With It.

Almost 20 years later, there's another murder. A body, found on a well traveled path in the woods. And this time, instead of calling 911, Casey - now Rachel - runs away.

If you're a lover of Thrillers like me, you get to the point where you see the killer coming before you've even really gotten into the plot. It becomes less about whodunnit, and more about the Whys. What was the motive? The method? The backstory?

About a quarter of a way in, I had a little twitch in the back of my brain. I already had my suspect nailed down, but I started thinking about another possible suspect. THEN I started thinking about a way to twist what I was thinking, and make it so. much. cooler.

But the odds of an author taking my twist idea and fulfilling it? Not usually a gift I'm given.

Claire McGowan, though. Claire McGowan and I would get along just fine, because she's got a brain for the twists I live for.

Utterly and completely enjoyable. Seemingly not unique until you dig into the real meat of the story. Taking the reader from the Hollywood hills to the British seaside, from a fancy mansion to the stark cold world of Death Row.

Absolutely brilliant.

This is the story of Casey/Rachel and is told by her in two timelines, past and present. The book opens in the present with Rachel out walking her dog when she stumbles across a body and realises that it is the ex wife of her boyfriend. Instead of reporting it to the police she flees the scene. But it isn’t long before the police trace her and she becomes a suspect. Twenty five years earlier she was known as Casey and left England to work in the USA as a Nanny to a Hollywood couple with two young children. It soon turns into a nightmare when Casey is expected to work long hours and doesn’t get on with the mother. Then things turn worse when Casey discovers the bodies of the man, woman and older child. She soon finds herself accused of their murders and is sent to Death Row. Casey manages to win her appeal again the sentence and changes her name to Rachel and returns home to England. Now, twenty years later, she is accused again of murder. Is this a coincidence or is someone framing her for the murders, someone who wants revenge. This book has a interesting plot and is full of suspense and twists and turns. A little far fetched at time but still a recommended read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas and Mercer for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Recommended read! This is one you won't want to put down until you have finished it. Although you might feel it takes a little while to get into it at first, stick with it - the storyline goes between past and present, but it works well, I liked it. There are twists and turns throughout that keep your interest and guessing how things might turn out for Rachel. Good plot, scenes and storyline set well and interesting characters, will read other books by the same author. Thank you to NetGalley to read in return for an honest review.

I Know You was one of those thrillers that had me second-guessing what, exactly, had happened and wondering what trick up the proverbial sleeve would be pulled out before the end. It is gripping, and while you know you’re not being told everything it’s not clear why this is until the very end.
Our main character is Rachel, a woman who stumbles across a dead body while walking her dog. Rather than call the police, she runs home and tries to ignore it. Suspicious? Certainly it seems so when we learn the body is that of her partner’s ex-wife. Less so when we learn that Rachel was, for five years, kept on Death Row for the murder of three of the family she acted as nanny to. She was cleared, but the fear of being accused of a crime you didn’t commit causes scars.
Of course, the details of each case are important. I found myself more intrigued by her past, and what led her to be in this situation.
From start to finish, the pace is quite relentless. I was never sure of the extent to which we could trust Rachel, and the way the book was resolved felt quite unlikely. However, it was a great escape read.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication.

I haven't read a book that built tension this well in a long time! This book sent me on an emotional rollercoaster, the murders that take place in it are genuinely horrific but the circumstances around them are written so well. I had a few different guesses of what was going on and some panned out but none in quite the way I expected. Our protagonist was perfectly written to keep me hooked. While flashbacks are often jarring, in this one they just intrigued me even more. Really enjoyed it, best mystery I've read in a while.

This one is really good!

OK, one can be at scene of a murder once, get accused, then got out. But twice in their lifetime?
Something definitely smells fishy.

This clever concept offers many possibilities in who the guilty one/ones might be. After all, with such a set-up, one can not be too sure even about the narrator of the story, Rachel, who once was known as Casey, the British nanny slash murderer. Or is there someone out to get her? But who and for what reason?

The novel is well written and keeps the steam on until the last chapters and twists. The writing is clever, the psychological profile of the main character is strong and her situation comes off as believable (meaning that I would behave similarly, even similarly stupid :)).

In my opinion, the real murderer/s are not that interesting as the building of the atmosphere is (this is done superbly).
The last few chapters are not that interesting as well, but there is one lovely twist which brings the game up.

Having said all that, I have really enjoyed the novel. I find Ms McGowan being a quality authoress and her last one only cemented my high opinion of her.

Claire McGowan can write an entertaining and twisty plot.

I don't want to give spoilers, and I would not advise reading the blurb on book sites. This is best read cold, and you will find the twists and turns to be surprising, but not outlandish.

Trust McGowan, she is a force in the world of psychological suspense.

This is a story about a woman who was previously released from deathrow but is now once again accused of murder. The story flips from present day to the prior murder, which i really enjoyed. She believes she is being framed AGAIN, but is she? No spoilers in this review. This was one of most predictable books I read but it still had me beyond engaged. I definitely got frustrated at this character for some of her decisions but I needed to know what happened next. The short chapters kept me coming back for more. Although I predicted the ending, the twists and turns still kept me interested and took me on a ride.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for an advanced copy.

For the second time in her life (I mean, who gets that lucky?), Rachel comes across a dead body. Panicking, she makes a snap decision and decides to run away instead of reporting it. This is just the start of an investigation which seems to implicate Rachel even deeper. But with Rachel adamant she has nothing to do with the crime, could it be that someone is framing her for murder?⁣
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I don't know why it took me so long to read this book because oh my word, it was absolutely amazing! This suspenseful page turner is the first I've read by this author. I'm excited to see she has a backlist of other titles, which I can't wait to dive into.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, I have read books by Claire before and this is another great one. I thought I had guessed three quarters of the way through who killed Anna and was thrilled to find out I was wrong! I loved the way the chapters went to the present and past with each leaving on a cliff hanger so that I had to keep reading to find out more. Definitely recommended.

An enjoyable twisty-turny thriller which kept me trying to out-guess the author. I failed! So many red herrings to send the reader the wrong way, but with a believable, if unexpected, solution at the end.

I loved this book and the way it was written in the past and present day. I was hooked right from the beginning.

This is a hugely enjoyable book, nicely twisty in places and it keeps the momentum going to the end. The main character is trying to live quietly in an English village, but her past catches up with her when her new lover's estranged wife is killed near her house and her scarf is found near thr body. At first it all seems like a horrible coincidence but she tries to investigate what has happened herself. I really enjoyed it and became involved in the story telling which moves from death row in an American prison to a small English village, moving between the years and the characters clearly and cleverly.

Wow what a book! Fantastic!!! When Rachel stumbles upon a body in the woods, she knows what she has to do: run. Get away. Do not be found at the scene. Last time, she didn’t know, and she ended up accused of murder. But when this victim is identified as her boyfriend’s estranged wife, Rachel realises she’s already the prime suspect.

With mounting evidence against her, Rachel’s only hope is to keep the truth about herself well hidden. Because twenty years ago she was someone else—Casey, a young nanny trying to make it as an actress in Los Angeles. When the family she worked for were brutally murdered, all the evidence pointed to her and she went to prison. Back then, she narrowly escaped the death penalty and managed to free herself on appeal. Now she’s fighting to save the life she’s spent years piecing back together.

But with her behaviour raising suspicion and the police closing in, Rachel can’t help wondering: Was her discovery in the woods really just an awful coincidence, or is someone framing her for murder? Someone who knows who she is, and wants revenge…
Gripped from the first chapter and flew through it in one sitting!

Hmm not really for me Im afraid, i can suspend a lot of disbelief but the plot that Rachel has found two dead bodies in her lifetime put me off from that point unfortunately and some of the plot twists were signposted too early on so weren't that much of a shock when you got there.
But thanks for the chance to read it

Casey is a 19 year old from Watford who’s head was filled with starstruck dreams put their by her mother Jenna. So young and naive she heads off to Hollywood to nanny for a film producer and his actress wife. Unfortunately things don’t go quite to plan and Casey ends up on death row. 20 years later Rachel, who lives in a small village in the Lake District, is out walking her dog and comes across a dead body, but instead of calling the police she runs home and pretends nothing has happened right up until the police knock on her door and all her world begins to crumble.
Yet another incredible read by Claire McGowan. Her novels are masterful, cleverly written and thoroughly engaging and I can’t wait to read more.

Claire is such a magical storyteller. She has such an amazing way of hooking you from the beginning and telling a compelling story. This one was a great thriller and I really enjoyed the storyline.

Rachel stumbles upon a dead body in the woods near her home -- unfortunately, this isn't her first encounter with a dead body and last time she wound up accused of murder. Needless to say, Rachel runs away before being found at the scene. However, once the victim is identified as her boyfriend's estranged wife, Rachel is suspect #1. With evidence mounting against her, Rachel attempts her own investigation into finding the murderer. As she uncovers clues, she wonders if her discovering the body was a coincidence or if she's being framed for murder.

Told from the alternating perspectives and timelines, I Know You kept me up ALL night. The plot was clever, and Rachel's backstory was developed perfectly. It was one of my favorite books to end 2021!