How far would you go to protect your family?

This book centers are three sisters who experienced the traumatic event of their parents being killed when they were younger and splitting up because of it. But who killed them?

This book had a slow burn until the last 15-20%, then it was chock full of different theories/viewpoints of the whodunnit. By the end, the reader knows more than some characters, but makes you wonder who you can believe/trust.

This story has a non-linear timeline as well as flips between points of view of each of the sisters. I like a non-linear tale to help me slowly piece things together and it was a steady pace until the end.

I enjoyed the descriptions of each of the characters; I could really see them in my minds eye. From the grit of the sisters to the calmness of their friend, and so on. I thought it really helped to bring the characters to life.

I really enjoyed Kate Alice Marshall’s previous book What Lies in the Woods and can’t wait to see what she comes out with next!

Thank you to the author, Kate Alice Marshall, Flatiron Books and NetGalley for the eARC of No One Can Know in exchange for my honest review!

Kate Alice Marshall is so weird and I love it. I really wouldn’t have her any other way. I think I would have enjoyed this a little more if I hadn’t read something similar at the end of last year, but here we are. It wasn’t bad, but it just seemed too similar to something else.

Ok so boom, you just found out that your partner has been lied to you about a significant amount of money and at the worst possible time, because you just found out you were pregnant. So the only thing left to do is go to the house where you lived as a child. Back to the house where they suspect you of killing your parents. And that’s basically the synopsis of this book. And man let me tell you, what you think you know…. You don’t lol

So I was able to guess who the culprit of each mystery was, but it pissed me off because of the way they did it. When you read it you’ll understand what I mean. Like how did no one figure out this? And the fact that all of the dominoes depended on one thing? That was crazy. And the way the rest of the story played out was just crazy. And then when all the answers start coming out, it was nothing that I thought it was. So basically I got the person, but the reason why was outta nowhere.

The characters in this were all crazy. And I mean every single one of them. From every person in town to the people that were involved, to just every last one of them. They were all terrible. Their parents more so than the others. This is a character driven book, so if you’re more into the plot movement, you might not catch on, but by watching them and the way they interact, will tell you everything you need to know. But I will say Marshall writes it in a way where you won’t really know for sure until she wants you to. (Unless you’re me lol)

The audio was really good as well. I’ve listened to other audios from her and I liked them all as well. Vacker is a great narrator and does well with making sure the feelings and intonation is there. Definitely makes each story she narrates feel real.

This was kinda weird, but I still enjoyed it. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give it away, but just know if you want to read this, you’ll have to pay attention to the characters to figure things out before the other people in the story. Now the other book, if you’ve read it, let me know if you drew the same parallels as me!

Thank you for the ARC copy..

I wanted this book to be more about the sisters and the house, but it was about the s small town and mean people. Needed more family tension and murder mystery. Felt like the house was only to make a tie to the horrible small town.

This was good! I don't think I was quite as connected to the characters as I was to the author's previous novel, but I was definitely just as immersed in the mystery part! Here, we meet three sisters whose parents died under violent and still unsolved circumstances. They have all taken the deaths (and the subsequent investigation) very differently, but suffice it to say, their relationships with each other are virtually non-existent in the present day.

None of them really want anything to do with their past, but when Emma finds herself pregnant and her husband unemployed and their apartment no longer theirs, she knows she has one option, albeit not one she likes. She and her sisters have ownership of the family home, and since none of them could manage to agree to sell it, they can technically live there. Problem is, this move threatens to unearth trauma from the past, as well as a lot of unwelcome questions still swirling around the murders.

Obviously I shan't say too much because, hello, mystery! But just as much a focus as the mystery is the relationship among the sisters. Clearly, their relationship was fraught before the murders, and the death of their parents pushed it to seemingly beyond repair. Speaking of the parents, you're going to hate them and be high-key glad they're dead. It becomes even more infuriating because not only did they let their daughters down, but then so did plenty of other people since then.

In effect, the story is two parts: one, the mystery of the murders; and the complex relationships of the three sisters. How did they get to this point in their lives, how they had to change their entire personalities, at times, in order to survive their pasts. All of these questions make for quite a compelling story, and I could not put it down, frankly.

Bottom Line: An exciting mystery with a lot of personal and relational development to boot. Definitely a page-turner!

This was my first read by Kate Alice Marshall and overall I enjoyed this novel. The beginning of the book had me hooked and fascinated to learn more about each sister. I enjoyed the flashbacks throughout to get an idea of what led up to events that took place years in the past. However, I did reach a point where the novel was dragging a bit for me and I was less invested in the overall outcome. The ending left me a little bit underwhelmed even when there were bigger reveals that I feel should have elicited a bigger reaction from me. I would be interested in future books from this author.

No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall is the story of what happens when the pressure of being perfect, a dysfunctional family, and buried secrets all work together to aid murder and revenge. The story follows Emma as she's forced to return to her hometown and confront the people who believe she's responsible for her parents' murders. Back in town, the local detective and old friends come around, digging up old secrets. Emma's husband is determined to fix up the house for the two of them, but it soon comes to light that he's been cheating on her and really wanted to sell the house and take the money in the divorce.

Emma's sisters aren't too happy about their return to the town, and together the three of them figure out what, exactly, happened on that fateful night. Emma lied to the police and took the blame to protect her sisters all this time--but were they really worth protecting? Pregnant and questioning what kind of life her baby might have, Emma goes toe-to-toe with her history, her family, and her old friends.

I gave No One Can Know a three-star rating because I enjoyed reading it, but I wouldn't recommend it to a friend or read it again.

This is by far my favorite book by this author. The dark secrets and scandal had me shook! I loved the dual timeline and the backstory really helped develop the plot. I binged this in a day and a half and couldn't get it out of my head for weeks after.

No One Can Know is the first book I’ve read by Kate Alice Marshall and color me impressed. It features a wonderfully twisty plot full of secrets and lies. Marshall does an absolute masterful job bringing the characters to life. The story centers around a trio of estranged sisters who parents were murdered when they we younger. Who murdered them? Well that’s the question, isn’t it. For many people Emma, who happens to be the middle sister and pretty much the main character, is the main suspect. Everyone (and by everyone I actually mainly mean Emma) was more than willing to leave the past buried in the past. After all, Emma never planned to return ‘home’, but fate has other plans. Now pregnant and about to lose their apartment (not to mention a housing deal that fell through) Emma and Nathan have no choice but to return to her childhood home, and she finally has to reveal some of the truth about her past to Nathan. And of course the past must be confronted and reconciled. I’d like to thank Flatiron Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of No One Can Know.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2LV2191G0UVC5/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

No One Can Know
Kate Alice Marshall

Happy publication day to No One Can Know! I think I was in the vast minority of readers who did not absolutely love What Lie’s In the Woods, Kate Alice Marshall’s release from 2023 so, I did not have high or really any expectations for No One Can Know. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book over last years, it was a very intriguing, edge of the seat story with a twisted ending leaving you without the full story until the very last page.

I did have a little bit of trouble getting into this but, it ended up keeping me hooked until the end mostly because of my sympathy for the main character. Told in alternating POV both in past and present, I think he main character is the only one I empathized with. The rest of the characters are just so awful that I was rooting for her so hard in the end.

Special thanks to @netgalley and @flatiornbooks for the ARC!

BEVERAGE REC: any white wine; because I’m currently out of stock in my cabinet and wishing I had some. Cheers! 🥂

RATING:
👻👻👻👻/5

I really enjoyed this book! I’m back in my thriller phase and this one did NOT disappoint. The plot twists and turns had me REELING. Really begs the question of how far would you go to protect your siblings👀.

Thank you to @netgalley @flatiron_books for letting me read this ARC. It’s available now!

Emma Palmer is accused of killing her parents. No one was ever able to prove it, but those ghosts have haunted her since that night. She moves away and reinvents herself, starts a new life, but unfortunate circumstances send her back to her hometown. Rumors continue to circulate the small town when people find out she’s returned. Emma has to get to the bottom of what happened that night, even if the answers might not be what she wants to hear.

I really enjoyed this story. It started a bit slow but once the hook got me, I couldn’t put it down. The character development was spot on and was key to the reveal of one of the several twists. I definitely recommend this one!

Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron Books for An ARC of No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall for an honest review.

Publication Date: January 23, 2024

No one Can Know was the first book by this author that I have read. I was pulled in immediately. Emma and her husband have had some life changes and decide to move back in to Emma's childhood home, where her parents were murdered when she was a child.

The book is told by multiple POV and timelines. Kate has two sisters, Daphne and Josephine who she has been estranged. Both sisters make their way back into Emma's life. We flash back to the time of the murders and see what was happening with the girls at that time.

The pacing in the middle was kind of slow to me. The beginning and end were very fast paced. Overall a good who done it, but do we really know?

I was so excited to get No One Can Know in the mail from @flatiron_books!! After loving Marshall’s last book, this is one of my most anticipated books of the year and I absolutely loved it!! What a twisty, suspenseful book. Marshall has a way with words and creates this world for her characters that is totally believable. This is a 5 star book.

I really wanted to like this book. However, it felt kind of slow and flat. I also found the the characters made some kind of illogical leaps in reasoning and deduction as they unraveled the mysteries. Finally, I didn’t understand why the chapters in the past were in present tense, while those in the present were in past tense; it didn’t really make much sense for the story.

Returning to her childhood home is her only option, but to do so means uncovering long buried secrets.

Emma thought that her life was about to begin an exciting new chapter. She and her husband Nathan have put money down on a new house, since their apartment’s lease was not renewed. Better still, Emma has just found out that she’s pregnant. She returns home to find Nathan at their apartment rather than at work, which is not a good sign. He has some seriously bad news….he’s lost his job. Not the one that Emma thought he had, but the new job he had accepted without telling her and for which he left his old job. Without his income they no longer qualify for a mortgage, and Nathan’s lack of candor about his job change also means that they forfeit the money they put down on the house. Which was pretty much all of their savings. With nowhere else to live, the only option seems to be to move into the family house where Emma grew up, which she and the two sisters (from whom she has long been estranged) have owned since their parents’ death. It’s hardly a perfect solution, though.…what Emma has never told her husband is that her parents (who were pretty dreadful people) didn’t simply die, they were killed. In their home. No one has ever been arrested for the crime, but in the court of public opinion the killer has been identified. The whole town, including the local police, are sure that Emma either killed or was involved in the killing of her parents. If ever there was someone who knows how correct Thomas Wolfe was to say, “You can’t go home again.”, it is Emma. With no money and no others options, though, Emma and Nathan head to Arden Hills and the Palmer family home, and encounter hostility and harassment at every turn. Their problems are only beginning, and their already rocky relationship will further deteriorate. Emma’s two estranged sisters, Daphne and Juliette, are not very happy that Emma has returned to the house, and for their own reasons both head to Arden Hills. The three made a pact when their parents were found dead, mostly because each assumed that one of the others had committed the crime. They lied about where they were that night to provide one another with alibis, and while the police didn’t believe them they also couldn’t prove that they were lying. When another murder happens, it seems like the only way to solve this new murder is to pry into the past. What happened the night of the Palmers’ murders? Where were the three sisters that night, and did in fact one or more of them shoot their parents? Why is the local police so determined to prove Emma’s guilt? And what will the cost be to find out the truth?
No One Can Know is a briskly paced thriller that explores the truism that no one knows what goes on behind closed doors. The Palmer parents were manipulative and emotionally abusive, and for them appearances were what mattered most. What effect does that kind of upbringing have on children? The relationship between sisters under the best of circumstances can be challenging, but in this family it was far more than that. Juliette, the eldest, was the “good” sister who acquiesced to all of her parents’ demands, while Emma was the classic middle child and rebelled against every rule. Daphne, the youngest, just did her best to be invisible. After the murders, the three sisters were separated and remained apart as they struggled to survive the trauma and regain control of their lives. None of them are certain that they truly want to know the truth of what happened that night, perhaps preferring to live with uncertainty rather than find that one of them was a killer. But as Emma struggles with her splintering marriage she realizes that she, who silently took the blame for her sisters all those years ago, has to get to the truth if she wants to have a future not only for herself but also for her child. New discoveries beget new questions, and old assumptions and memories prove fallible. With plenty of unexpected twists and more than a few candidates for the role of killer, I found it an engrossing story whose ending was far from obvious. Readers of LIsa Jewel, Megan Miranda and Stacy Willingham as well as fans of Ms Marshall’s earlier books should definitely pick up a copy of this latest novel….and maybe grab a copy for their sister(s) as well. Many thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy of No One Can Know.

4.5 rounded up.

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. When they lose their apartment, Emma confesses 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 she is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, where her parents were murdered. Now, her return back 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.

Kate Alice Marshall does it again with her unique plot and twisty/suspenseful storyline. The characters were easily my favorite piece as they were so cleverly crafted throughout the story and each had their own secrets, making it impossible to trust anyone. The narration was even more engaging as it was written in all three sisters’ POVs in both the past and present, forcing readers to peel back the layers to the truth. And, of course, in true Kate Alice Marshall style, the final twist is one that you won’t see coming. Just when you think you have it figured out, she adds one more jaw drop 🤯.
Marshall has officially been added to my auto-buy authors list 📝 and I can’t wait for the next one!

I loved her book What Lies in the Woods and this one was a close contender. It is another psychological thriller that reeks of family problems. It has several twists and turns that felt like a roller coaster ride with a stop and go feeling. What an edge of your seat thriller!!
When Emma and her husband Nathan fall on hard times and their bank account is in the red they have another option. Move into Emma's parents mansion. Emma's parents were murdered in the home and the killer has gone unknown.
Fourteen years when it happened Emma walked in to find her two sisters standing over their parents bodies. She covers their timeline so they are not prosecuted. What the police would like is to prosecute Emma for their deaths. Since there was not enough evidence they did not pursue it.
Now that her and Nathan have moved in the town's people want answers. Their house is vandalized and her estranged sisters show up bringing bad memories with them. Emma decides to find the killer herself.
It is an extreme and troubled family and with them comes some shocking twists. A fun one to analyze and read while the snow is melting away in Tennessee.
Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a quick read. I had high hopes for this one after loving What Lies In The Woods but, I can’t say that I loved it. The characters are unlikable and unreliable. Overall, it was a decent book.

This slow burn domestic thriller was a wild ride! The story is told through multiple POVs and timelines. There are shocking secrets, dark twists, many potential suspects, and plenty of people who shouldn’t be trusted. I loved how complex family dynamics played a pivotal role.

If you’re in the mood for a murder mystery with great twists, No One Can Know is an entertaining read that will keep you guessing!

It took me awhile to get into this one as there is a lot going on with so many characters, two different timelines, and multiple unreliable narrators. But I definitely got hooked eventually, and the twists kept coming in the second half. Great final reveal and ending.