The author hit the name of this book right on the head, and it played so well with the plot.
You won’t get very comfortable here and you will be guessing right to the end what really happened to Amanda on that Island. I am often able to figure out the end of my reads way ahead, but not this one. Nope! I thought several times I had it all figured out, and maybe you will, but the author really had me fooled with her little dropped clues.
If you like a mystery with a lot of drama, this one should satisfy.
Be aware surprises abound and you won’t see them coming!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Lake Union, and was not required to give a positive review.

***4-4.5 Stars***
Publication Date: Available now!!

A great mystery read, highly recommend. The MacAllister Family owns an overnight camp...Camp Macaw and 20 years ago a girl named Amanda washed up to shore in a rowboat with a gash to her head. The case was closed without solving who committed this crime. Now the father and mother of the camp have passed away and at the reading of the family due to some stipulations the siblings must find out who committed this crime. I felt that this was an Agatha Christie type mystery with multiple point of views alternating with 20 years ago to continue providing additional clues. One thing I particularly liked about this book was every so often the author at the end of each chapter would provide a table mapping out where each character was on a timeline. This really helped keep everything straight and also made me more interested in trying to figure out who committed this crime. Very fast pace read that I couldn’t put down and I highly recommend. This would be a great summer read.

Special Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the setting of this book! Something about a camp turned creepy really keeps me at the edge of my seat. I enjoyed the flashing back and forth in time plus multiple POVs. The only challenge was there were so many characters I didn’t feel like any of them were fleshed out enough. I couldn’t really understand them or their decisions. This made the ending a little strange and rushed. Other than that it was an enjoyable quick read and definitely a great pick for summer.

There's so much to love about this mystery surrounding a remote summer camp and a group of siblings. Gathered together for a memorial for their recently deceased parents, they discover that their father has always held the belief that one of them is responsible for a tragic event at the camp decades earlier, and has left it up to them to decide how to proceed. These siblings are not close-knit- in many ways they've actively chosen not to be close anymore, as several of them suspect others are involved in the attack on another camper years before. This is definitely a story about family dysfunction at its finest- I hated the father of these siblings, who tracked his adult children like a private detective and drove wedges between them (and between himself/his wife and the kids) with his choices. Catherine McKenzie wrote a story with an ending that I never saw coming- and I definitely enjoyed it. There's something about summer camp based stories that is intrinsically creepy to me (though my own experiences with camps were always positive and not novel worthy).

What a great book! I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book. It was very well written and exciting all the way through. This is a story about a girl who was killed twenty years ago at a summer camp. No one has ever been found guilty of this crime. After all these years, the family who owns the camp return for another death. The reading of the will has a stipulation- no one will be allowed to collect their inheritance until the old murder is solved. Amidst a lot of events that you won’t see coming is a really good and nostalgic book for anyone who has been to summer camp!

Family drama, mystery, secrets...it was almost impossible to put this book down! Another amazing book from Catherine that had me guessing the whole time, with an ending I never saw coming!

Catherine Mckenzie never fails each of her books has drawn me in from the first pages taken me from my reading chair and into the lives of the characters.This he latestbis no exceptions it is twisty turning kept me on the edge of my seat a tense chilling read highly recommend, # Netgalley #lakeunionpublishing.

This is my third Catherine McKenzie read so I guess it’s safe to safe I’m officially a fan of hers. Even if this one wasn’t my favorite I still enjoyed it and the mystery. I know that the author tried to be as organized as possible with the characters and the events but I still got mixed up a few times keeping things straight. That being said, I would still recommend this to others.

3.5 stars
Well told mystery about five grown siblings returning to their family's summer camp after their parents' deaths. They have to figure out what happened during a fateful summer night twenty years before in order to discover who should inherit the estate.
Although there were multiple characters, each chapter told from one of their points of view, it was easy to keep them straight because they had unique personalities and life experiences. The strength of this book is that their individual views of what happened that night have colored their lives in ways that they don't even recognize until they start to talk to each other.
It wasn't difficult to figure out who the culprit was, but I kept reading to find out the why. There aren't huge twists or "a-ha" moments, but the mystery is convincingly laid out and revealed.

What happened to Amanda Holmes all those years ago? When McAllister siblings return to Camp Macaw after their parent’s death, they are there to hear the reading of the will and unanimously decide what to do with the property. Family dysfunction and secrets are the name of the game as each sibling comes to terms with the past, their secrets, and their relationship with each other. Told in alternating timelines, with the addition of Amanda’s point of view, the siblings have to unravel what happened in the past while coming to terms with family secrets, past and present.
The characters are interesting with their own secrets and quirks, and McKenzie keeps it interesting by alternating between the different points of view. Full of twists that will keep you guessing; this one will have you turning pages trying to figure out what is going to happen. This is a good one to add to your summer (or anytime) reading list.
#LakeUnionPublishers

Mystery novels are a favorite genre for me . I especially love the ones I can’t quite figure out who the culprit is. This novel checked off all my boxes! You’ll have a great time trying to figure out who done it! Thanks for the author and her publisher as well as NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of I’ll Never Tell.

Who wouldn't want their parents to own a summer camp on a lake? Apparently the Macaws. After their parents sudden death, they are told to keep it open one more year and then meet to hear what's next. The family is divided on what they want to be done with it, and that is before the will, and its strange conditions, is read.

It's not just the family to consider. Sean has lived there most of his life and wants to stay. And there is Amanda on everyone's mind. Who killed Amanda 20 years ago and left her in a boat? Dad had his ideas. Was he right?

This was a fun, summer read. There were parts in which the family drama and remembering seemed irrelevant and I just wanted to get back to the present day story, but I still read it in two sittings. I'd recommend for anyone who likes a little mystery.

Favorite Quotes:

She leaned toward Liddie. She smelled like her father used to, a mix of coffee and marijuana. “Waking and baking these days?”

“Have you ever thought about what they must’ve been like before all of us? … I think about it. They met. They fell in love. They were regular people once.” “And what? We made them into irregular people?”

They always got the leftovers. The things left in the lost and found. If Liddie wrote a biography of her childhood, it would be called Nothing Was Ever Mine.

That was the bargain of being a twin. You didn’t need to talk about it; you simply knew that sometime in the not too distant future, you’d be living together in some old-age home, dressed alike the way you’d been as children.

He always smelled the same— slightly refrigerated. It was a smell Mary liked because it meant coolness to her. Not in a fashion sense but in the temperature way. He was calm, steady.

Of everyone in their family, the person she’d understood the least had been her mother. When Kate thought of her, she always seemed diaphanous. Like one of those Instagram filters had been applied to her, washing her out, smoothing away the lines. Nothing ever seemed to stick to her, not criticism or her children, not even her husband. She simply floated around, photographing it all, removed.


My Review:

Quite a clever gal, that Catherine McKenzie! This well-crafted mystery was full of simply explained yet brilliantly placed twists and turns that kept me on edge and off-center. The storylines were highly eventful and ingeniously paced with tension and intrigue steadily ratcheting up the scale, and I was sucking it all in like the latest and greatest vacuum on the market. I enjoyed the shrewdly discerning tale as much as the skill and cunning in the telling of it.

This family was well beyond quirky, they were each oddly peculiar and self-absorbed. I didn’t care for any of them by the time I finished the book, yet I was driven to know all about them. I had great empathy for the stalwart employee and held my breath for him and cringed each time evidence pointed his direction. Each character was fascinatingly flawed and I enjoyed unearthing their many secrets. This was only my second time reading her work but I am eager to see what Ms. McKenzie comes up with next, she now has a rather rabid fangirl on her hands.

Catherine McKenzie, Author of “I’ll Never Tell” has written an edgy, suspenseful, intense, mysterious, captivating, and intriguing novel. It certainly makes one think if going to camp is a crime. I felt as I was thrown into the pages of this book to help solve the murder of a former camper, Amanda Holmes, twenty years before. Camp Macaw, owned by the MacAllister family had many things to offer the wealthy campers. The Genres for this Story are Mystery, Suspense, and Fiction. The author describes her dramatic cast of characters as complex, complicated, volatile, and suspect. The helpers have been treated as family as well. The timeline for this story goes back twenty years to the past crime and is also set in the present.

When Mr. and Mrs. MacAllister are accidentally killed, the adult children are called for the reading of the will and a Memorial service. The MacAllister children do have memories of the camp and the activities, but also realize that the location and real estate could be quite profitable if they sell. Although no one person was convicted of the crime, there are doubts that are raised in the will. All of the adult children have to make a unanimous decision on the fate of not only their family but the real estate. Will the camp still remain in the family or be sold? What complicates things are deep family secrets and complicated motivations.

There are clues that are provided as well as twists and turns. Everything is at a stalemate until what happened to Amanda is solved. Solving this crime is going to take lots of work. Looking back at the past, seeing the family dynamics presently, and anticipating the future is a major task. I would highly recommend this thrilling mystery.

Catherine McKenzie's lastest novel is set in a family-owned and run summer camp, which makes for a good summer read. The MacAllister family has gathered at the camp for their parents' memorial service. As the title I'll Never Tell indicates, there are many secrets to be revealed along the way. The story is actually told from seven points of view as each family member reflects on the major event that happened twenty years prior. Each person's closely-guarded secret provides another piece in the puzzle as to what happened that fateful night. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I’ll Never Tell’s plot line interested me from the start- Five siblings are set to inherit their parents’ summer camp, where they all spent their youth. But something tragic occurred 20 years prior, so when the will is read, they must figure out the truth of that night before they can move on with their lives. This book was told from multiple viewpoints, so while that can get exhausting for a reader, Catherine McKenzie manages to keep the plot flowing, and therefore keep you hooked to read on without too many frustrating cliffhangers between chapters. The characters were well-developed, and you could actually connect with them, as their secrets are slowly unveiled throughout the story. I did guess at the truth about halfway through, but I still was able to doubt my prediction enough to enjoy the journey through this book. Great summer thriller for your TBR shelf!

This book is full of twisty suspense! I love such a fabulous who done it where when I think I have it all figured out it takes a sharp twist turn! And at the end, totally surprised! A great must read!

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is a 3.5/5 rounded up to a 4.

This is my second Catherine McKenzie novel, the first being The Good Liar (4.5/5) I was very excited to receive this, but the book fell flat for me. I thought there were way too many characters, and I didn't really care for any of them. I also found the story somewhat slow.

I did not guess the twist and did find the ending to be fitting, which caused me to bump up my rating for this book.

I would still be interested in checking out Catherine's other stories, but I would recommend The Good Liar, before I would recommend this story.

I have really enjoyed some of this author's past books and was looking forward to this one.

The setting of Camp Macaw and a twenty year old unsolved murder case sounded intriguing.  The reading of a father's will takes five siblings back to camp. They learn that the murder of Amanda will have to be solved before anyone can collect on the will.

Secrets and drama, a past/present timeline, some insights from Amanda herself all start to add up.... which of the siblings was responsible for Amanda's death?

Although there is a mystery, I stopped caring who did it at some point. The siblings were unlikable and I grew bored reading about them. It was a struggle to finish this one and probably one that I should have given up on at the half way mark.

Thanks to NG and the publisher for my copy.

Special thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

4 stars. When 4 siblings lose their parents they have to decide on what to do with the family's camp. Keep it? Sell it? A stipulation in their father's will makes the siblings figure out who is guilty in the murder of a camper 20 years ago. Lots of twists, unexpected turns, and overall a quick and entertaining read. Life's obligations made me space my reading out, but I think this book could easily be finished in a day.