I'll Never Tell is a book that will get you hooked in the first few pages.

There are families, then there are the McAllister's: they have it all, secrets, murder, intrigue, sibling rivalry , a tragic accident.

The book takes place at a summer camp site that the family have run for years and the siblings have gathered after the sudden death of their parents for the reading of the will.

Which is not simple , will make them choose and it will either unite them or tear them apart.

The pages will fly by, you will think what would I do ?.

A great read that holds your attention all the way to the last word.

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the opportunity to get lost in the story of I'll Never Tell.

**Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review**

This was such a great book that I devoured it in a little over 2 days, which, with my busy schedule is amazing! I loved the fact that it took place at a summer camp. Brought back memories of the summer camp I went to in Ontario when I was a kid. I also loved that it was written by a Canadian author, and was set in the province of Quebec. I got sucked into the solving of the mystery from the get-go. I couldn't put it down, I really felt invested in this family, and I just had to know whodunnit. I thought the ending didn't disappoint and kept me guessing until near the end.
An excellent mystery/family drama! 4.5 stars!

I never got to go to summer camp, so I love reading any kind of camp stories. This one is fantastic. It will keep you guessing right up to the end, and the story along the way is set up in a great format, told from the perspective of all family members.

I really enjoyed seeing the map of camp at the beginning, and the chart between chapters. These added something extra, and were really fun!

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the ARC of this book!

Family secrets.
We all have them. Dirty little tidbits that we may never tell anyone about.
This book took a moment for me to get into it. At first it flipped around viewpoints a lot, and didn't really get me anywhere solid to start drawing a picture. But about halfway through it picked up and I wanted to know who really did this to Amanda.
In the end, you do find out the whole truth, though justice is not gratifying. I thought the ending was a little rushed compared to the rest of the story.
Still as a whole I liked it. Just didn't love it like I expected to.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Catherine McKenzie, and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

One can usually expect something stellar when Catherine McKenzie is at the helm and this book was no exception. Layering family dynamics with an over-arching mystery from years ago, McKenzie offers readers a wonderful treat as the story progresses. The MacAllister family have long been associated with Camp Macaw, the staple summer retreat they own and run for children in the Quebec Townships. However, with the death of the MacAllister parents, the adult children gather together on the property to discuss what is to come of the land they knew all too well as teenagers. Will it be sold or portioned off and who will have the final say as to what happens? At the reading of the will, the group is surprised to learn of the parameters around which all this must be decided, something that Mr. MacAllister devised to unite and divide the group one final time. This rag-tag group must decide if their one brother, Ryan, should be permitted to inherit something, but the choice must be unanimous and they have forty-eight hours before the vote. This brings to mind a tragedy from two decades before, when a young camper, Amanda Holmes, was found, assaulted on a distant part of the camp’s property. The scandal caused ripples that almost shut the facility down and Ryan was deemed responsible. Though he denies being involved, it was largely a foregone conclusion. Now, with the family back together and grown, they must face the gruesome facts again and get to the truth, or bury it once and for all, while also letting their formative time at Camp Macaw drift away on the summer breeze. With flashback chapters that help build the Amanda storyline as well as present-day struggles, this story will keep the reader at the centre of the action and leave them wanting to cast their own decisions before all is said and done. A great mystery that entertains in short order. Recommended for those who love Catherine McKenzie’s work and the reader who enjoys stories where family secrets turn truths upside down.

I have always come to find Catherine McKenzie’s work quite detailed and her stories hit home in ways I could not have predicted. Both the characters and the plot pulled me in from the get-go and I found myself fully committed before too long. In this piece, McKenzie offers up a quaint camp community, where a family has come to remember their parents and try to put all else aside. However, there is little chance of that, with the tragedy of years before facing them during the reading of the will. The reader meets the entire group, as well as a few adopted members of the MacAllister clan, all of whom have their own lives now, but also played key roles during the summer of 1998. What did happen to Amanda Holmes and how did things go so wrong? McKenzie offers interesting flashbacks throughout this piece to develop that narrative, as well as plotting the whereabouts of each character at key points during the night of the event. The reader can make their own presumptions, though it is the truth that seems to elude everyone. With strong characters who help shape the story and a narrative that pushes the plot forward, McKenzie offers a gritty mystery that is sure to keep the reader guessing and wondering until the very end. Camp Macaw’s future may be in doubt, but it is the strength of the MacAllister family that remains the real x-factor throughout. Brilliantly devised and executed, it is no wonder Catherine McKenzie has so many fans and seems to add more with each novel she publishes.

Kudos, Madam McKenzie, for another wonderful piece. I can only hope that others will see some of the nuances I found while reading this book.

I really enjoyed this story. The characters were realistic and well defined with different personalities. I liked the several twists that the plot presented. The progression of the location chart was a nice addition. The childrens camp location was fun as so many people have had this experience which makes it more personal to relate to the events. Thanks for the advance copy of the book for review.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This first few chapters started off interestingly enough, but there was too much repetition of both internal thoughts and plots for my taste. Five siblings and one faithful family employee gather at the family home (which doubles as a summer camp) in north eastern Quebec to attend the reading of their parents' last will.
The five siblings are dismayed to discover that there is a complex trust created in the father's will, giving his four daughters the right to disinherit their brother Ryan if they believe he was responsible for their friend Amanda's terrible accident twenty years ago.
Note: After all the twisted subplots and backtracking by the author, Ryan is now officially a sainted martyr in my mind - he went from a totally selfish cad to a selfless doormat by the end of the book. This was such an unbelievable about-face that I had to put the book down and groan- and this is a problem throughout this narrative. Too many odd things pop up out of nowhere in this novel: at one point, I was unsure whether Ryan had actually suffered a heart attack, because he was up and about, punching poor Sean in the face almost the very next day. Now that was a fast recovery!
The author may have gotten lost in her own attempts to throw dust in her readers' eyes: at two different points in the novel, she has Margaeux experience a sudden flashback memory of her own hands and a paddle stained with blood, leading the reader to believe that she may been the one who attacked poor Amanda.
And what gives with the alternate narrator, Amanda? At first, I wondered if Amanda was dead, and that her ghost was speaking to us from Beyond - but no, I was wrong. - and don't worry, I won't even hint at any spoilers here..
In the end, the final few chapters were such a mishmash of misdirection that I almost didn't care "whodunnit". I also found the incestuous longings of a couple of the characters, even after the big reveal of the underwhelming twist, to be a bit of a turn off. There wasn't much new or exciting, plot-wise, going on here - nothing we haven't all seen or read before. Very few of the characters in this story felt true to life and I had to force myself to finish this one..
I did enjoy the descriptions of eastern Quebec - that part of Canada is truly spectacular. I have often said that even God must go on vacation in that neck of the woods - it is such a lush, green paradise. This was just about the only redeeming aspect of this novel for me.
Sorry, not my cup of tea, but fans of this author's books will likely enjoy it much more than I did.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

After the deaths of their parents, the five MacAllister siblings meet at the summer camp their parents ran to hear the will read. Twenty years ago a camper called Amanda was attacked and the will states that the four girls must vote on whether they think their brother Ryan was responsible. If they decide he was, then his share of the inheritance goes to Sean, whose precise status remain murky for most of the book. This set-up was both patently ridiculous and distasteful.

None of the siblings was at all likeable, and I had a hard time keeping the sisters straight in my mind. The whole of the novel focussed on Amanda's fate, and I got a bit weary of being drip fed small revelations as one character after another revealed a secret they had been keeping. There was even a table setting out characters' whereabouts at various points on the night in question, which didn't work very well on my Kindle and drew attention how slowly things were moving.Then there was the idea that the father had maintained intelligence service-standard files on each of his children's lives (as well as files on random campers). Be glad you never went to camp with this family of moral weirdoes!

The ending was a bit of a surprise I suppose, but by then I disliked every one so much I just wanted some one to be to blame and for it to be over.

Disappointed.

This is a story of a family who are all very suspicious of each other regarding events that happened in their past, but are also very good at hiding those suspicions from each other and even themselves. It was a very compelling story that pulled me in quickly. It was difficult to like any of the characters, which really worked for this book, it made it all the more interesting. This is a great summer beach read., with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.

I enjoyed this story however every chapter was told from a different person's perspective on the story so I wasn't a big fan of the change it was a little jarring at points. I did however really enjoy the story line it was very interesting and I had to race through it because I just had to see what was going to happen, I couldn't put it down. While I super enjoyed this story and it flowed together so well its a little hard to describe properly what was happening in this story without making it sound dull and/or without giving away any important parts. So let's just say that this story is about family relationships, deep family secrets and a very terrible crime. Not only did I really like the story line but I also like the characters I found them fascinating especially after I got past the perspective changes. The only down side is even though I loved this story I found the point of view changes very distracting. It jumps from modern day back to the past where Amanda is alive and well and talks about how she died etc, then it jumps back to the present and talks about how the main characters are reeling in her death and trying to figure out exactly what happened to her. Who is lying? Who is telling the truth? And
what really happened to poor Amanda on that fateful night? I think that I enjoyed the story but I also like the feeling that it gave to me as a reader. With so many secrets the more you learn about what really happened the more I want to know. Check this once out not just because of how good it is but also because it needs to be read to get the grasp of it. Very good read with a story that had me hooked, especially in the second half of the book. I feel the second half is when the story really takes off, I just wish the beginning was as catching. Really good read and I'm glad that I got the chance to check it out. This might be one of those books that you have to read more than once to really grasp what is going on around you. I really liked figuring out the story with the main character its nice learning things as she does.

I'll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie is an Agatha Christie-esque mystery that kept me riveted throughout. Family secrets, deceptions, and startling revelations will keep the reader engrossed in the effort to solve a twenty year old question. What happened to Amanda Holmes?

The MacAllister family has gathered at Camp Macaw one last time to determine what they will do with the property following the untimely deaths of their parents. But a shocking accusation in their father's will dredges up an unsolved mystery that has hung over the camp for the past two decades, the death of counsellor Amanda Holmes. Who among the assembled group of Ryan, Margaux, Mary, Kate, Liddie, and groundskeeper Sean has been concealing knowlege of what really happened on the island so many years ago?

This novel, like all of Ms McKenzie's work, is compulsively readable. The mystery is intriguing, and the family dynamics are well-examined and fleshed out. I appreciated the author's choice to write from the individual perspective of each of the seven primary characters, and the decision to include the reader in the events of 1998 by allowing the victim's voice to be heard.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this highly anticipated ARC.