No One Can Know
By Kate Alice Marshall
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024 and unfortunately it fell a bit short for me.

What Lies in the Woods was one of my favorite thrillers of 2023, so I was super excited to read this one.

Emma, Juliette, and Daphne are sisters who have lost touch after a traumatic childhood. Many years prior, the girls’ parents are found murdered in their home. All fingers point to Emma, the troubled middle sister. Emma’s never charged and the sisters are split up. The case goes unsolved and as the years go by, it becomes more and more clear that all three sisters are keeping their own secrets from the night their parents died. It isn’t until Emma and her husband, Nathan, end up living back in Emma’s childhood home that the sisters reunite and they’re forced to relive that night. Will the truth ever come to light?

I felt like the pacing of this was a little off. Slow to start, but super fast middle, and then inconsistent pacing at the end. At least for me personally. I struggled to get into this one, but then from 30-50% I couldn’t put it down. But then from 50% on it just felt over done and kinda all over the place.

You don’t get much from Daphne’s perspective which disappointed me, but I understand why after finishing. I understand that each sister had their own secrets, but holy cow there were so many side stories. It was just too much to keep up with for me.

This is a classic whodunit and hopefully it works better for others!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC! This one is out January 23!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of Kate Alice Marshall’s latest!

I was very excited to get this one as an ARC, and Marshall didn’t disappoint. In a twisty whodunnit, with a list of the most unreliable characters you’ve ever met, we meet Emma, and join her while she tries to figure out who killed her parents 14 years ago. There were truly SO many twists in this book, it almost gave me whiplash. I did feel like there was one too many, and in the end, the resolution seemed a little vague. I’d have liked it to be a little clearer. But, it was still a satisfying read, and I would recommend it, especially if you liked Marshall’s first, What Lies in the Woods.

I feel like there is a lot of hype surrounding this novel and I admit I was kind of pumped about it. Too bad it was overall kind of meh for me. The premise and start of the story were FAR different than the dragging middle and mediocre ending.

No One Can Know is told through three POVs and two timelines, then and now. For readers this may be a pretty daunting task to keep everything together; however, each of the sisters have vastly different perspectives and this helps.

Emma and Nathan are on the verge of a financial crisis. Nathan has lost his job and cost them the deposit on their dream home. To save their marriage and home life, Emma admits that she has been keeping some pretty big secrets from him. Not only does she already own a home, with her sisters, but she was the prime suspect in the murder of her parents in that home. To save their marriage, Emma and Nathan agree to move back in and fix up the house for a future sale. Nathan, however, has secrets and plans of his own.

Once Emma returns to her hometown, Juliette and Daphne soon follow. A series of events begin to unfold forcing each of the sisters to drag up memories of that night. Emma is the target of the local PD as she enters a race to clear her name before any other casualties occur.

When the sisters begin to reunite the story slows down to a crawl. Nathan is a total jerk and I was not sad about his ending. Emma is an incredibly frustrating and blah heroine. She couldn’t stand up for herself to save her life. Daphne and Juliette are much more fun, but not enough to save the story.

I liked this one! It's hard not to compare an author's other work to his or hers newest, but I am going to fight the urge here. All you have to know if that I enjoyed it. I had an idea of what was going to happen (honestly based on WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS reminding me of a popular real-life case), but I'm very glad and honestly a little surprised my thoughts weren't correct. There's a good reason I'm the reader and not a writer!

Overall I was invested in the story, but I was also a little confused at times. There's one part in particular that I felt needed more of an explanation or should have just been left out. Most of the time though, I was just confused on who killed the parents! You will stay guessing until the end with this one!

I did a mixture of reading the ebook and listening to the audio. While the narrator, Karissa Vacker, was great (as always), I think the story itself was just hard to follow at times via audiobook-- lots of characters, timelines, and cliffhangers. It helped for me to eyeball read until I was really comfortable with the characters before being able to switch back and forth between the two mediums without having to stop and replay or reread parts.

Thank you NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Macmillan Audio for my ARC/ALC!

This book has multiple points of view, told by three sisters. One of them, Emma, has discovered she is pregnant around the same time her husband loses his job, so they need a place to live. Emma’s family home is available, owned by her and her two sisters, It’s been fourteen years since she left, following the critical event that is central to the story. As the sisters begin to unravel the mystery surrounding their parents’ murder that they have never discussed during the fourteen years since their parents were murdered.

I didn’t really have sympathy for any of the characters, but I enjoyed the ride. I hadn’t read anything by Kate Alan Marshall (at least I can’t recall anything), but really enjoyed this book. I love twisty plots and surprises (even though I am admittedly terrible at figuring out mysteries, and am pretty much always surprised! Thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for this honest review. Four stars. “No one can know.”

Marshall is quickly becoming one of my favorite thriller writes. I adored her previous novel, “What Lies in the Woods” and really enjoyed “No One Can Know” too. What I found most intriguing was that, unlike most thrillers, my motivation for wanting to figure out “whodunit” had nothing to do with wanting justice for the victims. Quite the opposite actually - I wanted to know who was tough enough to take down the girls’ horribly callous and psychotically malicious parents. As a reader I had zero sympathy for any of the victims and was far more interested in what was the final straw that broke the perpetrator’s back, Told from the three sisters’ point of views in dual time lines, the pacing is quick, the writing style fluid and detailed, the recollection of events muddled and realistic, and the story engaging and twisty. The reader is constantly guessing what really happened and, like most things in life, is left with several versions of truths.

Super engaging and intriguing, Marshall hits it out of the park again with No One Can Know. Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron books for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Emma and her husband are forced to move into her childhood home, which no one has lived in since her parents were murdered. Emma has long been accused of murdering them. She and her two sisters have been estranged since the murder, but they find themselves reunited after another murder happens.

No One Can Know is an extremely suspenseful novel about relationships - sisters, parent/child, partners - and, of course, murder. Emma and her husband find themselves in need of a home, so she decides to move back to her somewhat abandoned childhood home where her parents were brutality murdered when she was a teenager. Forced to face her past, undercover truths, and reunite with family, this fast-paced whodunit is unlike any other I have read. I liked the characterization of each sister, the way in which new characters were introduced throughout the story, and that fact that once I started I could not put this book down!

This one was a fast read for me. I finished it in just a few days. There was a lot of family drama in this one with 3 sisters and a set of horrible parents. The story was told between now and then using the different perspectives of each sister. There was enough motives for any character in the book to be the bad person. I thought the ending was good and wrapped everything up to satisfaction, but wasn't as exciting as the book was. This was the first book I have read by this author and I am excited to check out some other stuff.

💊💊💊💊 / 5

this was a solid thriller. the story is told through the POVs of the three sisters in both the present and past (before their parents were murdered). things really began to heat up about halfway through, and i found myself not wanting to put it down. the writing was exceptional, and i appreciated the various literary devices used throughout. this was my first read by this author, and i can’t wait to read WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS soon!

Typical for me I was let down by this book after loving the last one. On the plus side it was a quick read, it was a plot line I haven't really read before, it wasn't completely obvious what had really happened. On the other hand, I didn't really like any of the characters except Gabriel, it was shallow, it wasn't that interesting,

Title: No One Can Know
Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Pub Date: January 23, 2024
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.5 Rounded Up)

When Emma Palmer and her two sisters, Daphne and Juliette, were young, their parents were found murdered in their home. Although the case was never solved, Emma always remained the prime suspect. After the murders, the sisters separated and did not speak for years. Emma eventually married and becomes pregnant, and for financial reasons, has to move back into her childhood home with her husband. She knew this would mean that she would have to disclose secrets to her husband and that questions about what happened that night would resurface. Everone seems suspect and Emma doesn’t know who can really be trusted! When she starts to ask questions about that night and reunites with her sisters, she won’t stop until she clears her name and finds out exactly what happened…

This was a twisty thriller that will make you want to read on to find out what actually happened to Emma’s parents and who is interfering in Emma’s life now that she has returned home. I had not read any other books by this author, but What Lies In The I Woods has been on my list for awhile. After reading this, I will definitely be reading that one soon!

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for this advanced reader copy!

I enjoyed this one. It wasn't super twisty, although it tried to be at the end which only made it more confusing in my opinion, but I don't always need my books to have a bunch of twists. I just need to enjoy the journey and not hate the characters 😂. The author tried to keep you guessing on who murdered the parents but it ended up being who I suspected all along. However, there is something about the reveal that didn't make sense to me but I can't explain without spoilers. The three sisters were well fleshed out and not 2-dimensional and the book was well written.

4.5 ⭐️

Kate Alice Marshall’s books get better as you get deeper into the story. Some authors snag you from the get-go and may or may not keep the interest high; now having read a few of KAM’s books, I know there might be some lag in the beginning but JUST KEEP READING because it’s guaranteed the characters are withholding information that I’m DEFINITELY gonna wanna know!

This is Marshall’s second adult thriller, and if you read last year’s What Lies in the Woods and enjoyed it, don’t miss out on this one! There are some similarities: three women connected by secrecy around a traumatic childhood experience and now dangerous truths are threatening to be revealed. In What Lies in the Woods, they are friends; in No One Can Know, they are sisters.

This story is told from three points of view and in two timelines—each of the three sisters, then and now. While having six different narrative lines sounds like it would be overwhelming, Marshall deftly guides the reader between the perspectives and timeframes, and each chapter is labeled with the POV and its situation in time. I think it’s fascinating that the author chose to write the “now” chapters in past tense and the “then” chapters in present. This is seemingly counterintuitive, but I never found it confusing. Instead, it’s a subtle reminder that the past and present are inextricably linked.

I will say that I personally found elements of this story very upsetting and hard to read. Aside from the things that are obvious from the synopsis, ⚠️trigger warnings⚠️ include physical and emotional abuse of children and domestic partners.

Kate Alice Marshall has become one of my favorite authors over the last year, and I look forward to reading more of her backlist and anything and everything that she comes out with in the future! For teens or adults!

Full review posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5716204332

This was good, but not as great as her previous book...for me at least.

I enjoyed the element of the sister dynamic and found the slow burn unraveling quite interesting and addicting. However, I never fully felt captivated or engrossed in the story the way I had hoped I would.

I really wished that I had enjoyed this as much as this author's previous thriller, but this one fell flat for me.

No One Can Know had an overall okay pull of a synopsis, seemingly a typical plot line. I loved her prior novel, What Lies in the Woods, and knew I would pick up another from her no matter the tag of the next book.

This one felt repetitive and rather boring for most of the book. I did find it hard to care about these characters and their respective stories. There was just something about this that didn't work for me. It was fast paced and I did finish it quickly but it didn't live up to what I hoped for.

Overall, this was a fine read that is enjoyable enough in the moment.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

Kate Alice Marshall won me over with What Lies in the Woods and I immediately knew I had to read No One Can Know. She did not disappoint. This book had me flying through the pages and trying to figure out how it was going to play out. Great book that kept me up way too late at night. Can't wait for more from this amazing author.

I read my first Kate Alice Marshall book a year ago and really enjoyed it! So when I received this book, I was so excited to try out another of her books. Unfortunately, I enjoyed this one, but it didn't quite hit the mark that her last book did for me.

What I liked:
- I liked the sisters. They were complex and dark and their development was insightful.
- I liked how the story slowly unfolded and pieces came together. I was hooked throughout the story and anxious to know more and figure out the mystery!
- It was twisty. I love a good twisty thriller and this definitely fit the bill!

What I didn't love:
- The ending. This is a personal thing. but that final twist didn't work for me and I haven't liked previous books that have utilized that type of twist either.
- I didn't get quite the sense of atmosphere that I did in Marshall's previous book.

Thank you for an ARC! I thoroughly enjoyed this one for so many reasons, the most prominent that I couldn’t figure out what was happening until the very end.

I enjoyed the small-town feel and believe the author did an amazing job developing the characters in line with the small-town setting. I am most impressed with Nathan — he was designed to be hated, and boy did I despise him.

The only part of this thriller that seemed unrealistic to me is how Nathan quickly believed Emma’s word about some insane stuff and just up and moved with her. That didn’t track.

This is my first book by the author and I will definitely be reading more.

The Palmer sisters are the focus of Kate Alice Marshall's latest thriller, No One Can Know. For much of the book, it was approaching a 5-star read. The transition between "then" and "now" had built incredible suspense, the sisters mesmerized me with their intimacy and distance, and the family was a nightmare that clearly was destined to combust. Every character had me wondering who was perhaps going to break down and kill the parents, but the unraveling and surprise murder in the modern "now" story totally drew me. I usually have an inkling when something like that will happen, but Marshall shocked me when the victim was found. It made no sense until it did. Unfortunately, the last 10% played a few too many games with revealing the killer, then changing the story, then another unexpected reveal followed by a final shocker in the last few pages. It made me a bit apprehensive to just accept too many flaws and disconnects, so I had to drop back to 4 stars. Still a thoroughly engaging read that gripped me right up until the final page.