This is such a gripping and twisty thriller, told from multiple points of view with a really killer ending. Absolutely loved it!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy

I liked What Happened in the Woods, but Kate Alice Marshall’s new book is even better. No One Can Know follows Emma, who, after a series of her husband’s bad decisions, returns to her family home in Arden Hills. She hasn’t been home since the night of her parents’ murder, and her arrival quickly sets off suspicion in the small town. Intertwining past and present, weaving between the narration of Emma and her sisters, Daphne and JJ, the story traces what really happened that night. Fast paced and fun, this is a book that keeps you hooked to the last page.

I really enjoyed this one. I liked hearing all three sisters’ perspectives. It kept me guessing until the end and I liked how it was all wrapped up. The story was never too convuluted which I’ve seen in stories with a similar premise. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

This book revolves around three sisters whose parents were killed when they were young under mysterious circumstances and the crime is still unsolved. The sisters end up coming back together many years later and events occur that have them trying to find or share the truth..

What I liked:
- a twisty plot that kept me guessing
- characters that were reasonably likable
- fast paced
- two time lines

What didn't work for me
- I found the plot almost overly complicated
- it was difficult to follow the timeline and chain of events I think because of how complicated and overly twisted it was.

3.5 stars rounded up

4 1/2

To say that the home-life of the Palmer girls is tough is to dramatically understate a very bad situation. The daughters are: Juliette, the oldest and mother’s favorite daughter who can do no wrong; Daphne, the youngest and father’s favorite who is just a little strange; and Emma, the middle girl, the artist, who can never please anyone and has no intention of trying despite abuse. They each have a role. And each dream of having their parents dead. The night comes when their dream comes true. Suspicion grows around Emma, the bad seed, and Emma takes it on because she knows she can protect her sisters that way because she believes that what she saw the night her parents were murdered implicates one of them.

So. Wow. Kate Alice Marshall has written a stunner here . . . in more ways than one. Let me begin by saying that recently I was watching a TV show, a very good one, during which I happened to guess and mention out loud (because that’s the only way to concretize your plotting genius 😉 ) what was going to happen. And, my guesses were on the mark. That takes nothing away from the really great show I was watching (Loudermilk), but just states that I am a Hollywood-worthy plotting genius. (Very much kidding….haha…but…..) All of this prefaces the fact that I never knew where Kate Alice Marshall was going to take No One Can Know next. And, you know, that’s a very good thing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to guess all of the story from the get-go unless the writer happens to be William Faulkner and is going to give me some magnificent prose that will make me forget about the fact that I KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!!!!!

With No One Can Know I didn’t know where Kate Alice Marshall was going to take me, although some things were obvious. I liked not knowing. I liked the twists on her very curvy mystery road.

All of her characters were multi-dimensional. Emma, the supposed bad seed was not all that bad, just in a really bad situation and always trying to make a better life. It was in one of her scenes that I experienced one of the worst anguishes in the book, which had nothing to do with physical abuse but with the destruction of one’s creations, one’s dreams, one’s hopes. So emotional. So very dark. So upsetting.

Juliette and Daphne, supporting characters despite being narrators of their own sections, were also unexpected and multi-faceted.

If I were going to complain about anything it would be related to Emma’s husband, Nathan. I feel that maybe some of the scenes around him were not completely thought-out or, if they were, were not entirely satisfying to me. But to say more is to present spoilers and we are definitely in a no-spoiler zone.

I do recommend No One Can Know if you’re looking for a fast-paced, twisty read.

Many thanks to Flatiron Books for sending me a copy.

Thank you so much Netgalley, Kate Alice Marshall and Flatiron Books for the advanced reader ebook!! This was a great page turner that did not disappoint! The twists had my head spinning!

I really liked "What lies in the woods" also by this author so I was excited to read this new book. Unfortunately, this wasn't for me. I struggled to get engaged with the characters or the story. This was slow, too long, and the twists, were just okay.

Kate Alice Marshall's newest novel, No One Can Know, is a fast-paced thriller filled with twists and turns. Out now, definitely add this page-turner to the top of your TBR.

A plot-driven family drama revolving around the murder of Randolph and Irene Palmer. Returning to the home she never expected to step foot in again, Emma sets in motion a series of events that she couldn't have anticipated. Told from multiple viewpoints and in a dual-timeline of when Emma and her sisters were teenagers and them now. Emma's older sister Juliette, now going by JJ, had left for college right after their parents deaths, never to be seen again...until now. When younger sister Daphne also shows up after years of estrangement, the tension between the sisters is palpable. Needing to work together to truly solve their parents' murders and clear Emma's name, things get worse when another body is found at the house.

The writing gripped me from the beginning, I read this in four days, which is quick for me (I'm not the fastest reader, although I wish I were). With so many twists and turns, I thought I knew what happened multiple times then found out I was completely wrong. The relationships between the sisters are relatable and understandable, and they each are fully fleshed out characters.

There are trigger warnings for controlling relationships; abuse; and mentions of drugs, alcohol, and promiscuity.

All in all, this is a well-written psychological thriller filled with red herrings and family drama. If you have enjoyed her other novels, then definitely grab this one! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the novels of Karin Slaughter, Riley Sager, or Ruth Ware.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @Flatiron_Books for a digital copy for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.

No One Can Know
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Kate Alice Marshall

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, Flatiron Books and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: 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. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she's pregnant―right as the bank account slips into the red. That's when Emma confesses that 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 that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there.

Were murdered. And that some people say Emma did it.

Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return 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. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

My Thoughts: This book released yesterday, Happy Belated Pub Day! This was packed with suspense, twists, secrets, betrayal, whodunit, and kept me on the edge of my seat from cover to cover. Emma has been married a decade, after going through a traumatic experience with her parents murdered when she was a teen. Her and her sisters were silently abused by their parents. Then most of the town suspected that she murdered her parents and got away with it, as no one was ever arrested for the heinous crimes. Then they lose the house, her husband gets laid off, and to topple the triple effect, she finds out that she is pregnant. The house, her childhood home, is just sitting there unused. Emma and her husband decide to move into the house until they can get it ready to be ‘sold’ and she can use her portion of the sale proceeds to start anew. The unspoken things between Emma and her sisters may put her in grave danger again. When one secret is unraveled, it becomes a domino effect. Follow along on this classic whodunit immersed with psychological thriller that will keep you guessing to the end.

The story is narrated by Emma with narration from her sisters, JJ and Daphine. Emma is the middle sister, takes the lead in most areas of her life, yet gets too comfortable and does not address issues hitting her in the face. The oldest sister, Juliette, or JJ, always obeyed their mother, and had appearances of the being the favorite. Lastly, we have the youngest, Daphne, who is eccentric, eclectic, and displays “odd” behavior. After the murder, the sisters essentially cutoff contact from one another, until Emma moves into the house with her husband, Nathan. Emma is still believed to have committed the murders, so she starts to poke around. In doing so, she may open Pandora’s box that sets another line of events that are unexpected. The characters were created with depth, mystery, they were flawed, sometimes unreliable, and intriguing. The three sisters frustrated me and I wished Emma would have stood her ground more, and Daphne had a mix of Dexter and Dahmer going on. The author’s writing style was complex, twisty, suspenseful, riveting, and well-executed. The characters were built throughout the storyline, the plot was delivered in twisty layers, and the ending will blow you away. A really well-written and definitely well-executed novel.

Trigger warning of infidelity, childhood abuse and substance abuse (mentioned). This really was a compelling, riveting thriller, one of the better ones I have read lately. I had the pleasure of having the audio and digital ARCs for this one. The narrator Karissa Vacker does an amazing job with voice variation and distinct character voice. The emotion, fear, and struggle comes across clear in her voice. The flow and pitch was excellant, was able to listen on 2x with no issues. This is a first Marshall book for me but will not be my last. I highly recommend going to pick this up now!

No One Can Know
by Kate Alice Marshall
Pub Date: 23 Jan 2024

I was hooked from the beginning of this twisted thriller! The characters are well defined, the story is told by several points of view making it very hard to know who to believe and who to trust. I kept asking myself, "Is this the killer"?

I highly rate this book four stars. If you love a twisty thriller this book is for you!

Special thanks to #netgalley and #flatiornbooks for the E-ARC of #NoOneCanKnow.

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @flatiron_books and @macmillan.audio for the ARC/ALC!

🔸 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 🔸
This is my first book by Kate Alice Marshall and it did not disappoint! This story is a tale of murder, secrets, lies, betrayal, and complicated family dynamics at the center of it all. Emma is our main character, along with her two sisters, Juliette and Daphne. The sister share a bond between them in their youth that is fractured by a traumatic night in which both of their parents are murdered at home.

Present day circumstance sees Emma and her husband returning to the house their parents were murdered in, which the girls equally own and all have been avoiding since then. Emma is bothered by past events and wants to seek answers. Her sisters slowly return as well, concerned about what Emma may uncover.

I enjoyed trying to figure out what secrets were being kept between them. The mystery kept me intrigued throughout the story, as the timelines would go from present day to the night of the murder, as well as to different earlier times for the girls.

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