NO ONE CAN KNOW

A newly pregnant woman finds herself confronting a grisly incident from her past in this propulsive and intricate psychological thriller.

Emma has just discovered she’s pregnant when she’s also faced with an astonishing financial deception on the part of her husband, Nathan. Since they’re about to lose their rental apartment, she agrees that they can temporarily move back into the spacious family home she owns jointly with her sisters. Trouble is, that house was the site of her parents’ deaths 14 years ago—when Emma was just 16—and, as it turns out, Emma has her own secrets that she’s been keeping from Nathan and others. Once they return to Emma’s New England hometown to an often unfriendly reception, Emma slowly begins to reestablish previous relationships, including those with her estranged sisters, Daphne and Juliette. But, as Marshall’s meticulously plotted novel reveals quite quickly, Juliette and Daphne have just as many secrets. The time-shifting account, even given its multiple narrators, flows at a furious pace, exposing the bare bones of a familial horror show in the form of some seriously bad parenting. But is that the only nefarious element driving the characters’ lives? Marshall’s deft writing teases out revelations aplenty, perpetually ratcheting up the tension—and an element of violence—while keeping the story skimming along.

Family connections prove both their damage and their worth in this community-focused thriller.