Not That I Could Tell
Fiction
St. Martin's Press
March 27, 2018
Hardcover
336
Free from publisher
An innocent night of fun takes a shocking turn in Not That I Could Tell, the next page-turner from Jessica Strawser. When a group of neighborhood women gathers, wine in hand, around a fire pit where their backyards meet one Saturday night, most of them are just ecstatic to have discovered that their baby monitors reach that far. It’s a rare kid-free night, and they’re giddy with it. They drink too much, and the conversation turns personal. By Monday morning, one of them is gone. Everyone knows something about everyone else in the quirky small Ohio town of Yellow Springs, but no one can make sense of the disappearance. Kristin was a sociable twin mom, college administrator, and doctor’s wife who didn’t seem all that bothered by her impending divorce—and the investigation turns up more questions than answers, with her husband, Paul, at the center. For her closest neighbor, Clara, the incident triggers memories she thought she’d put behind her—and when she’s unable to extract herself from the widening circle of scrutiny, her own suspicions quickly grow. But the neighborhood’s newest addition, Izzy, is determined not to jump to any conclusions—especially since she’s dealing with a crisis of her own. As the police investigation goes from a media circus to a cold case, the neighbors are forced to reexamine what’s going on behind their own closed doors—and to ask how well anyone really knows anyone else.
My review:
This is the sophomore novel by Jessica Strawser, and it does not disappoint! Her first novel was absolutely riveting for me (Almost Missed You reviewed here), until the end when I wanted to throw it across the room! However, because I loved 99.9% of that one, I was excited to see what she had come up with next. I really liked this one....even the end!! 🙂 It's the story of a neighborhood, where one of the residents has up and vanished along with her twin children. The neighbors feel it is their responsibility to their friend to figure out what happened. Was her life something other than what it seemed? Did her soon to be ex-husband have anything to do with it? Are they still alive, or did something criminal happen to them? During the course of the novel, we learn a bit about the woman (through short vignettes scattered throughout the chapters), the neighbors themselves, how the investigation effects the town, and the ex-husband (should we feel sorry for him or what?). The writing was crisp, the story moved at a quick pace, the characters were interesting and I love a good neighborhood story! So far Ms. Strawser is batting 995 out of a thousand (ugh, that last chapter of the first book......have I convinced you to read it to find out my beef?), so I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
An excellent page turner about a neighborhood in crisis (think the neighborhood in Truly Madly Guilty, only I enjoyed this one more). With a satisfying ending (although I remain concerned about the safety of one of the women), this one is highly recommended.
I love a good missing persons story! The ending of these kind of books are usually hit or miss for me, so I'm glad to hear this ending was a hit.
This one was mostly a hit (with reservations), but the first one? NO....just no 🙂 Hope you enjoy this author is you read either book, they really are page turning books!