#timetotell

Review: I Know You Know by Gilly Macmillan

I received a free ecopy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

I first became aware of author Gilly Macmillan about a month ago when a friend leant me The Perfect Girl (thanks Anne-Marie). Sometimes there is a tingle of excitement when you find a new author you just know you’re going to love, and this was one of those times. So naturally I jumped at the chance to read I Know You Know.

This book is written largely in the form of a podcast. Twenty years ago, Cody Swift’s two best friends were murdered. The man convicted of killing them just committed suicide in prison. Cody never believed he was guilty and decides to investigate the murders for himself, broadcasting the interviews. The podcasts alternate with the viewpoints of Jessica, the mother of one of the boys, and Fletcher, a cop who found the boys bodies and is now investigating another body from that time period, that has just been found now. The narrative also flits between twenty years ago and now.

Actually through the medium of the interviews, the book manages to sneak many viewpoints in but the podcast format is a great plot device for keeping them all distinct. I had trouble keeping the two timelines separate. The past was shown in italics, which helped, but I had to keep stopping and checking. The book is a quick read with frisson. I blasted through it putting other things aside (who needs sleep anyway). The podcast layout meant that it was easy to pick up and put down if you prefer to read it that way though.

By far the most interesting character in the book is Jessica, mother of murdered Charlie. She progresses from abused child, to wild child single mother, to having her life together. Since we see her in two timelines, we see both the messed up young girl and the older, together Jessica at the same time. As a mum to Charlie we don’t see much affection, more regret, but towards the end, there is a moment when she calls him ‘my boy’ and I felt her deep and abiding pain.

This book isn’t perfect. I like to try to guess, as I read, what is going to happen and what the solution to the mystery will be. This book had some eleventh hour reveals that made my wonderings obsolete. Some aspects of the story which seemed very important, early on, are inconsequential by the end, so that I felt a bit cheated, since they still felt important to me as a reader. I can’t expand on this without dropping spoilers, so I will leave it there.

Having said all that, I still felt it was a darn good read. The final twist just left me in a spin. If you’re looking for a book to take on holiday, this one will keep you entertained as you sunbathe.