Last year I read Safe And Sound by Philippa East and so I was delighted to get the opportunity to read this new book from her. In my review of Safe And Sounds I commented on how as a child you can enter a world of make-believe, and how nowadays, through social media you can still enter that make-believe world. With this book a got a similar feeling but with a twist in that things that you believe as a young child can stay with you right through to adulthood in that your childhood thoughts become real and overwrite the reality of what you may have seen as a child.
Safe And Sound was in my top 10 reads for 2021 and this book has to be in my top reads of 2022, This is a strong psychological thriller and as you read it you will try to place yourself in the mind of each of the main characters. The author is a Clinical Psychologist so understands how we think and believe and she intricately links this knowledge into her books. The book does swap and change timelines quite a bit early on and that does take some getting used too. I used to hate books that did that but I can now understand, in most cases, why it is done and why it is necessary to get the story across. Psychology is the main focus of this book, you may read a lot of crime fiction as I do and you may think there is little crime in this book but stick with it, it will be worth it.
There are some possible trigger points in the book but that is to be expected in a book that really gets into the minds of a family of strong characters.
For me, the only negative point I can make about the book is the front cover. I do not feel that it really tells you the complexities, tensions and extremes of this story.
Many thanks to Philippa East, HQ (Harper Collins) and Netgalley for providing me with and advanced electronic copy of the book in return for a honest, unbiased review.
The book is published on the 5th January 2023 and will be available in e-book, paperback and audiobook formats.
#IllNeverTell #NetGalley

An intriguing thriller that keeps its twists coming right up to the final pages.

As the book slowly unfolds, the dysfunction at the heart of this family is revealed.

Skilfully plotted, there are multiple times where everything is turned on its head by a new point of view.

I found this very boring, I tried to get into it but the characters were flat and uninteresting. Potential for a good dynamic but couldn't hold my attention. Sorry!

This is a can't put down book. full of twists and turns to the end.
Julia is a lawyer, Paul is a stay-at-home dad whose life revolves around their daughter Chrissie , a talented violinist.
Chrissie is performing at a very important music festival when she goes missing.
In the course of the days that follow lives are turned upside down, secrets are revealed and will anything be the same again?

I never repeat the blurb - this was a reasonable story but I got really aggravated by the overuse of jumping back and forward in time - why ca't we just have a linear story? This would have worked equally well.

When I read the blurb for East's latest novel, I knew it would be one for me so big thank you to NetGalley and HQ for approving my request. After devouring this book in about a day and a half, here's my thoughts!

Overall, it was an enjoyable domestic thriller! I could not put this down initially and had such high hopes. The first half of the novel built so much suspense and left the reader with a ton of questions. I was predicting dark twists ahead.

Passing the halfway point, the story lost a little momentum. It felt like it started to drag just a tad. The dark twists I was hoping for ended up falling into the usual/predictable category. The last few chapters come at you hard and fast though, some things I wasn't quite expecting. And then it's over, just like that!

As I said, on a whole other did enjoy this. It kept my attention and I was left guessing up until the last quarter of the book. There were a few little issues I had but nothing that'd ruin the read for me! I'll Never Tell definitely a book I'd recommended to a thrill seeker, or someone looking for a mysterious, cryptic read.

Found this an incredibly hard book to get into,found it very slowbut once it did pick up story wise I did enjoy it

Took a little while to work out what was happening but it did keep me reading. Plenty of twists and turns and it did come together at the end.

I enjoyed this. The story unfolded really cleverly and you learnt more and more about the characters as it progressed. Well written and kept my interest until the end.

This is a very slow burning story, and it took till about three quarters way through before I began to see where it was going. It was hard to stay engaged, as none of the characters is particularly likeable. I found myself skim reading parts early on, as it is so slow. 2.5 rounded to 3 stars for me.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

A book with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. I liked the role reversal of the parents in this, and the ending wraps up everything nicely.
thank you so much for this arc

This was a really gripping, twisty thriller filled with unexpected turns. A parents worst nightmare in the perfect family but with not all quite as it seems. Cleverly plotted, it was an enjoyable read.

A teenager is missing. Fear and dread encapsulate the parents. Is it terror for the child or that each has secrets that dare not be revealed. In agonising detail the weeks leading to Chrissies disappearance are relived in agonising detail. A career obsessed wife and mother,; totally focused on life outside her family in a supreme effort to eliminate all memories of sins from the past. A househusband pushing his musically gifted daughter towards recognition and acclaim at the expense of a normal childhood.: compounded by his need to achieve through her all that is is missing and has gone wrong in his abusive and poverty stricken childhood. As silent bystanders we the reader, visualise the horror unfolding as the sins of the past are revisited on their innocent child. An escalation of actions compounded by dramatic events spirals into a harrowing and worthy conclusion . Many thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC .

Brilliant thriller set in middle-class Oxford. When 15 year-old Chrissie goes missing after a prestigious classical music concert she's playing at her parents Paul and Julia think she's gone home. But what if she hasn't? Lies, secrets, deception, money, class and abuse, these are all themes of the novel. I had to keep reading to find out what had really happened and why. Highly recommended.

A slow burner which was very confusing in parts. Average read but came good about three quarters along hence the three stars. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

What a confusing book ! I had no idea what was going on until about three quarters of the way through then it became clearer and was a good story

Enjoyed this story but couldn't quite see where it was going. There was a thread pulling through that never really came out which gave this a slightly lower rating.

A completely breathtaking read with an ending the knits together and very satisfyingly makes sense of everything that has happened before.
The story has lots of areas of focus and interest, not least the world of an immensely talented young classical musician and the sacrifices and demands this entails and the strains on her relationships with those who are mentoring her to reach her full potential. As the reader I could really feel the tensions this put upon her and the amount of focus and fragility on other aspects of the relationships.
Her parents lives were also littered with secrets and deep rooted lies and these secrets slowly and stealthily start to be revealed as they’re put under the intense pressure of their daughter going missing. Some of the issues then start to link back to the previous generation and the consequences for which are being deeply felt now. Fantastic human psychology and food for thought about how families interact and affect other and how honesty and understanding can go a long way to heal. A riveting read and a definite recommend from me.

Philippa East’s newest psychological thriller, ‘I’ll Never Tell’, is simply superb at keeping the reader guessing. I had at least three different theories as to what the big secret being kept by the characters was and, though my final guess was along the right lines, I didn’t fully see the final big reveal coming.

Coached by her stay-at-home dad, Paul, sixteen-year-old Chrissie is well on the way to becoming ‘Young Musician of the Year’. But when she goes missing after performing in the semi-finals, both Paul and her overworked mum Julia have to face their past, present and future in order to bring her home.

It’s clear from the beginning of the book that the majority of the family are hiding something, including Julia’s own parents, Celina and Duncan. I spent much of the novel scrutinising each character, their backgrounds and their enigmatic conversations to find something that might be the catalyst but had my suspicions batted away by events that followed in the story time and again!

It’s difficult to write too much more without giving away various plot points, but the novel had me absolutely gripped from the beginning. I particularly enjoyed seeing some scenes repeated from the perspective of different characters. I would have liked a little more detail about how the family moved on from the events in the book but have enjoyed spending time musing about this long after the last page was turned, which is in some ways a parting gift from the author!

It is worth mentioning that this novel has some themes that may be triggering for some readers, including scenes involving drug use, domestic abuse, and sexual assault.

I’m grateful to the publishers and to NetGalley for sharing an advance copy in return for this review.

This is a story about fear and abuse which is well camouflaged within a well off family. There is anxiety within the story from the beginning but the facts are not revealed until the end, although the reader has serious suspicions.
I was engaged with the book from the beginning and wanted to read on even though the level of anxiety was increasing.
I found that I while was engaged with the story, I was not able to feel engaged with the characters. This was partly to do with the story telling which hid the facts for a big part of the book but also because they were inaccessible to a degree, hiding their anxieties but letting the reader know that they were there.
Recommended