I'll Never Tell - Philippa East

I've been patiently waiting for a new book from Philippa East.

I read her previous book Safe And Sound when it came out in paperback, trust me, that's one helluva anxiety driven thriller, then enjoyed her debut Little White Lies and have been waiting for a new one ever since.

I'll Never Tell is a missing teenager thriller. Chrissie is the missing daughter, a talented violinist caught up in a whirlwind of auditions, competition performances and endless practice. Mum Julia is a lawyer, while stay-at-home dad Paul is devoted to helping Chrissie achieving her potential.

There's a lot of missing child or teenager thrillers. I'll Never Tell stands out with a very original setup, (Chrissie disappears from a high-profile competition performance), very polished character writing and excellent psychological progression in the characters as their stress levels rise, and the secrets are gradually revealed.

Told using a past and present narrative, the past covering the run up to the disappearance, the present sees Julia and Paul distraught at realising Chrissie is gone, and starting the search.

Both Paul and Julia have secrets and obsessions, and fears to fret over. It's very unusual to have such a fully developed male main character in a Psychological Thriller, and as a male voracious reader of the genre I greatly appreciated it.

The plotting is really quite refined and subtle, the tension builds up nicely. When the threads come together and the knots pull tight I was surprised by the very strong twists which came from unexpected directions.

I can't even mention some of my favourite elements for fear of potential spoilers.

Read it! This is an original, high-quality take on a missing child, distraught parents plot.

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ

I'll Never Tell follows Julia, a lawyer, and Paul, her stay-at-home husband, as they try to find out what happened to their daughter Chrissie who's gone missing.

The book is told from two diferent point of views -Julia and Paul- and is both present and past tense as the mystery unfolds.

I have come across Philippa East's work before and when I saw the chance to read I'll Never Tell, I was elated. There's something about the way Philippa writes that makes the words flow easily, and the pages turn themselves.

As someone who reads mystery and thrillers, I can say that it was relatively easy to figure out what was happening but the writing was so good that it didn't matter. I'm used to novels with various twists and turns and this book was a rollercoaster of emotions!

Without spoiling the ending, I had so much sympathy for both Julia and Paul in the beginning, and then it diluted into a million "how could you?" and "seriously??" I found it very hard to like the characters (especially Julia) and then, the ending came and explained it all, bringing some absolution to the choices Julia had made.

This wasn't just a domestic thriller to me but a lesson on not juding people based on their choices.

To say that I enjoyed this book is an understatement!

goodreads.com/booksireadandliked
Disclosure: I would like to thank the publisher and author for my advanced review copy of the book. This is my honest review

First of all, the cover is gorgeous! I've only ever read Safe and Sound by the author and I wasn't a fan of that one but the cover for this really attracted me and the blurb was intriguing so I thought I would give it a go.

On the whole this was an enjoyable read. I did find it a bit slow to start off with, and I found Paul's relationship with his step-daughter borderline creepy, but I was interested to see where the plot would go.

I think the second half is much better when the pace picks up and all the clues start coming together. I liked the writing style - it was pleasant to read and all interactions between characters felt natural.

I would rate the book 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. It didn't blow my mind and it took a while to get into the story, but I found the plot interesting.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. Julia and Paul accompany their daughter to some sort of musical competition. When the fire alarm sounds, she is nowhere to be found. They rush home thinking she is there, but she is not. They find clues left behind, but did she leave on her own? Was she kidnapped? I thought this book was good but not great. Some of it held my attention well, while other parts were just slow. I wasn't overly excited about the ending.