This psychological drama follows a wealthy family who have great jobs and a gifted daughter. This audiobook was compelling. There were subjects of bullying and abuse in there but this book was very very good.
The narrator was very easy to listen to, which for me as I listen at bedtime us perfect! 5* for both the psychological story and audiobook!

Stay at home dad, Paul, and lawyer, Julia’s, ‘perfect world’ is shattered when their talented 16 year old daughter, Chrissie, disappears at the end of a prestigious music competition. As this psychological thriller delves further into her disappearance it uncovers more and more secrets within the family that Paul and Julia have been keeping from their daughter and each other. A good listen.

The secrets of a wealthy couple's life are exposed as their musically talented teenager daughter goes missing on the night of a music competition. In part it's a thriller, but it's more of a family drama about the weirdly complicated relationships between house-husband Paul and his daughter, his in laws and his wife. I struggled to warm to anyone in this story - not the husband with a chip on his shoulder, not the entitled parents. Their actions don't make a great deal of sense and the pace was pretty slow throughout. The story was okay, but I wouldn't rush to read anything else by this author as it just failed to grip me.

I thought the two narrators did a good job. I preferred having a male and a female narrator for the two viewpoints as it made it immediately obvious who was speaking.

Genius writing and superbly challenging and makes you look at the world in a different focus. The characters are well defined and superbly portrayed!

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audiobook. I really enjoyed listening to this story and would definitely recommend it. The story is told from various different timelines and points of view which I found to be really interesting and was easy to follow. The story does contain a few really good plot twists which I didn’t see coming. An overall enjoyable read and 4 stars from me.

This psychological thriller from Philippa East makes a very decent audiobook.

'I'll Never tell' tells a story from the perspectives of. both Julia and Paul, of the mysterious disappearance of their daughter. She, (Chrissie), a talented musician, mysterious disappears when the fire alarm goes off at a concert she is preforming at. The police are called, and there are sign of a disturbance at the family home. Both Julia and Paul have stuff going on that they are keeping secret and may or may not be relevant to the disappearance.

The story takes us to the Scottish Highlands (much to my delight being a local), I love the detail the author goes into, this is totally on. point and the description of Inverness airport had me giggling in recognition!

Aside from my giggles, this audiobook had me very well entertained, and as such I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to fans of this genre.

My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity ton review this audiobook in exchange for an advance copy.

**please note due to low rating I will not be leaving a public review for this book as I have not paid for it.**

Narrated by Emily Pennant-Rea; Ciaran Saward
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
These narrators had great voices.

Story by Philippa East ⭐

I have previously purchased Little White Lies and Safe and Sound from Audible and loved them having given ratings of 4-5 stars, however this book I found painfully dull.

Both Julia and Paul were terribly boring characters. If I was married to either of them I'd probably have an affair too.
Im really sorry but I can't find anything positive to say about this book. If I had purchased it from Audible I would have returned it.

However in saying all that as I really enjoyed the first two books I would definitely buy another book (as long as it was better than this one)

An enjoyable book to listen to told from the points of view of a mother and father and their teenage daughter who goes missing. Plenty of secrets unfold along the way as the take is told from both sides.

Thank you to Harper Collins UK Audio, Netgally and the author for an ARC in return for an honest review

A wonderfully written story that takes you on a journey with an awfully sad theme at its conclusion. The narration was brilliant, casting was well chosen for this book.

The story started off well but as it went on I felt dried up and not really that much happened, it was well written and well narrated but I thought the plot was lacking

I enjoy both reading and listening to psychological thrillers, but had never before read or heard any of Philippa East's books so I was intrigued and the synopsis sounded good.

Unfortunately the pace was rather slow until close to the end and it moved back and forth quite a bit. I barely felt any suspense, thrills or excitement until close to the end and I didn't particulary care about any of the characters. I think the story itself was good and if I had cared more about the characters it might have been a 4 star book for me.

The story is about how striving to be perfect but at what cost? I often got the impression that Paul (the father) wanted Chrissie to be the perfect musician so much more than Chrissie wanted it herself, but there was also something really fishy going on. Did Chrissie disappear because of the pressure or did something bad happen to her? And why was her mother Julia so messed up? I had a good idea, but it wasn't confirmed until the end.

All in all, I wanted to know what had happened and why, but at the same time I didn't really care about the characters, so for me this was an okay story, but not great.

Wow, I loved this book. I normally don’t read too many thrillers but this one had me hooked! I loved the twists and turns and even in the end there were some surprises! I will definitely be reading more from this author in the future.

As usual I will not be rehashing the plot here as I believe that the professional blurb writers do a better job without giving anything away. This is slightly unusual story, a gentle psychological mystery thriller which turned out to not be as dark and deep as one suspects as you begin to read. Indeed, I found the ending to be a bit lame and rather ‘unrealistic’ and did not quite fit with the promise of drama portrayed at the start. All in all interesting idea but for me it did not quite hit the mark to be an excellent story.

I’ll never tell is a twisty psychological thriller about families and the secrets they hide. Julia and Paul are parents to 16 year old Chrissie who is a talented musician capable of great things. When she disappears after a competition many things are revealed that explain her drastic behaviour and that of her parents.
The characters are well thought out and the different backgrounds of Julia and Paul added an interesting and modern dynamic to the book. Although enjoyed this novel and despite it being well written I did find it stretched the plot to beyond its limit. Some drastic editing would make it music more gripping.

I listened to this audiobook on Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This was a difficult listen - domestic noir at its darkest, really.

I've loved Philippa East's earlier books, so jumped at the chance to experience this one pre-release. As usual, it tackles an extreme psychological situation. Julia comes from a financially privileged background but has been deeply unhappy - seeking escape through drug use. She meets Paul, a piano-player, on a night out, and for a long time her life is transformed. She is able to get on top of her habit, establish a successful City career, and even get her daughter Chrissie back from her parents, who have been her main carers since the difficult birth during which Julia almost died.

We hear two narratives - one first person in Julia's voice, and one third person close to Paul. Paul comes across as creepy, controlling, and overly-involved in his step-daughter's life and musical education. He's the first of several creepy men we meet. In fact, apart from Chrissie's friend Reese, every single man in this novel is disconcerting - someone we would prefer to avoid. I'm really glad East wrote Paul's story in the third person, as I really would not have liked to be right inside his head, hearing his own words.

It took me a little while to orientate myself in the timescale of the novel. There is a major event and everything else is timed as "[X] weeks before" or after it. Personally, I'd have preferred actual dates. But then, with the Covid lockdowns a lot of contemporary novelists are choosing to avoid the current years - the various legal restrictions we've all lived through make narratives with close personal contact between virtual strangers feel instantly incredible, and yet in a decade or so few readers will be able to pinpoint the restrictions we are living through with any accuracy.

All in all, another great domestic noir. Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

Three Word Review: Terrible family secrets

I wasn't sure about this book until around half way and then it started to pull together and I couldn't put it down. The book follows a family after their 16 year old daughter goes missing.

I didn't like our main characters to begin with until their motivations and histories were revealed. The depth of the characters was fantastic and I found my opinions changed completely. The way all of the different aspects of this novel were woven together for the conclusion was fantastic.

I would highly recommend this book.

I'll Never Tell - Philippa East

As a big fan of Philippa East books I was really excited to read this book. It has all you could want in a suspense read, but I did find it a little bit of a slower pace to her other books. I wasn't a huge fan of the characters and had so many different opinions on them all throughout. There were lots of twists and turns and it all comes together beautifully in the end, I also thought that the narrators did a fab job. Many thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for the digital review copy in return for my honest opinion.

I enjoyed this but to be honest it was a bit slow for me. It does tie up all nicely at the end and the narration is good.

Chrissie is a talented, 16 year old musician. Her kind, but overbearing stepfather Paul spends every day training and organising her, trying to realise his musical dreams vicariously through her. Her mother Julia is a high flying lawyer from a rich family and the breadwinner. One day after an important concert, Chrissie simply disappears, but to the police her parents seem to have been so wrapped up in themselves, that they have no idea where she could be.



Told through multiple timelines, you soon learn that both Paul and Julia have mysterious pasts and there is unspoken tension between them, but is this related to Chrissie’s disappearance and what is everyone hiding?



The narrators are both great and I like the use of two, it breaks ups the chapters nicely.

Chrissie is a talented teenage violinist, but when she disappears after a competition her parents are understandably frantic.
Following a past and present timeline from several different points of view, this story unravelled well and have a disturbing insight into Chrissie's life with her parents up to the final reveal of what had happened to her.