We Know/You Know by Erin Kelly

Val Penny ♦ December 31, 2020 ♦ 1 Comment

Erin Kelly is not only one of my favourite authors but she is most generous with her time and expertise. I met her first at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School a few years ago and have always appreciated the time she took to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the opening of the early draft of my debut novel, Hunter’s Chase. She has been unswervingly supportive of my own writing career ever since. Therefore it was with some excitement that I began her most recent novel, We Know/You Know.

The Blurb

A lifetime ago, a patient escaped Nazareth mental asylum. They covered their tracks carefully. Or so they thought.
Thirty years ago, Marianne Smy committed a crime then fled from her home to leave the past behind. Or so she thought.

Now, Marianne has been forced to return. Nazareth asylum has been converted to luxury flats, but its terrible hold on her is still strong. A successful academic, a loving mother and a loyal wife, she fears her secret being revealed and her world shattering.

She is right to be scared.

The Review

This novel was previously published as Stone Mothers in hardback, but We Know/You Know is a far better title. There is no doubt that Kelly is one of the best writers in the psychological thriller genre and this new novel is particularly captivating and cleverly constructed story where the lives of three very different people are inextricably interlinked with a local mental asylum which has closed leaving them with a combination of memories, guilt and ghosts.

I found We Know You Know gripping and as it carries the reader back through time, Kelly revealed twists I did not see coming. The author delivers shocks and suspense throughout the story and the book concludes with a satisfying ending from a master of thriller writing. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it to those who enjoy thrillers, mysteries and psychological novels. We Know/You Know is another fabulous novel from a master author.

The Author

I’m best known for He Said/She Said, about a young couple who witness a rape and, after the trial, begin to wonder if they believed the right person. My first novel, The Poison Tree, was a Richard and Judy bestseller and a major ITV drama starring Myanna Buring, Ophelia Lovibond and Matthew Goode. I’ve written four more original psychological thrillers – The Sick Rose, The Burning Air, The Ties That Bind.

I had read scores of psychological thrillers before I heard the term: the books that inspired me to write my own included Endless Night by Agatha Christie, The Secret History by Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine. My books are atmospheric thrillers, always about people trying to atone for, escape, or uncover a past crime. I’m more interested in what happens before the police arrive – if arrive they ever do – than how murder is solved.

Val Penny