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Spoilers Beyond This Point

Characters:

• Emma: the middle sister, currently pregnant, was an aspiring artist
• Nathan: Emma’s husband, annoying 
• Daphne: the youngest sister, loves to keep secrets
• Juliette/JJ: the oldest sister, was the favorite daughter
• Gabriel Mahoney: local older guy who was friends with Emma
• Rick Hadley: detective & one of their dad’s best friend
• Craig Ellis: chief of police when the Palmers are murdered
• Christopher Best: Emma’s lawyer, also one of her dad’s best friends
• Logan Ellis: son of the police chief, was seeing Juliette

Summary (with Spoilers)

There are two timelines woven together for this story. There’s the present day and there’s the girls’ childhood memories. For the sake of clarity, I’m starting with the present day and will tie in any relevant memories.

“[Nathan] wasn’t very good at reading people. That was one of the things she liked about him. She was keenly aware at all times how other people perceived her—too aware that it was impossible, really, to get things just right. You were too emotional, not emotional enough.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

The book starts with Emma and Nathan in the present. Also disclaimer: Emma clearly doesn’t like Nathan, and I hated him. Nathan is home in the middle of the day and is not supposed to be. He reveals that he was laid off. Emma’s initially upset because their offer on a house was just accepted. Then he admits that he’s been unemployed for months and lied on their paperwork to get the house in the first place. He tries to make it seem like it’s still fully handled, so Emma throws down her secret. She’s pregnant.

“‘What about your parents’ house?’ he asked, and there was something odd in his tone—like he’d been waiting to bring it up all along.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

Emma and her sisters inherited their family estate when their parents were murdered. Everything is in a trust, and all three women have to agree to sell anything. Nathan knew the basics, but not the murder part. From his perspective, it’s stupid not to live in a house that Emma already owns. And because Emma’s been backed into a corner, she has to agree. She then tells Nathan the truth about her parents’ deaths and that she was the main suspect for a while. He’s shaken, but they have no other choice. So she sends a text to update both her sisters and she and Nathan start packing.

“Daphne with her wheezing breath, face pale, eyes panicked. Her mother, face like stone, holding the inhaler out of reach. Daphne with her sleeves soaked in blood, blinking away sleep. Daphne seizing Emma’s hand, and whispering four words. ‘No one can know.’”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

Emma starts having flashbacks almost immediately after they get to the house. The girls had moved out immediately to be shuttled out to foster care and college, so the house sat empty for 14 years. This means that nothing has been changed, causing intense reactions. Nathan is incredibly insensitive, even when they find “MURDERER and PSYCHO KILLER spray painted on the walls. Emma gets increasingly frustrated, and resorts to taking him step by step through her discovery of her parents’ bodies to remind him of what she’s mentally going through. But even during this, she keeps the abuse her parents doled out a secret.

“She’d last heard that voice nine years ago. It had taken [Hadley] that long to stop calling her on the anniversary and on her mother’s birthday, telling her that she would never be safe.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

One of the first times Emma and Nathan go into town, they run into Rick Hadley. Hadley was one of the officers that handled the murder case, and was also one of Emma’s father’s close friends. He very clearly believes that Emma was the one to murder her parents, and made her life a living hell because of it. In the current day, this means befriending Nathan and acting like a general prick.

“‘She was with Gabriel Mahoney. There were boot prints in the blood in the house. Men’s, size ten and a half. Same size as Mr. Mahoney. She’d been fighting with her parents about him that day, said she wanted to kill them.’”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

In line with the vandalism the house had already experienced, someone tries to set it on fire while Emma and Nathan are in bed. Emma quickly notices and is able to put the fire out. Nathan insists that they report the incident to the police. Chief Ellis and Officer Hadley show up and do not take the event seriously.

After some pointed words were exchanged, Hadley starts telling Nathan about Emma’s alibi the night of the murderers. Emma had kept her “relationship” with Gabriel out of her explanation for Nathan, rightfully assuming it would be a distracting point. But now Nathan has yet another reason not to trust her.

“She told me that she had information about something illegal. She wanted to turn it over, but she was worried she might get in trouble as well. I got the impression it had something to do with your father, and so I told her I couldn’t be involved personally, but I gave her the contact information for someone else at my firm.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

At a breaking point, Emma and Nathan take a day apart. Emma goes to see her lawyer, and family friend, to talk about her parents’ lives before they died. She’s hoping to find some information that would point to a non-family member killing them. Instead, Chris drops a bombshell on her, saying that her mother was trying to report her father for some illegal business deals. This triggers a memory of a flash drive Emma had been hiding the night of the murders.

“Nathan lay  on the ground beside the worktable. His eyes were half-opened. One leg was twisted awkwardly under him where he had fallen. His t-shirt was stained dark, a single neat hole in the fabric at his chest. His face had a look of vague surprise.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

Nathan had stormed off at some point, upset with Emma and her “lies.” Emma is exhausted from running around town, being yelled at by everyone, and growing a baby, so instead of tracking him down, she does her own thing. But then it’s been over 24 hours and she hasn’t heard from him at all.

She starts to get worried and goes looking for him. His car is still at the house, so she takes a look in the carriage house. And there she finds Nathan, shot in the chest. Once it’s reported, a police investigation starts, and it’s clear that yet again Emma will be the main suspect.

“The proceeds from the sale—she was talking about the house. About how to make sure Nathan had a claim on it if—when—they divorced. That was why he’d stayed. Not her. Not the baby. The fucking money.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

While going through Nathan’s things, Emma learns that he was continuing an affair he’d started years before. Her name was Addison, and Nathan had swore it was over. Instead, it looked like Addison had been leading Nathan every step of the way, ensuring a big payday for herself before allowing Nathan to formally divorce Emma. And this information makes everything even worse for Emma.

“Chris adjusted his glasses, eyes on the tabletop. ‘Emma, I’m afraid you’re going to be arrested. The forensics revealed that the gun that killed your husband was the same weapon used to kill your parents,’ Chris said.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

Even though Emma knew she was essentially the only person of interest, she wasn’t anticipating any concrete evidence because she didn’t kill Nathan. But now that the same gun has been used in both murders, she’s afraid it’ll be impossible to convince a jury. Chris lets her know that he’d negotiated a voluntary surrender. So instead of getting arrested in public, Emma will need to turn herself in by 6:00am the next day. 

Emma asks Chris some more questions about her father’s shady business dealings, and they get on the subject of robberies that had been happening. Emma is convinced that her father’s company was responsible for the robberies and resold the stolen goods. Chris is hesitant to fully agree with her hypothesis, and reminds her that without any evidence, it doesn’t really matter. Emma remembers the flash drive she’d found as a teenager that had the evidence they’d need. But she’d lost it the night of their parents’ murders.

“‘What the fuck?’ JJ asked, looking into the rearview. Emma twisted to look behind them. Her heart sank at the sight of the Arden Hills PD SUV. JJ put on her blinker, started to slow down. ‘Don’t stop,’ Emma told her, suddenly frantic. She grabbed JJ’s shoulder. ‘Keep going.’”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

JJ had taken Emma to see Chris, and as they left his office, they’re almost immediately hailed by a police car. Emma, realizing it’s Hadley, begs JJ to keep going. JJ doesn’t want to run from any law enforcement, so she pulls over. Hadley immediately arrests Emma, even though she had 18 hours to turn herself in. They get into a verbal fight, and Emma accuses him of helping her father cover up his involvement with the robberies. She also accuses Ellis of knowing, and speculates that after Nathan found the flash drive, he opened it, then contacted Ellis about the information. At this point, Hadley grabs her, demanding to know where the flash drive is.

“‘Hadley had the gun. Hadley had the fucking gun,’ JJ said. Yellow wallpaper. White grip. Red hand. But Rick Hadley had the gun, and she’d been wrong. She hadn’t done it. It wasn’t her, and relief and fear knotted together inside her.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

Juliette had been hanging out with Chief Ellis’s son Loganthe night of her parents’ murders, and had been drunk and on a trip. There were parts of the night she didn’t remember, and she’d almost convinced herself she’d taken the gun Logan carried and gone home to shoot her parents. However, while she’s sitting in the car watching Emma and Hadley argue, she gets a call from Logan. She’d been trying to get more answers and had asked him about it. He tells her that Hadley had seen him with the gun months before and confiscated it.

“JJ hoisted herself up and out of the window, sitting on the sill a moment before swinging her legs over. There was no point trying to get her feet under her. She clung to the car to keep from being swept away and held on as Emma clambered across the seats, following her lead. Emma got her head and shoulders out, then one leg, the other foot braced against the sill.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

After realizing Emma was in danger, JJ throws the car into reverse, hitting Hadley and throwing him against his own car. Emma gets back in the car, and JJ speeds down the road. Unfortunately, she’s going too fast for the bridge, and the car goes into the river below. JJ and Emma make it out of the car and JJ drags Emma to the riverbank.

“JJ twisted, Emma struggling up to her feet as Rick Hadley emerged from the trees. His gun was in his hand, and as JJ stood he pointed it straight at her. Emma started to put her hands up, only for sudden pain to shoot through her shoulder, lancing down to her fingertips. She let out a strangled scream, and JJ lurched toward her in alarm.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

Hadley quickly meets them at the riverbank and subdues Emma. He tries to turn Emma against JJ, saying he can pin everything on her, and he just needs to know the location of the flash drive first. Both sisters are in shock and are both processing everything, sitting silently. Then Daphne appears at the top of the hill, asking if they’re okay. With Hadley distracted, Emma charges at him as JJ grabs the gun and throws it away from him. Hadley gets Emma pinned to the ground and starts to strangle her.

“Above him, Daphne appeared. In both hands she held a rock the size of a football. With a look of utmost calm and concentration, she brought it down on the back of his head. Once. Twice. Three times.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

At that point, Daphne hits Hadley on the head several times. He’s still breathing, and the sisters are all okay. Daphne had been tracking Emma and immediately came to find her when her phone showed up in the river. The sisters then start piecing everything together, concluding that Hadley must’ve been the one to shoot Nathan once he’d rediscovered the flash drive so that Hadley could get the flashdrive and the gun. They assume that Hadley must’ve been the one to kill their parents, and left the gun behind. Daphne had admitted to hiding both the flashdrive and the gun in the carriage house after they found their parents. So Hadley had spent years looking for the evidence that could tie him to the case, and finally found it. The only issue is that Hadley still didn’t have the drive.

“They went back to the house. They always ended up back at the house. It was like a gravity well; a black hole from which nothing could escape, not even light.”

No One Can Know, Kate Alice Marshall

The ending has all 3 sisters together after 14 years. Emma’s wounds healed, and the baby was fine. When Hadley’s house was searched, they found the gun and flash drive, both with enough evidence to prove what the sisters had pieced together. It was established that Hadley had been sleeping with their mother, so the motivation to kill their father made sense.

Emma has her daughter, the sisters help raise her, and Emma rekindles her relationship with Gabriel. All three sisters have discussed that while the story everyone else accepts works, none of them believe it. Ready for the full reveal?

Daphne had been the catalyst. She’d watched her mother hide the flash drive full of evidence in a lockbox, then taken it out and plugged it into the computer. Her dad had caught her and she’d played it off like she didn’t really know what she’d been doing or what she’d seen. But she’d seen enough to know it was illegal. Later that night, Daphne overheard her dad call Chief Ellis and tell him one of the girls had seen what was on the flash drive.

Terrified of what was to come, Daphne woke up their mother and told her what was happening. Her mother stayed in denial, saying she could talk him down. But Daphne had never seen him that angry, so she went and got the gun she knew Hadley had brought over for her mother to use as protection. She later learned it was the gun he’d taken from Logan Ellis. Daphne took the gun, stood on her tiptoes, and shot him while he sat in his desk chair.

Her mother seemed to still be in shock, and simply asked for Daphne to hand her the gun. Daphne did, and then her mother told her to get out. Then their mother shot herself, right as JJ was returning to the house. Still high, Juliette had watched it happen, and had immediately run out of the house.

Daphne came back and assumed JJ had been the one to shoot their mother. After smothering her mother for her final breaths, Daphne takes the gun and the flash drive and hides them in the carriage house.

Cut to 14 years later. Daphne sneaks into the carriage house to get the evidence before Emma and Nathan find it. Unfortunately, she finds Nathan already digging around, with both the gun and flash drive already found. He points the gun at her, but she overpowers him and shoots him instead.

Daphne never admits to any of this beyond hiding the evidence. And for that, she claims she was protecting JJ and thought JJ had shot their mother.

As a whole, this book is fast-paced and gripping in a classic way. The three different POVs from the sisters makes everything more interesting, especially since so much of their narration is unreliable. The dual timelines definitely started to make things more confusing, as characters confessed to things that didn’t happen or convinced themselves of memories they didn’t have. And while there is an ending with a full explanation, it left me wanting a little bit more!