I Know You Know audiobook

Gilly Macmillan is a master when it comes to creating perfectly-plotted psychological suspense and characters with real emotion and depth. I KNOW YOU KNOW is a smart thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats, from the first gripping chapter all the way through to the mind-blowing finale. Add this to your to-read list.

Favorite Quotes: If you can control where an interview takes place, you are part of the way to controlling the interview itself. Location matters. Fletcher’s wife announced she was leaving him when they were in the Costco car park. He didn’t see it coming. He remembers acutely the humiliation of loading bags into the boot of the car while she explained across the laden shopping trolley that their marriage was over. “Well, why are we buying in bulk then?” was all he could think to ask.It’s a resting place for cold cases, and Fletcher thinks of it as an archive of failure. For every high-profile solve, there’s an unsolved crime shelved here. In each tidily filed box, Fletcher thinks, there are not just papers, photographs, and other case materials, but other things, invisible things. There are traces of the open emotional wounds an unsolved crime leaves on the families and detectives affected by it. There is also the shadow of something more rotten: the person who got away with it. Like a nodding dog ornament on a dashboard, she moves her head laboriously to look at Danny. Everything she does is so slow it makes Fletcher’s joints feel as if they’re liquefying under the strain of being patient.I said you’re a prat, John Fletcher. Always have been, always will be. I’m fed up of you strutting about like you own the place when you passed your sell-by date years ago. The only time I’ll look forward to seeing you will be at your retirement party.I did a bit of unscientific research on the subject—by which I mean to say that I looked it up on the internet…My Review: I was unprepared for the twists and turns of the diabolically clever Gilly Macmillan. Her fascinating yet despicable characters were as compelling as the well-crafted storylines they inhabited. They squeezed then broke my heart while holding me captive to my Kindle as I hissed and huffed my distress. No one was innocent, except for the condemned patsy, and no one was as they had initially appeared, it was brilliant. Gilly Macmillan has strong word voodoo. Cunningly woven into this adroitly written book were the gut-churning savagery of children, blackmail, police coercion, nefarious manipulations, greed, ambition, corruption, and desperation. The writing was exquisitely nuanced, the wily characters were deeply damaged and irreparably flawed yet keenly described and depicted in a cleverly magnetizing manner. It was riveting, yet tragic and heartbreaking. I was enthralled and even though she turned me inside out, I covet her mad skills and greedily want all her words. New additions to my Brit Vocab list include tearaways which Mr. Google tells me is a wild or reckless person; bung which is a bribe or payoff; and cobblers which apparently has two meanings as it is nonsense to some, and testicles to the Cockneys - although those two things are pretty much the same thing to me ;)

Twenty years ago, the bodies of 11-year old boys Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were found near a dog racing track in Bristol. The man convicted of their murder was mentally challenged and recently committed suicide, having never stopped professing his innocence. Now the body of a man who was thought to have absconded to Venezuela after a major financial scam was discovered near the same site, having been there all along and forcing a fresh look into the boys’ murders. Cody Swift, one of the boys’ friends who was supposed to be with them that night, has also launched a new podcast exploring the old case, exposing new information that would have challenged the findings and casting Charlie’s mother Jessica in a blemished spotlight. The boys were supposed to have been under her care that evening. I like mysteries or police procedurals where there’s a look back over solved cases. This one was especially intriguing as we soon learn there was every reason to be skeptical of the original conclusions. John Fletcher, the lead detective of the old case and now the new one, is one of the narrators so we get valuable insights about the old case. Jessica Paige is a very different person from the broken mess she was when her son died. She’s now married, a former successful television actress and mother of a 16-year old daughter who doesn’t want her past resurrected. The story transitions between the two investigations, the original and the new one. What makes this unique is the podcast which is presented in broadcast format, even more ideal in the audio version. However, whereas in the printed book the old case is highlighted, there wasn’t any indicator for when the narrative reverted to the past in this version. It wasn’t always clear when that happened but I was able to adjust. Otherwise, I loved everything else about the audio performance with three narrators handling the characters exceptionally well. I really enjoyed this story with its flawed, conflicted host of players, including the lead investigator. Sifting through the truths and lies, trying to determine which was what from unreliable narrators made this even more of a puzzle. While I figured out the framework of the truth, I was still thrown by the little twist at the end that tossed it all up in the air. There’s a reason why this author is an auto read as nothing and no one in this story was sacred and you have to keep your wits about you. Really well done. Posted on Blue Mood Café(I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review)

The talented and international bestselling author, Gilly Macmillan returns following Odd Child Out (Jim Clemo #2) with an unputdownable multi-layered standalone thriller with a “killer” plot twist– I KNOW YOU KNOW.  5 Stars +++ Absolutely love this book and the cover!  A true-crime podcast stirs up new evidence in a twenty-year decades-old murder with an explosive ending you will not see coming!    For fans of unsolved mysteries and the popular podcast, Serial as well as Harlan Coben’s The Five (a favorite).  True crime buffs will devour! For the true crime devotee, there are twenty different kinds of true-crime podcasts: episodic, serialized, cold cases, current events, historical, and thematic. Some of these are similar, to Serial and S-Town and some are wildly different, both in topic and method, but they are all the kind of true crime podcast that will leave you questioning the human psyche, social relationships, and the legal system.I KNOW YOU KNOW is a perfect example and will feed your true crime obsession. A twenty-year-old cold case. Read it, and you will find out why!   In part, due to the author’s brilliant and clever crime writing.   Her best yet!   MacMillan skillfully maximizes suspense by juggling narrators and the timing of the two cases, as well as using the podcast episodes and distinct voices to connect past with the present to the shocking final twists. Set in Bristol, England an estate at night near an old Greyhound racing dog track. Who doesn’t love Greyhounds! (Some of my friends have adopted the retired Greyhounds). A group of friends at play. Kids are always in the wrong place at the wrong time.  From a decades-old brutal murder of two young boys, abandoned on wasteland.  Still a mystery years later.  Now an award-winning filmmaker Cody Swift, haunted by the murder of his two best friends, returns to Bristol to find out what really happened. Scott Ashby (age 11) and Charlie Paige (age 10) were beaten to death in Bristol, England in 1996. Sidney Noyce - a mentally challenged adult, was charged with the murder.  He spent time with the boys at the dog track kennels on the morning before Scott and Charlie disappeared.  He was a 24 yr. old man at the time with the mental age of a 10 yr. old boy. A boy in a man’s body. No prior criminal record.  He was likable by many.  The gentle giant. Did he receive a fair trial?In 2017, he commits suicide in prison, after twenty years.    He was serving a life sentence. However, he never stopped proclaiming his innocence.  Was there something more sinister going on behind the scenes? Cody begins a Podcast (Dishlicker Podcast) entitled, “It’s Time To Tell.”  You see, not everyone believes Sidney Noyce was guilty.  Was he a sitting duck? There were also the detectives and the parents.   Who to believe?  Everyone is hiding secrets.  Many pieces to the puzzle.  A complex chain of events. The thought of Noyce being innocent intrigued Cody.  He begins a personal investigation into the murders of his best friends.  He starts from the beginning with “It’s Time to Tell” Episode I – Three Deaths and an Article and ends with Episode 11 – Wrong Time, Wrong Place.  He has a knack for storytelling. But there is still more to the story after the final episode.How would you feel if things changed twenty years later, to have it unearthed once again?  This opens up emotions and conflicted feelings.  From the loss of his friends and his guilt that he survived is a darkness he has lived with. Digging up the past will not be easy, but if the reporter is correct that Noyce did not kill his friends, then someone needs to solve this mystery.  Who really committed the murders?For those still remembering and struggling with the darkness – It’s time to tell. Charlie was still alive when he was found and the last word he said was “ghost”.  What did it mean? However, there are some who do not want this double murder investigation stirred up again. One being Jessica (Jess) Paige, Charlie’s mother (loads of doubt here) and suspicions, who turns to wealthy Felix Abernathy (he has always done favors for those people who need those favors to remain a secret) - to try and stop Cody’s probing. He became very useful to some very influential people in Bristol.  What are his secrets and motives?  Jess has married since the murder of Nick.  Jess has hidden the past from her daughter, Erica.  “Cody Swift has lit a stick of dynamite that could blow everything in her life to smithereens. She knows already that his podcast could be a new and dark dawn in her life.” Lots of hidden dark secrets. But, why?  Throw also into the mix: Detective Supt. Howard Smail, whose career was ended by the case and D.I. John Fletcher, who originally built the case against Sidney.  What about the powerful man, Felix —What is he hiding?  After the violence of Cody’s best friends’ murders, his home and community have never felt the same again.  The brutality of the crime that ripped everything apart. Cody was the third boy in the friendship group who got away.  How could this have happened?  However, some want to keep the truth buried.  If Sidney Noyce was innocent, then someone else is guilty.As Cody Swift digs deeper and his podcast episodes began to unravel the real truths—some are in great danger if certain facts come out. There is also Owen Weston, the crime reporter who mounted a crusade to convince others that Sidney Noyce was innocent. What really happened that night? Then another missing person is found dead?  Do the two cases connect? Wow, this one will be on my Top Books of 2018. Well-researched, a master of suspense, connecting past with the present, I KNOW YOU KNOW  a supercharged, complex, multilayered crime page-turner thriller, heavy on character development, cop procedural, and psychological suspense.   Highly entertaining. Well done and bloody good!   Highly topical— A taut, gripping novel about the deadly secrets of the past. A real crime podcast is at the heart of I KNOW YOU KNOW.   The author takes us through the complicated lives of children to adulthood. Mistakes, regrets, betrayals, deceit, fears, secrets.  Through the podcast episodes, we see a wealth of emotions, even being years after the crime. Many different tales, opening old wounds from the past which are threatening to their lives today. From the victim’s mother, Jess, Cody, and even the detectives, among others.   Each character is dynamite in their own ways; however, I thought Cody and especially Jess’s characters were quite intriguing looking back from past to present.  Highly relatable characters. Readers will find an exploration into Jess’s history from a scared young mother, a dark past she would like to keep buried to keep from ruining her current life, yet she possesses the reliance and strength to go up against the worst of enemies. Jess was my favorite character.  She will keep you guessing. I KNOW YOU KNOW is sure to appeal to fans of true crime and especially Harlan Coben, Linwood Barclay, Mary Kubica, Shari Lapena, and Michael Robotham (my favorites).  Readers of Charlie Donlea’s Don’t Believe It will enjoy the podcast episodes and interviews of the victims’ families, the cops, and those affected by the tragedy, as well as those who are guarding their secrets of the past.I loved the hot air balloons (my former hometown held an annual balloon rally) and loved the hashtag #awaitthedate.  Our dog race track here in West Palm Beach, FL is located across from the Palm Beach International Airport.  Not sure I will ever ride by again without thinking of this story. On a side note: Hazel Collins (the person who made the report and character in the book). Ironically, I have an aunt named Hazel Collins Lail my favorite – now age 90 in a nursing home in NC with Alzheimer's and a stroke victim.  Each time I read her name, thought of her. I also have a cousin Anabelle (Ann) Collins, deceased.  For more than 15 years Hazel has been in a home has no clue of any of her family or where she is. She was moved to hospice 20 yrs. ago to die and they had to move her out to a nursing home.  She keeps on ticking. Would love to know her secrets. Speaking of juicy secrets to enhance your reading experience, highly recommend reading listening to these interviews with Gilly: I thoroughly enjoyed  Jean Book Nerd In her interview, you will learn many interesting facts about I KNOW YOU KNOW.  I really enjoyed how she created: ‘Dishlicker’ is a slang word for ‘greyhound’ which is why Cody chose the name for his production company. The location of the murders was real and fascinated Macmillian. She is a true-crime podcast addict and this was her most complicated book to plot to date.  (and the best, I will add). Also, note the interview with Gilly and Mary Kubica (another good one). The Art Of Domestic Suspense by CRIME READS. Podcast Interview with Gilly MacMillan and Hank Garner "Stories Behind the Stories" The Author Stories Podcast. A special thank you to HarperCollins and Edelweiss for an advanced reading copy of #IKnowYouKnow.  I also purchased the audiobook narrated by Steve Brand, Steve West, and Imogen Church for a highly entertaining and satisfying performance.JDCMustReadBooks

For twenty years, Sidney Noyce has claimed his innocence for the murders of Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby. In 1996, their bodies were found dumped by a dog track near the estate where they lived. Their friend, Cody Swift, who was ten like Charlie, lived, and now, twenty years later, is reviving the case via a podcast, It's Time to Tell. He too has his doubts about Sidney's guilt. He returns home to Bristol to start investigating. But not everyone wants this case reopened, including Charlie's mother, Jessica, who has started a new life, with a new family. And then there's the investigating detective, John Fletcher, who found the boys. Charlie died in his arms; you don't forget a case like that. Now, he's investigating another body--found buried in a location near where the boys died. Are the two cases related? Is there a murderer still out there? I still remember the moment I discovered Gilly Macmillan, and her books are such a treat. This one was no exception. This is a stand-alone novel, or at least not one of her Jim Clemo novels, and I found it to be a highly enjoyable and compelling mystery. When I first realized that part of the book was being told via the podcast format, I felt a bit of deja-vu, as I had just recently finished another book in that structure (Sadie), but have no fear: the organization of this one is fresh and flawless. The book is told via the podcast; Jessica's point of view; and Fletcher's perspective--both now and back then, when he was a rookie cop, investigating the boys' death. You have to get used to the book swinging back and forth in time with Fletcher, but it doesn't take much, and it's worth it, because Macmillan parallels things so well in time. The juxtaposition of the past and present with the two cases (current body, the boys' case - plus Cody's podcast) is really brilliant. Plus, we get to see the trajectory of Fletcher's life and the many decisions that have led him to where he his today. His character, for me, was fascinating and one of the best surprises of the book. One of my favorite aspects of any Macmillan novel is her characters. They are always so detailed and fully fleshed out. That is the case here: you will find yourself transported back to the estate twenty years ago, with Charlie, Scott, and Cody running around, and then to the present, with Cody and his podcast, Jessica struggling to keep her new life afloat, and Fletcher, unraveling the details on a new--potentially related--case. There are multiple mystery threads to keep any detective fan happy: what happened to Charlie and Scott all those years ago? Was it really Sidney Noyce? How about the body Fletcher just discovered nearby? Just a coincidence? I loved the way Macmillan weaved the pieces of all these stories together. There are some wonderful and unexpected turns here. I adore a book that surprises me, and it was great to have some twists and turns that shocked me. Overall, this is a fascinating and compelling mystery that expertly weaves together the thread of two cases separated by twenty years. The characters are well-detailed and the book is beautifully plotted. It's hard to go wrong with a Macmillan mystery, and this one is no exception. 4+ stars. I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Edelweiss in return for an unbiased review (thank you!). Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Google+ ~ Instagram

I first came across the “book within a book” concept in Emily Carpenter’s The Weight of Lies, and I totally fell in love with it. Since then there have been a few books that have featured social media or podcasts in their stories, such as Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber and Our House by Louise Candlish, and I have hoovered them up hungrily. I love Gilly Macmillan’s writing, and her new book was one of my most anticipated new releases this year, but when I discovered that it, too, features a true crime podcast I was ecstatic (and threw my whole reading schedule up in the air by snatching it up before my other books from my TBR pile patiently waiting for attention)! You may have gathered my adoration for this book from my star-crossed rating – this was one very clever mystery!Reviewing mysteries that rely on shock and surprise and unexpected developments is always tricky, because one little spoiler can ruin the book for someone. I advise to go into this one blind – you will thank me later. But for those of you who absolutely have to know a little bit about it, I will try to tread very carefully:During the excavations for a new shopping centre, human remains are unearthed near the scene of the double murder of two teenage boys from a nearby housing estate twenty years ago. For the detectives who found the two victims all those years ago, this latest discovery brings back terrible memories – murders of children always hit the hardest. At the time, a mentally handicapped young man was found guilty of the murders and jailed, and has recently died in prison whilst serving his sentence for the crime. But with a John Doe on their hands so close to the crime scene, the detectives are left wondering: could the two cases be connected? At the same time, Cody Swift, a young filmmaker who used to be best friends with the two murdered teenagers, has returned to his hometown to look for answers to some questions that have always bugged him in the years since his friends died. Together with his girlfriend Maya, he sets out to interview all people involved in the case, and publish his findings in a true crime podcast. But as Cody gets closer to the truth, there are some people who will do anything to keep the past hidden ...I loved the podcast element in this story, with its breadcrumb like trail of clues surrounding the murder of the two teenagers. As the red herrings come rolling in, I was ready to pat myself on the shoulder for being such a good detective and figuring it all out – only to be proven massively wrong yet again. It’s safe to say that no one in this story is as they seem. Isn’t that the best kind of mystery? I thought so. Totally engrossed, I kept turning the pages way past the time of night where I could expect to be a functioning human being the next day.In summary, I loved everything about this extremely clever mystery, from its flawed, believable characters to the chilling crime at the centre of the story – and of course the “book in a book” (or “podcast in a book”) theme, that added that special something to the story. Told from multiple POVs, this one kept me guessing until the “big bang” at the very end that upended all my carefully constructed theories. Brilliantly written, as is Macmillan’s usual style, it gets all the stars from me – very highly recommended!Thank you to Edelweiss and William Morrow Paperbacks for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review. *blog* *facebook* *instagram*

Hands down one of the best thrillers I have read this year - the dual timeline/flashback/podcast format kept the plot moving quickly and kept me guessing - all while maintaining a great element of suspense. As plot twists were revealed, I found myself needing more and more - until the very last page. The plot is centered around a 20 year old murder of 2 young boys and the three perspectives are Cody, the third best friend of the boys who survived that night by lucky fortune, Jess, the mom of one of the boys and Detective John Fletcher, the officer who found the bodies of the two boys. There are a lot of people in this story that are keeping secrets - but what are they are why? The answers might surprise you, I know they surprised me.I received an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

4.5Review to come

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and William Morrow for the copy in exchange for my honest reviewThe best way to describe this book is unique and clever. Reading so many different thrillers you begin to notice that they begin to follow the same patterns and can become predictable in some ways. I KNOW YOU KNOW by Gilly Macmillan definitely breaks that mold and brought something different to the table. Two murders committed 20 years apart – are they connected?When a body is found in a construction site questions begin to swirl around due to the location of the body. The body is found in the exact same place that two boys, Charlie and Scott, were found years earlier. For nearly two decades, Sidney Noyce has maintained his innocence in the murders of the two boys. Cody Swift, a childhood friend of Charlie and Scott, has doubted Sidney’s guilt since he was convicted and has decided to reopen his own investigation. He starts a podcast to outline his new findings and as a way to talk about what happened. Cody quickly realizes that not everyone wants this case being reexamined – his mother being one of them.Detective John Fletcher is forced to pull out the files from the horrific murders to see if these are somehow related to each other. Is there the potential that the murderer is still out there? What secrets are people still keeping about these incidences?With the alternating perspectives and timelines there is always the potential for things to get mixed up but Macmillan does a fantastic job keeping everything easy to follow while also keeping the right amount of mystery. She expertly weaves this story and it all came together well at the end. What I loved the most though was how fleshed out the characters were – all were developed and you really got a feel for who they are. I also liked the podcast format being added in. Whenever authors incorporate social media or other mediums like this in their stories I always enjoy it.

RATING: 4 STARS2018; William Morrow Paperbacks/HarperCollins CanadaI am a huge fan of true crime podcasts, so I was excited to see Gilly MacMillan's newest book was using this device to solve a cold case. We have the podcast host and "investigator" Cody Swift starting the podcast in order to revisit the murder of his two friends, and if the man convicted for their murder was really guilty of the crime. Twenty years ago, Cody was friends with fellow eleven year olds, Charlie Page and Scott Ashby. He was supposed to have been with them but was held back by his mother for punishment. He feels guilty that he was not with them and they were killed and their bodies left by a race track in Bristol. A man, with mental disabilities, was convicted of the murders. Cody wonders if the police investigation wasn't just rushed to convict anyone to make the public happy. As he starts to interviews the players from the time - the police to single party hard Jess Page, young mother to Charlie - and unearth new evidence, he begins to put himself in danger. Like any good true crime podcast, this book had me hooked and I could not listen fast enough. We get to see the case from Cody, Jess and the police's point of view. I was all over the place with who had done it and why the murders happened. Even when I figured out where it was going I was still strapped in for the ride. I wasn't a fan of Macmillan's first standalone novel (The Perfect Girl), but really enjoyed her first novel and book 1 in a series (What She Knew), so I was interested to see what I would think of this book. Much like her debut novel, this book hooks you and keeps you wanting more. I am excited to read more by MacMillan and would recommend this one to those like steady British mysteries. ***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***My Novelesque Blog

4.5/5Many years ago, two young boys were murdered and a mentally challenged adult male was charged and convicted for the crime, but many people believe him to be innocent for various reasons. So now, in present day, the boys’ best friend has decided to re-investigate the crime and release a true crime podcast with his findings as he investigates. His investigation brings forth new information for consideration, but it also reopens old wounds for many of the people involved. Several people are unhappy with what he is doing and want him to stop. The new interest in this case also causes problems for Detective John Fletcher, the investigator that worked on the murder case years ago. Detective Fletcher like he prosecuted the correct man for the murder and is, frankly, annoyed at this new investigation. But there are some out there that think that maybe Fletcher didn’t give the case (and the accused) the full investigation that it deserved.In addition to the old murder case, Detective Fletcher also has his hands full with a new body that has turned up near the site where the boys were found all of those years ago. It isn’t a new body so much as a body that has been there for many years, but only just discovered now. He has to figure out if this body is connected to the boys’ murder, and solve the case too.One of the things I love most about this book is that we are given several perspectives and alternating past/present narratives. We hear from Detective Fletcher, Jess Paige (one of the young boys’ mother), and Cody Swift (the podcaster conducting his own investigation). I love the way this moves the story along; the pacing felt good to me and the story felt more robust. It made me want to find out what really happened as quickly as possible. I wanted justice for everyone involved.I also love the way the podcasts are singled out. They have their own chapters. They’re sort of in transcript form, although they read more like narrative than “real” transcript, which I think is great because it doesn’t break up the flow of the story. (I admit to never having listened to true crime podcasts, but I found the addition of these examples fascinating and it makes me curious to seek one out and take a listen.)I mentioned that there are two cases being worked on simultaneously, and I have to say that by far the older case involving the children was the most interesting to me. I couldn’t get enough of those chapters and scenes. Every time I got to the chapters involving the other case, I really just wanted to get on to the next part about the re-opened investigation.Of all of the characters, I think the most compelling is Jess, the mother of Charlie Paige who was murdered at age 11. In the parts of the story from the past, she is one type of character, but in the parts of the story set in the present, she has undergone a huge change and is living an entirely different life. This could have been clunky and unbelievable with a different author, but Gilly Macmillan’s characterization is masterful, and I thought she did a great job with Jess. I thought her story was very emotional and it was easy to get into her head. That isn’t to say that I am anything like her, but I was fascinated with reading all of her scenes.I always get so doggone excited with a new Gilly Macmillan book, then I devour it, then I dread the super-long wait until I get the next one. I love the complexity of the cases in her thrillers, the nuance of her characterization, the way all of her characters have secrets, and I love the twists that she throws in (even at the end!). She is truly a favorite of mine in this genre. Whatever she writes, I will read.I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you, William Morrow Books!Find this review and more like it on my blog, Into the Hall of Books!

Another book with a true crime podcast as it’s central theme I can’t get enough of them if they are done well and this one was. Clever plotting and an excellent finale.Past and present collide as Cody returns to a difficult time in his life, the loss of his two closest friends. At the same time a body is discovered, dragging the original investigator back to a difficult and emotional case.This one has a lot of layers but mostly it’s about tangled relationships, moral life choices and the shades of grey that are ingrained in human nature. It’s a gripping read with plenty of twists and turns of character, a strong emotional core and an unpredictable vibe that keeps you turning those pages.I’ve loved Gilly Macmillan’s previous books and this one was no different – I immersed myself into it and read it over two sittings. Very good indeed.Recommended.

I really loved this latest novel by Gilly Macmillan. This is the story of two murders, 20 years apart - or discovered - and a suicide by an innocent mentally challenged man who was convicted for the 20 year old murders of two ten year old boys. The two murdered boys were best friends, and their "third musketeer" named Cody Swift, was not with the other two boys because he had ripped a new shirt he had been wearing, so his parents did not allow him out after dinner. Both boys were discovered missing late on the evening of August 19, 1996, and many of the residents of Glenfrome Estates where the boys lived, joined together in searching for them. Their bodies were not discovered until the following morning by the dog racing track, where they were forbidden by their parents to go. One of them, Charlie Paige, was barely alive when found, but died before the ambulance could get to the scene. It was a new detective who was selected by the DCC, Howard Smail, to work the case with him. The detective's name was John Fletcher, and it was in his arms that Charlie breathed his last, so he was extremely upset about the case. He was determined to obtain justice for the boys, and thus took some questionable shortcuts in the investigation, which was how the mentally challenged "gentle giant" was tried and convicted. Now, it is the present day, IKEA in Bristol is enlarging their store. During the digging up of the old parking lot, human bones are found. It was determined that these belonged to a middle aged adult by the name of Pete Dale, who like Bernie Madoff, made "investments" for people, and was stealing their money. People around town had assumed that Dale had absconded to Venezuela with their money, since there is no extradition treaty between the UK and Venezuela. As it so happens, John Fletcher is still working in the Bristol office, and he is determined to keep climbing the career ladder, although it has already cost him his wife and children. He is the lead detective on this current case, and the case brings back a lot of old memories from two decades before. (One of the things I like about Macmillan's writing is the fact that she leads the reader in one direction, while the true scenario is not talked about much, or hints are dropped, but it takes a careful reader to pick up on them). As luck would have it, Cody Swift, now a filmmaker, decides to do a series of podcasts on the murders of his childhood friends because he had never believed that Sid, the 'gentle giant' was guilty. He tries to talk to several witnesses, but one he could never get to talk to him was Charley Paige's mom, Jessy, who is now married and has a young teenage daughter. Jessy was only 16 when Charley was born, impregnated by her foster father who never knew about the pregnancy; her whole life had been a series of disastrous foster placements until she had Charlie and received government benefits for him each month. Because she never really grew up, she left Charlie with different people quite often, and sometimes by himself, so she could go out to nightclubs and the local casino. At the time of the murders, Jessy had been seeing a man named Peter Abernathy, a PR director, who eventually got her a soap opera role, although she couldn't figure out why he had all the mannerisms of the social graces, but was really just another thug conman. She was attracted to him because of this, and because of how badly he treated her. Around Bristol, people only whisper his name, and not much is known about him except that he is very successful in his business and he has a lot of local power, even reaching law enforcement. Cody had been reading a blog by a man named Owen Weston, and he is a source also for the Dishlicker Podcaster Production company run by Cody Swift and his girlfriend, Maya. (I was very interested to find out that 'dishlicker' is kind of a nickname for greyhounds; thus the name of the company). Cody and Maya state during their podcasts they had been threatened, but Cody is determined to find the truth. When the ID is made on the newly found 20 year old corpse, and it is determined that he was Peter Dale, it strikes several people as odd that he was murdered around the same time as the two young boys. Could there be a connection? Dale's secretary had reported him missing after three days of being a no-show at his business, but until the current year, no one had ever thought that he may have been murdered. The story continues with new revelation after revelation, and I was totally surprised to learn what actually happened to the man and the two boys, and why. This was basically a very large kind of con job on the part of various people. However, the woman Jess, who was shunned and called negligently responsible for her son being murdered all those years ago, finally decides to talk to BBC Radio, and the story she tells is a humdinger. I thought this was a very well written thriller; it was like there were missing puzzle pieces, and then quite suddenly, the author drops the pieces and all becomes clear. I again look forward to Macmillan's next book!