Description
Framed for embezzlement by her best friend Aimee, museum curator Kacy Tremain and her husband Michael move from New Jersey to a charming Texas suburb to escape their past. Kacy quickly makes new friends—preppy, inscrutable Elizabeth, chatty yet evasive Rahmia, and red-headed, unapologetic Lena. But good friends aren’t always what they seem.
As she navigates the unexpectedly cutthroat social scene of her new town, Kacy begins to receive taunting postcards—and, worse, discovers cameras hidden in the wall of her home. Lena and her husband, Brady, reassure her that the cameras are just relics of the paranoid previous homeowner. Once the cameras are removed and Kacy’s fears are quelled, she and Michael make the happy discovery that they are going to be new parents.
Months after the birth of their daughter, Michael accidentally makes a shocking discovery about Brady’s past. And when Lena suddenly goes missing, Kacy and Michael begin to uncover the truth about their neighbors—and it’s more terrible than anyone could have imagined.
Interlaced with transcripts of a chilling “true crime” podcast that follow the tangled threads of the drama, You Can Never Tell is a taut and complex psychological thriller that never lets up until its breathless conclusion.
Details
- Rating: ☆☆☆
- Title: You Can Never Tell
- Author: Sarah Warburton
- Narrator: Jorjeana Marie
- Genre: Mysteries/True Crime
- Duration: 9 Hours, 57 Minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscrape Media
- Release Date: August 10, 2021
After Kacy’s best friend and co-worker Aimee frames her for embezzlement, Kacy Tremain and her husband Michael find themselves starting a new life in a different community. Thankfully there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Kacy, but nevertheless, it left a terrible scar on her chance for employment and on her self-confidence.
This story manages to include a podcast’s transcripts of a true crime. One that this fictional story is built around. Though I have enjoyed a book or two where podcasts were part of the story, this time it tended to disrupt the story rather than enhance it. I kept thinking it might tie together better toward the end, but for me, it didn’t.
I had no trouble listening to this since I kept waiting for the big twist or surprise. Unfortunately, being patient didn’t make it happen.
While the narrator was easy to understand, her overall performance was just okay.
As far as the story, it felt extremely unbelievable. And without anything special to bring about an ah-ha moment of excitement or understanding, it fell pretty flat for me. There was nothing to make it unique or memorable.
If you like podcasts and true crime to be woven into fiction, this might work perfectly for you. In my case, I think I’d rather it have been entirely about the true-crime aspect.
This book would be hard for me to recommend. But on a positive note, it wasn’t hard to listen. Actually, at times it was enjoyable. So it may be something you want to try.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review and post my opinion of this book.
Rating
Good writing but the story didn’t work for me.
About the Author
I’m the oldest of four sisters, raised in Virginia, an avid reader and knitter. After earning a B. A. in Latin from the College of William and Mary, an M.A. in Classics from the University of Georgia and another from Brown University, I studied creative writing at the University of New Mexico with Sharon Oard Warner and Julie Shigekuni, at the Taos Writer’s Workshop with Pam Houston, and in Houston with Justin Cronin. I’ve worked at independent bookstores, and spent ten years as a writer (and eventually lead editor) for UpClose Magazine. My short story, “Margaret’s Magnolia,” appeared in the Southern Arts Journal, I won first place in a WOW! Women on Writing Flash Fiction Contest, and my Pushcart prize nominated story “Survival English” appeared in Oyster River Pages. I live with my family-husband, son, daughter, and hound dog, in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia. I’ve been told that for a “basically happy person” I write very bleak prose.
