“I’ll Never Tell” by Philippa East
In my review of Philippa East's previous novel, Safe and Sound, I said I thought it was a big improvement on her debut. And I'm happy to say her follow-up, I'll Never Tell, proves that this improvement was no fluke by being a fast-paced thriller I could barely put down.
To the outside world, the Goodlights are perfect.
Julia is a lawyer, Paul a stay-at-home dad who has dedicated his life to helping their daughter Chrissie achieve her dreams as a talented violinist.
But on the night of a prestigious music competition, which has the power to change everything for Chrissie and her family, Chrissie goes missing.
She puts on the performance of a lifetime, then completely disappears. Suddenly every single crack, every single secret that the family is hiding risks being exposed.
Because the Goodlights aren't perfect. Not even close.
Full disclosure, I know Philippa East and count them as a friend.
It's the pace that makes this book such a compelling read. Once we're in, East doesn't let go once. Every page has a new breadcrumb, forcing us onward with a beautifully unravelling story. Things are spaced out perfectly, each chapter revealing a little more of the truth, teasing us just enough to make us think we've worked it all out before pulling the rug from under our feet.
I'll admit, at the halfway point, I thought I'd worked out the ending. Not in a way that ruined the story for me, but in a way that made me think the story was clever by I was cleverer for having worked it out. But then, at the end, I was proven wrong as one final revelation shook up everything we already knew. It's not a cheap twist, turning the story on its head or purposefully wrong-footing us, but instead shows how missing one single piece of someone's story can change everything we think we know.
And that's what this story is about, really. We all create an image of the people we know based on the things we know about them. But the truth is, as well as we might know someone, all of us have secrets that can turn everything we thought we knew on its head. The truth is that the stories we have created about people are only ever built on partial information. Julia and Paul think they know each other, but each of them only knows part of the other's story.
If I had to nitpick a problem with I'll Never Tell, it would be that the plot doesn't really hold up under tight scrutiny. Little things don't quite make complete sense. Timelines don't quite add up. The reasons characters haven't sat down and talked don't quite feel natural.
But to pick up on these issues would be to ignore what East is going for. Like her previous novel, Safe and Sound, I'll Never Tell isn't about the story as it is about the impact events are having on the characters. It's a thriller depicting the feeling of panic we experience when the carefully constructed version of our lives comes crashing down around us. The way we start to scrabble to save as much of the illusion as possible, even when it is obviously counter-intuitive to our overall well-being. The little story-niggles didn't even register until after I finished the book because while I was reading it, I couldn't put it down. I was caught up in the story just as much as the characters were. They didn't have time to stop and think, and East's writing is so good that we're caught in that same feeling.
Philippa East is proving herself to be a master of the domestic thriller. Her background in psychology is clearly a deep well she intends to draw on in her work, pulling us into the feelings and emotions that we can find ourselves in when life sends us into free fall.
