From the Edgar Award-winning author of If I Die TonightReminiscent of the bestsellers of Laura Lippman and Harlan Coben—with a Serial-esque podcast twist—an absorbing, addictive tale of psychological suspense from the author of the highly acclaimed and Edgar Award-nominated What Remains of Me and the USA Today bestselling and Shamus Award-winning Brenna Spector series.For thirteen days in 1976, … Remains of Me and the USA Today bestselling and Shamus Award-winning Brenna Spector series.
For thirteen days in 1976, teenage murderers April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy terrorized Southern California’s Inland Empire, killing a dozen victims before perishing themselves in a fire… or did they? More than 40 years later, twentysomething podcast producer Quentin Garrison blames his troubled upbringing on the murders. And after a shocking message from a source, he has reason to believe April Cooper may still be alive. Meanwhile, New York City film columnist Robin Diamond is coping with rising doubts about her husband and terrifying threats from internet trolls. But that’s nothing compared to the outrageous phone call she gets from Quentin… and a brutal home invasion that makes her question everything she ever believed in. Is Robin’s beloved mother a mass murderer? Is there anyone she can trust?
Told through the eyes of those destroyed by the Inland Empire Killings—including Robin, Quentin, and a fifteen-year-old April Cooper—Never Look Back asks the question:
How well do we really know our parents, our partners—and ourselves?
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April Cooper is forced into a killing spree by her boyfriend, Gabriel LeRoy in 1976. Now, years later, Quentin Garrison attempts to reopen the story in a podcast called “Closure”. Quentin’s mother was a victim of the shooting rampage, because her sister was killed, and she never recovered from the trauma of her parent’s heartache over the death of her sister. As Quentin digs into the past, he finds an link to a woman named Renee Bloom, and reaches out to Renee’s daughter, Robin Diamond.
As he digs into the story, many connections are revealed, and debating events take place. The end is surprising.
This was a carefully crafted novel with many twists.
#NeverLook Back #AlisonGaylin
A dark…brutal….thrilling nightmare! Wow…I have been missing out! Alison Gaylin is top notch and knows how to throw in some surprising twists. I’m a fan of this extremely talented writer!
The more I read, the more questions I had. Since this was a buddy read, I wrote down my thoughts and questions. On paper, it sounded like a soap opera, lol! But it definitely didn’t read like one.
Thank you to Goodreads, William Morrow and Alison Gaylin for this ARC, received through a Goodreads Giveaway, in exchange for my honest review!
Lies and betrayal, between complex characters, interlaced through painful secrets and events. By destiny or misfortune? I’m not sure.
April and Gabriel, two young teenagers, on a killing spree in the 70’s, that ends with both dying. During this time, April writes letters to her future daughter.
Robin is a website columnist and film reviewer. Her father is a forensic psychiatrist. Her mother doesn’t work, but volunteers her time and loves helping others.
Quentin is a true-crime podcaster, who is doing a podcast on the 70’s killing spree. He thinks April is still alive and living under another name. He also has a personal connection to the crimes.
The book is told from Quentin and Robin’s POV, in addition to the letters April wrote to Aurora Grace. The letters were my favorite part! And April and Robin were my favorite characters.
Thank you Ceecee for being such a great buddy read partner!
My Rating: 4.25 ’s
Published: July 2nd 2019 by William Morrow Paperbacks
Pages: 368
Recommend: Yes
Okay… I remember reading the synopsis of this book a while ago and thinking ‘huh… sounds okay, I might read it.’
Fast forward a couple of months to me just finishing the book and now I’m thinking: WHERE HAVE I BEEN?! WHY HAVEN’T I READ ALISON GAYLIN’S WORK BEFORE!?
The premise of Never Look Back is pretty straightforward: a journalist exploring new evidence of a 40 year old crime. Generic, but still intriguing. So when I started this book, I wasn’t expecting to be enthralled and hooked by like chapter 3.
While I typically like a single narrator, this book definitely made me love having multiple characters thinking and interacting.
I love how all the characters weaved together and how their stories unfolded. That mystery made me need to know more and I found myself turning pages pretty quickly.
Gaylin’s writing style is easy to read and flows. The ending made me think and I liked how everything ended up.
There were twists thrown in but I found them to be a little predictable. They weren’t groundbreaking, but they were satisfying!
Add this to your list of beach reads/summer reads! You’ll read it in two or three sittings tops.
Short review: loved this book and can’t wait to read more of Alison Gaylin’s work!
Favorite Quotes:
When someone is that close, you don’t just hear a whisper. You feel it.
She clutched a skittish little terrier in her arms that yapped and yapped, as though it had been born into the wrong life and was desperately trying to alert the world about it.
And then I saw it happen: Officer Nelligan recognized us. I knew it before he said anything, just in the way he stopped talking, the way his back straightened, and he seemed to change shape, growing bigger and taller and meaner than he’d been just two seconds earlier. I pictured buttons popping on his uniform, his rage turning him into a giant, a monster that could, would kill Gabriel and me…
Time froze into a still photograph. I was standing at one end of a tunnel and Officer Nelligan was at the other and there was no one else in the world but the two of us.
I think that spending all this time with Gabriel has made me turn a little, like when you leave a glass of milk out in the sun… Every day, I will do something good for a person or an animal. I won’t go to sleep until I’ve made someone’s life better. And all those good deeds will turn me back.
Life rides some of us harder than others.
The sky here is so beautiful— like someone spilled a jar of silver glitter over a black velvet cape.
Summer glanced up to see the waitress standing over her, a look in her eye like they’d drawn straws back in the kitchen and she was the loser.
My Review:
After reading If I Die Tonight, I was aware of Ms. Gaylin’s uniquely devious style of slowly weaving seemingly unrelated yet mind-tickling events together into an ingeniously intriguing and complex tale of tragedy and secret lives. The characters were compelling yet deeply damaged and brimming with recalcitrant secrets and incongruence. The storylines were diabolically captivating and maddeningly paced, keeping my curiosity on a sharp edge. And to my unbridled delight, the last hundred pages exploded with twist after twist, it was brilliant. Alison Gaylin is an exceptional talent and has mad skills, but I can’t help but feel a bit fearful for her neighbors…
Wow what a read ! Serial killing, lies, secrets, family and more murder.
Quentin is preparing a podcast Closure of a murder that took place 40 years earlier. This is personal for Quentin.
Quentin is certainly stirring up the past .
This book grabs you from page one and does not let go.
I don’t want to say too much about this book, you have to discover the truth for yourself.
Please take time to read the author’s notes at the end of the book. Makes you think even more.
If you have not read anything by Alison Gaylin you are missing out , they are all so good.
Never Look Back is the latest novel authored by Alison Gaylin whose previous works include the Brenna Spector series, the Samantha Leiffer novels, and five other stand-alone works. In this simmering suspense novel, Gaylin unwraps a tangled plot involving a series of murders from the 1970’s that is likened to the infamous Bonnie and Clyde sprees of the 1930’s. April Cooper and her boyfriend Gabriel LeRoy were thought to have perished in a fire at a religious compound after evading authorities. Quentin Garrison, whose father and sister were among the couple’s victims, now hosts a podcast about unsolved crimes and is encouraged by his husband and producer to follow up on information that indicates that April may still be alive. As he searches for his own sense of closure, Quentin’s investigation increasingly exposes a simmering rage that he may not be able to control. It leads him to employ some ethically questionable methods as he searches for the murderess he thinks is still at large. His research leads him to a family tied to the cold case, and he becomes the obvious prime suspect when a lethal home invasion occurs. Meanwhile, Quentin’s probing questions impel the connected family’s daughter, Robin, to begin digging herself into her mother’s mysterious past. Never Look Back is rich with a cast of characters that are desperate to protect the ones they love, by keeping secrets and assuming identities to evade discovery. The book is a captivating read, although some readers may have difficulty following the many name and identity changes. Alyson Gaylin knows how to evoke empathy for villains and victims alike, and fans of thrillers will enjoy the experience of following her winding paths.
Good for fans of: suspense thrillers; plot twists and complex characters; questions of nature vs.nurture; male/female crime duos; fast-paced novels with a moderate amount of violent content.
You may like this book if you liked: Previous works by Gaylin; Bonnie and Clyde books and movies; Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (book and HBO series); The Girls by Emma Cline; fans of Clare Mackintosh, Greer Hendricks, Sophie Hannah.
Thanks to Edelweiss Plus and William Morrow for an ARC of this book in return for an unbiased review.
I won this book in a Goodreads Book Give away. The first few chapters were a bit confusing as the book constantly flipped back and forth in time, but after a while I got used to it and even enjoyed it.
Quenten Garrison is doing a podcast to help him to get over a murder that led to his mother becoming a drug addict which eventually led to her death. After finding clues that indicate that the woman who was involved in the murder may still be alive he calls Robin Diamond to talk to her about her mother being the female killer. Together they research things, learn from the past and perhaps learn that children don’t know everything about their parents at all.