“Utterly engaging, terrifying, and unputdownable, this novel will haunt readers and have them wanting more from Kelly.” — Booklist, Starred ReviewErin Kelly, the masterful author of He Said/She Said, delivers another intense, irresistible novel of psychological suspense in We Know You Know. You can’t keep the secret.You can’t tell the truth.You can’t escape the past…Marianne was seventeen when … secret.
You can’t tell the truth.
You can’t escape the past…
Marianne was seventeen when she fled her home in Nusstead – leaving behind her family, her boyfriend, Jesse, and the body they buried. Now, thirty years later, forced to return to in order to help care for her sick mother, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving in the first place, is finally threatening to expose the truth.
Marianne will do anything to protect the life she’s built, the husband and daughter who must never know what happened all those years ago. Even if it means turning to her worst enemy for help… But Marianne may not know the whole story – and she isn’t the only one with secrets they’d kill to keep.
*** Previously published as Stone Mothers
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/ 5
Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly is an incredibly atmospheric, slow-burn of a mystery that will keep you in suspense until the very last page.
What it’s about: Marianne moved away from her hometown of Nusstead when she was just a teenager, leaving both her family and boyfriend Jesse behind. Now she has come back thirty years later to help her sister take care of their aging mother. But Nusstead, and especially an old asylum turned flats, holds a lot of secrets for her, Jesse, and others. When Jesse threatens to bring their secrets to light, Marianne is determined to keep her past from her daughter and husband, even if that means turning to an old enemy for help.
Stone Mothers was a slower read for me which I think had a lot to do with the language used in the book. It might be because Kelly is from a different country, but I found myself having to pause my reading and go back to reread things because I didn’t fully understand what I had read. I didn’t really mind this, but thought it was important to note for my review.
There is a lot of detail in this book and I loved how atmospheric it was. It made the story very immersive, especially in the parts that involved the asylum. I was fully creeped out multiple times during the book, and Kelly’s writing was so vivid I felt like I was there. I think this book would make an awesome movie.
There are 4 different parts to the book, part one and two are told from the perspective of Marianne, part 3 is the perspective of a woman named Helen, and the last is from the perspective of Marianne’s daughter Honor. I liked that the parts tied past and present together and how it was formatted, except that it feels like it takes a very long time to reconnect to a cliffhanger towards the beginning of the book. Some people might forget that it even happened, just because there are so many details in between.
Final Thought: Overall I truly enjoyed Stone Mothers. It is very important to note that this probably won’t be one most people will fly through and you will be forced to take your time. There isn’t a fast pace, and it is definitely character driven, but it is done so well that I didn’t want to stop reading. I haven’t read Kelly’s first book yet, He Said/She Said, but you can bet I will be now!
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
The incomparable Erin Kelly has written another captivating, cleverly constructed contemporary novel.
A great read… a twisty, layered, nuanced story, filled with complexity and shadows.
Erin Kelly is not only one of my favourite authors but she is most generous with her time and expertise. I met her first at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School a few years ago and have always appreciated the time she took to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the opening of the early draft of my debut novel, Hunter’s Chase. She has been unswervingly supportive of my own writing career ever since. Therefore it was with some excitement that I began her most recent novel, We Know/You Know.
The Blurb
A lifetime ago, a patient escaped Nazareth mental asylum. They covered their tracks carefully. Or so they thought.
Thirty years ago, Marianne Smy committed a crime then fled from her home to leave the past behind. Or so she thought.
Now, Marianne has been forced to return. Nazareth asylum has been converted to luxury flats, but its terrible hold on her is still strong. A successful academic, a loving mother and a loyal wife, she fears her secret being revealed and her world shattering.
She is right to be scared.
The Review
This novel was previously published as Stone Mothers in hardback, but We Know/You Know is a far better title. There is no doubt that Kelly is one of the best writers in the psychological thriller genre and this new novel is particularly captivating and cleverly constructed story where the lives of three very different people are inextricably interlinked with a local mental asylum which has closed leaving them with a combination of memories, guilt and ghosts.
I found We Know You Know gripping and as it carries the reader back through time, Kelly revealed twists I did not see coming. The author delivers shocks and suspense throughout the story and the book concludes with a satisfying ending from a master of thriller writing. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it to those who enjoy thrillers, mysteries and psychological novels. We Know/You Know is another fabulous novel from a master author.
The Author
I’m best known for He Said/She Said, about a young couple who witness a rape and, after the trial, begin to wonder if they believed the right person. My first novel, The Poison Tree, was a Richard and Judy bestseller and a major ITV drama starring Myanna Buring, Ophelia Lovibond and Matthew Goode. I’ve written four more original psychological thrillers – The Sick Rose, The Burning Air, The Ties That Bind.
I had read scores of psychological thrillers before I heard the term: the books that inspired me to write my own included Endless Night by Agatha Christie, The Secret History by Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and A Fatal Inversion by Barbara Vine. My books are atmospheric thrillers, always about people trying to atone for, escape, or uncover a past crime. I’m more interested in what happens before the police arrive – if arrive they ever do – than how murder is solved.
Val Penny
This was a tour-de-force story spanning years and generations of people linked to an insane asylum in the depths of the English country side. As characters develop, the reader is led to believe certain things only to discover that all is not as it seems. This book covers many genres: mystery, thriller, family saga, and yet retains an originality all its own. The brooding mansion at the center everything will haunt your thoughts as you rush through this very satisfying read.
Stone Mothers is told in three different parts, each a different point of view. Marianne returns home as an adult many years later as responsibilities sometimes require in that phase of life. She had built a new life elsewhere to escape from her past, and now it’s threatening to resurface… something that would surely upend her family. Everyone has their secrets, but no one knows the entire truth of what happened with an old mental hospital at the base of it all. Perhaps there others with a lot to lose as well.
I was excited when I read the premise of this book. Mental health and the inner psyche is something that I’m always intrigued by however I didn’t feel like the book fully delivered. There was build up to what I thought would be a huge reveal and I felt let down when it either didn’t occur in that moment or the reveal didn’t seem quite built or intense enough. The book, however, did continue to have creepy undertones throughout and some moments of resentment. Jesse was so irritating that I had to try not to get worked up; I can’t stand ignorant POS’s like him.
All in all, it was just a middle of the roads, not quite standout book for me. It had potential but in my eyes didn’t fully fulfill its potential.
This book is told in several parts. It starts with modern day, but then goes back into the past, when the mystery began. Stone Mothers is what insane asylums were called (now mental hospitals, sanitariums). Marianne’s mother is ill, and to save Marianne from a long commute, or staying in a hotel, her husband purchases a flat in the old (now renovated) Nazareth asylum. However, Marianne is terrified because of a deeply hidden secret from her past. The asylum brings back memories of her first boyfriend, Jesse, and all the time they spent near Nazareth. The story exposes the horrors that happened in these asylums, and the barbaric treatment of the patients.
I felt that this book dragged on and on. It was murky in parts, and rehashed the same things over and over. It was confusing to follow Marianne’s thoughts in the beginning, but they made more sense when the entire story was revealed. If it had been a tighter story, I think I would have enjoyed it more.
#StoneMothers #ErinKelly
A beautifully dark, Gothic story of characters haunted by their past: poignant and tragic, full of unexpected shifts and twists, addictively scary and thrillingly audacious.
Gripping, moving, impossible to put down and fiendishly readable… She’s done it again.
It is rare when exquisite plotting and damn fine writing come together, but Erin does it every time, seamlessly. Stone Mothers is an absorbing, humane and intriguing story that will have readers enthralled.
When I started reading Stone Mothers, I thought that this was going to be a quick book to read. A book with an easy plotline to follow. One I could keep track of the main characters. An interesting book that would keep my attention. Unfortunately, Stone Mothers only hit two out of the three for me.
The Stone Mothers had two significant plotlines. I had a hard time following Marianne’s plotline. It was all over the place. It could be present day then morph back to the ‘80s and then again to the present day. It drove me nuts.
I found myself wondering when the colossal secret was going to be revealed and what it was. It was alluded to in Marianne’s plotline often, but it wasn’t explain until halfway through the book. At that point, I was so irritated by the constant flashbacks that I didn’t care about the secret.
Helen’s plotline was wonderfully written. It stayed in chronological order. There were none of the bouncings around that made Marianne’s plotline so hard to read. As weird as this sounds, I thought that Helen’s plotline was written better.
I do think that Helen’s plotline should have been first in the book. That way there would be no confusion about what was going on. Also, I would have liked to see Marianne’s stay in chronological order. No bouncing around. It would have made the book much easier to read.
I did like that the author got into the history of how the mentally ill were treated in England. It was eye-opening what was considered mentally ill back then. Husband beating you. Mentally ill. Gay or Lesbian. Mentally ill. Someone who was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. Mentally ill. A woman who wanted to get an abortion. Mentally ill. I could go on and on. It disgusted me.
I was horrified by how the mentally ill people were treated in the book. The treatments that they were put through were illegal and awful. How the staff managed the patients were horrible. Sure, there were a few that were nice, but they were few and far between. Most of the time, the staff was abusive towards the patients.
I liked also explored what it was like when those hospitals shut down. Unfortunately, what the book showed is the truth. I grew up about 10ish miles from a state hospital (Danvers State). They closed down in the mid- ‘80s. With nowhere to go, they put a bunch of patients out on the street. I remember not being allowed to play outside the summer it happened because my mother was terrified. She used to work there, and she said that there were sick people in there. People that shouldn’t have been allowed back on the street but were there because of cutbacks and lack of funding. So, what happened in Stone Mothers, I could believe.
I did like how the author was able to show how far treating mental illness has come. Marianne’s daughter had her struggles with mental illness. She was functioning because of therapy and medication. The stigma of having a mental illness has lessened but is still there. In this book, it shows how far it has come and how far there is still left to go.
I couldn’t get a feel for Marianne during the first half of the book. She did come off as having an “I am better than you” attitude. I didn’t understand her reaction to having an apartment bought for her until later in the book. Up until then, I thought she was an ungrateful snot. I also didn’t understand her codependent relationship with Jesse. It wasn’t explained until much later in the book. I did come to respect her towards the end of the book. Everything she did was for the love of her daughter.
I did not like Jesse. I did feel bad for him when everything happened with Clay. But other than that, nope. Didn’t like him. His identity was so wrapped up in Marianne’s that he didn’t know what to do when she broke it off. His behavior was erratic from the middle of the book on. By the end of the book, he scared me.
Helen was the only one out of the three that I liked. She worked hard to become who she was. While she had an outward facade of not caring, she did. As for her story, I am not going to go into it. All I have to say is that she deserved most of the stuff that happened in the book.
I didn’t feel that Stone Mothers was a good fit in with the thriller category. There was no thrill. Because of Marianne’s plotline jumping around, I never got that feeling.
As for the mystery/suspense categories, I was kind of eh. I felt that the plot moved too slow and jumped around too much for any suspense to be built. The mystery angle was also eh. I couldn’t get into it because of Marianne’s plotline jumping around.
There was a lag in the plotline about halfway through the book. The author was able to bring the book back on track. There was also the matter of dropped characters and insinuated plotlines. The way the book set up a particular character, I thought that she was the one killed. But, nothing else was mentioned about her until the end of the book. And it turned out to be different than what I thought. I went back and reread that passages to make sure I wasn’t confusing things.
The end of Stone Mothers seemed rushed. I wasn’t expecting what happened. It was also mentioned that something happened to another main character. Then that character was brought back into the book. I did like that it was from Honor’s POV. I liked that I was given an outsider’s perspective on the whole cluster. Still, I was left wanting at how the book ended.
This story is about secrets and the horrors of asylums. The sad history of women and men being locked away just because someone wanted them out of the way, they were unwanted and lost all rights. And the horrible barbaric treatments made them crazy. Secrets, misunderstandings, fears and a bit of crazy drives this story of tragedy.
Can three keep a secret? Over the course of 30 years we find out how difficult that is. While the story centers around an old insane asylum, we are introduced to three families who are inextricably tied to this place of ruin. What price insanity and who gets to decide?
Not a psychological thriller but more of a domestic drama. Three and a half stars.
Thank you to #NetGalley for this ARC of #StoneMothers
Erin Kelly provides a narrative of past and present circumstance surrounding a woman who is abruptly faced with the unexpected. The story expounds upon sensitive subject matters of emotional and physical abuse, along with the ramifications of a life spent hiding secrets. Unfortunately, the plot pace was slow and the contextual character development was almost too elaborate. This lent to a lack of emotional investment in both the story line and characters. Unfortunately, this novel fails to deliver what is expected from this genre. 2 stars.