We know you know by Erin Kelly covers a lifespan of 60 years from different view points. Part 1 starts with Marianne who moves into a flat her husband surprised her with in a building, which used to be a mental hospital in her hometown. This forces her to confront her past. Part 2 covers her time as a teenager and explains her connection to the asylum. The author switches then to "evil" Helen in part 3 and 4, describing her youth and her life in old age.

Although the story is unpredictable, if found it difficult to get into. The "secret" was mentioned and how guilty Marianne feels about the past, but the story kept skidding around without revealing what happened for so long (especially in part 1 of the book) that I lost interest.

I enjoyed reading it more halfway through as my sympathy really changed when hearing the story from Helen's perspective.

This was the first novel I read from Erin Kelly, I would definitely read more from her. ( )

Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly is a unique mystery/thriller.

I have to be honest, I couldn't get into this book. I found it too slow and the writing just didn't grab me.

The book does a great job hinting at a secret event, but it felt so repetitive to me. I wanted to know what happened and the book just kept skirting around it. If you like complex stories with lots going on, then this book is for you. Lately, I like my books fairly straightforward. I like thinking, but this book had me scratching my head and losing interest. I also didn't have time to just sit down and binge read, so I forgot some of the backstory by the time I got back to the book.

Overall, this book was not for me.

One out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. ( )

A fresh, riveting and superb mystery that engages the reader right from the off. It covers 40 years and is told in turn from the point of view of the four major protagonists. This twist means that our sympathies change as the book progresses and as we come to understand the viewpoint and motivation of the different characters as they spiral around each other. Kelly has drawn each as a distinct individual, even though all are linked by a past event that they are trying to keep secret. Kelly tightens the tension as the plot unfolds and it appears that the three conspirators are going to fall apar, with dire consequences for their reputations and their family relationships. This really is one book where you won’t guess the ending.

This was an enjoyable psychological read that was unpredictable and kept me turning the pages! The novel begins in the present when Marianne is forced to return to her childhood home to help look after her aging mother. After her husband moves them into an apartment in the nearby former mental hospital, Marianne is forced to confront her past. The novel then takes the reader back into the past in the 1980s and 1950s before a return to a present that will never be the same. ( )

What a story! It's mostly told from Marianne's point of view but you have a fascinating, and horrifying, backdrop from the "evil" Helen Greenlaw.

The book starts in 2018 with our introduction to Marianne and her husband Sam. They are in their late 40's and have been quite successful in their careers and finances. Marianne didn't always have a charmed life, coming from the poor town of Nusstead, living hand to mouth. Marianne's mother still lives in Nusstead and is declining rapidly. She makes the trip from London to see her Mum and daughter Honor as often as she can. Devoted husband Sam has a surprise in store for his wife, but it won't be a welcome one unbeknownst to him. This is where you get the backstory and the secrets.

We flash to 1988 when Marianne was young teen and meets Jesse Brame at school. Without getting into to much detail lets just say they were young, in love and poor as dirt. The mental asylum Nazareth closed and put most of the village out of work, including Marianne's mum, Jesse's father and brother. Government official Helen Greenlaw was the one responsible for the closure and the hatred of this rich unsympathetic women was legend in Nusstead.

Marianne is intelligent, Jesse is devoted (more so than Marianne), and between them they devise a plan that will change and ruin the lives of four people. Then it gets worse....if you can imagine.

Before we write Helen Greenlaw off as a cold government official who never knew strife, we get a picture of her life back in 1958 when a young lady had zero rights. Her story and that of the East Anglia Lunatic Asylum will run your blood cold. Toss these main characters together in an unimaginable scenario and you have a disastrous event they must keep secret forever.

It’s Marianne who worries her present and past life will intersect and cause all the carefully guarded secrets from her youth to explode, shattering her world. Helen Greenlaw also had a lot to lose but no one ever knew her backstory. I do believe Marianne would have been sympathetic to Helen’s plight.

The ending chapters give up quite a bit of information and all the pieces fit together nicely. It’s not necessarily a happy ending for all parties but it’s conclusive. What Marianne feared early on in the book came true. She knew if Sam found out about her past and how she was deluding him in the present that things would change irrevocably:

“What would Sam do if he knew where I’d been today and why? I don’t think he would leave me, not if I could make him see how that would derail Honor. He would stay with me, but the love I know, that deluded, dependable love, would be gone, and that would be the greatest loss I could imagine.”

I saw the phrase “going round the bend” referred to as going crazy, or how the drive ways/entrances curve to mental asylums. Apparently it was to screen the potential inmates from view and keep them from seeing the hospital straight on. I didn’t know that but have certainly used the phrase over the years.

Not a foodie book but I did note the meals and drinks as I read. Dressed crab, beetroot and feta salad, large glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon, seared salmon and zucchini, grilled streak, avocado smash on sourdough bread, fish pie, a casserole with chicken and olives, gin and tonics with Bombay Sapphire.

Much thanks to Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. I read this and immediately planned to get more work by Erin Kelly. In my opinion this book would be great for a book club discussion. This book was published April 23, 2019 - go get a copy! ( )