REVIEW: You Can Never Tell by Sarah Warburton

Title: You Can Never Tell
Author: Sarah Warburton
Narrator: Jorjeana Marie
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Publication Date: August 2021
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Joshilyn Jackson, Sarah Warburton's chilling thriller, inspired by the Moors Murders, explores the twisted side of suburbia.

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, Kacy 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.

My Thoughts: New to me author Sarah Warburton offers up a twisted and dark tale about a woman who is reeling from the aftermath of being betrayed by her best friend, set up for a crime, fired from her job only to move to Texas to start over only to realize that it isn’t easier to trust people in a new place either, especially with serial killers in your midst.

A fresh start is what Kacy and Michael think they need to get past the trauma of the previous year in New Jersey. They relocate to Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston, buy a house in a charming subdivision and Kacy begins to make friends with some of the neighbors. Elizabeth, a Canadian transplant who appears to have the perfect life, Rahmia, a Middle Eastern woman who is overtly friendly but also evasive and Lena, who lives directly next door and is outspoken and blunt.

For the first time in a long time, Kacy begins to feel her life is finally getting back on track. She joins a charitable women’s group and learns she is pregnant, but their sense of safety quickly turns into one of horror when Lena goes missing several months after Kacy’s baby is born.

The way the story is told both from Kacy’s perspective and the interspersed transcripts of the podcast, the identity of the serial killers is revealed fairly quickly, but the reader is left with high anticipation of what the killers will do next, giving the reader a heightened sense of tension. It was also evident to me that the killers were possibly stalking Kacy and her husband, but that fell a little flat too. It’s assumed that they are potentially the next victims, but the reader doesn’t know for sure.

I enjoyed the story and thought Kacy’s actions, for the most part, were believable and realistic, but I wish the ending had a bit more bite for all the build-up the story gives. I came away after finishing feeling that the story lacked a final punch.

The audio narration by Jorjeana Marie was quite good. The performance drew me into the story with the right amount of emotion and personality so that I would connect to the characters and empathize with them

My Final Verdict: Overall, this was a good story that cautions us to be careful of who we trust and invite into our lives. You may have a serial killer in your inner circle. Fans of mysteries, thrillers and suspense novels will enjoy this, as well as fans of true crime podcasts.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of You Can Never Tell from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.