Title: I Know What You’ve Done
Author: Dorothy Koomson
Publisher: Headline
Synopsis:
What if all your neighbours’ secrets landed in a diary on your doorstep?
What if the woman who gave it to you was murdered by one of the people in the diary?
What if the police asked if you knew anything?
Would you hand over the book of secrets?
Or… would you try to find out what everyone had done?
My Review:
I am a big fan of Dorothy Koomson’s books and always look forward to a new release. I Know What You’ve Done is another great, addictive read that combines character development with a strong element of mystery.
The residents of Acacia Villa all have their own secrets. In this novel, we mainly focus on the perspective of Rae, who lives there with her family, but we also hear the story from other perspectives including Lilly, the ex-girlfriend of Rae’s husband Clark, and – through diary entries – Priscilla, a nosy older resident who has collected a diary filled with the business of her neighbours. We also get inside the heads of some other residents too which gives us more background to the type of people Priscilla was keeping tabs on…
At the start of the novel we see Priscilla collapse and give her book of secrets to Rae, who then learns that her beloved husband Clark has a secret – as do others on their street. She has her own reasons for keeping their family’s business to themselves, and soon it becomes clear that someone has attacked Priscilla. But who was it?
I loved the element of mystery in this novel, with the reader slowly learning more details through the narratives of different characters and plenty of revealing diary entries written by Priscilla. We start to learn more about Rae and her family, and what drove them to move to Brighton from London. At times we also know more than Rae, because we’ve found out details from other characters, so at times I wanted to shout at her to not do what she was doing!
I found I Know What You’ve Done novel really entertaining and raced through it. As always with Dorothy Koomson’s novels, it was well-plotted, entertaining and had characters I actually wanted to read about! Definitely recommended.
Rating: 4/5
Many thanks to Headline, who provided a copy of this novel on which I chose to write an honest and unbiased review.