No One Knows

No One Knows by J.T. Ellison

Publisher: Gallery Books

Publication Date: March 22, 2016

I could barely put this book down, and when I did it was only to tell everyone who would listen how good it is.

Five years after her husband went missing, Aubrey Hamilton receives notification that the state of Tennessee is officially declaring him dead. This does not bring Aubrey comfort or closure. Instead, she continues to ask herself the questions that have haunted her for the past five years. Did Josh leave her? Was he taken? Is he truly dead?

Aubrey isn’t any closer to getting answers, but a few unexpected complications drive her to seek the truth about what happened to Josh once and for all. Complication number one is a mysterious stranger named Chase, who resembles her missing husband and has his mannerisms as well. Despite knowing it’s impossible for him to be Josh, Aubrey can’t stay away.

Ellison expertly shifts from present day, to the day Josh went missing five years prior, and even to their youth so we can witness how Aubrey and Josh went from childhood friends to lovers. The time jumps were perfectly placed so the insight they provided kept you guessing as to what would happen in the present day and how the story might end.

The characters were all flawed, but realistically so. Is Aubrey an unreliable narrator? How much stock should we place in the fact that Josh’s mother, the mean-spirited Daisy, has never liked Aubrey? And how does Aubrey’s drug addict foster brother, Tyler, play into all of this? More importantly, how does Chase?

By the end, you will have answers, but I doubt you’ll see any of them coming before Ellison wants you to.