Review: No One Will Know, by Rose Carlyle

A dozen chapters into this beguiling, twist-laden thriller, our wide-eyed young protagonist - Eve Sylvester - discovers that being paid to do nothing comes with its own set of challenges. She’s living in the stunning summer house of a wealthy couple in a remote part of Tasmania, having made a Faustian pact with the mysterious couple, agreeing to let them adopt her child when it’s born in six months' time. Until then she must stay out of sight and rest up - only venturing outdoors when the couple’s cadre of live-in servants depart for the evening.

The deal guarantees that the child - the result of a brief affair with a shipmate whilst sailing from Mexico to Australia - will have an upbringing wanting nothing. This is a far cry from Eve’s own upbringing, which involved a series of foster homes after her parents died in a “freak storm” when she was a child. Since then she’s moved so many times she feels “she doesn’t belong anywhere”.

Much like Iris in Carlyle’s addictive and bestselling debut - The Girl in the Mirror - Eve is looking for a way out of the corner life has painted her into - but unlike Iris, who is adept at breaking the rules, Eve is a more vulnerable character, a follower not a leader.

Although smart she is often unbelievably naive - acquiescing to those in authority without a second’s thought, especially early on in the novel. Carlyle again deals with characters who are very wealthy and shows us how that wealth buys influence and power, not a new observation but one that’s handled skillfully.

Like The Girl in the Mirror this is a difficult book to write about without revealing spoilers. Suffice to say that No One Will Know is another wild ride, encompassing everything from child and gecko smuggling to Gatsby-like parties on a remote Tasmanian island (Carlyle wrote an early draft of the novel on a hosted writing retreat there). It all climaxes in an action-packed life or death finale.

Readers will find an array of literary influences here, everything from Paul Auster and Margaret Atwood to a slew of airport thrillers, but throughout all the craziness, time shifts and shipwrecks it’s the theme of motherhood, and what lengths mothers will go to for their children, that resonates.

“Motherhood is just a total part of who I am,” Carlyle said in a recent interview promoting the book. “Even The Girl in the Mirror was actually about this neglected and forgotten child. But I don’t want to write grim books about child neglect because I feel like we have enough horrible things going on in the world. I want my books to feel a bit like fantasy and an escape into a beautiful world. I know readers love to be swept away.” 

No One Will Know certainly does that.

Second novels can often be troublesome for authors, especially those whose debut was as successful as Carlyle's was. That success allowed her to quit her job and write full time and far from that being a burden it feels like she's enjoying herself, able to delve into serious issues while turning out engaging thrillers with settings and characters that draw heavily on her own life experience. Carlyle is an experienced sailor and reveals in the afterword that her late grandmother was taken into state care as a child as Eve was.

The result is a real page turner, one you need to start early in the day, unless you’re OK staying up to the wee small hours, because as you close that last page you’ll need time to process the last minute twists and turns Carlyle subjects us to.

Reviewed by Greg Fleming