Everything We Didn't Say

Everything We Didn't Say is an intriguing story that balances family drama with a cold case mystery as it follows Juniper Baker, a woman who is lured back to her rural hometown by a podcast which accuses a 14-year-old double murder on her younger brother. 

The story starts out slowly as the scene is set and readers are transported between the present day and 14 years prior during the summer before Juniper left for college. Juniper is a solid main character (and a librarian!) who is flawed yet still someone the reader can sympathize with - particularly her relationship to her mom and brother. 

Baart skillfully incorporates complicated family issues and environmental stewardship into this story while also building tension and setting great twists (one surprised me, but I guessed the final twist). There are some aspects which I believe the author intentionally left unanswered. It irked me just a tad, but I also think it gives readers great discussion points and shows that life doesn't always give us all the answers.

This a well-written, engaging page-turner that provides readers with solid red herrings, buckets of familial dysfunction, small town drama and secrets. If you're looking for a book to keep you up past your bedtime, this is it.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria Books for my complimentary copy of this book given in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Nicole Baart

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from publisher

Publisher: Atria Books

Opening Line: The murders took place on a hot summer night, 

but to Juniper it would always be winter in Jericho. 

Book Description from GoodReads: From the author of Little Broken Things, a “race-to-the-finish family drama” (People) following a mother who must confront the dark summer that changed her life forever in order to reclaim the daughter she left behind.

Juniper Baker had just graduated from high school and was deep in the throes of a summer romance when Cal and Beth Murphy, a childless couple who lived on a neighboring farm, were brutally murdered. When her younger brother became the prime suspect, June’s world collapsed and everything she loved that summer fell away. She left, promising never to return to tiny Jericho, Iowa.

Until now. Officially, she’s back in town to help an ill friend manage the local library. But really, she’s returned to repair her relationship with her teenage daughter, who’s been raised by Juniper’s mother and stepfather since birth—and to solve the infamous Murphy murders once and for all. She knows the key to both lies in the darkest secret of that long-ago summer night, one that’s haunted her for nearly fifteen years.

As history begins to repeat itself and a dogged local true crime podcaster starts delving into the murders, the race to the truth puts past and present on a dangerous collision course. Juniper lands back in an all-too-familiar place with the answers to everything finally in her sights, but this time it’s her daughter’s life that hangs in the balance. Will revealing what really happened mean a fresh start? Or will the truth destroy everything Juniper loves for a second time? Baart once again brilliantly weaves mystery into family drama in this expertly-crafted novel for fans of Lisa Jewell and Megan Miranda.