Someone Knows

By: Lisa Scottoline

Narrated by: Ari Fliakos, Brittany Pressley

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

Best-selling and award-winning author Lisa Scottoline reaches new heights with this riveting novel about how a single decision can undo a family, how our past can derail our present, and how not guilty doesn't always mean innocent.

Allie Garvey is heading home to the funeral of a childhood friend. Allie is not only grief-stricken, she's full of dread. Because going home means seeing the other two people with whom she shares an unbearable secret. 

Twenty years earlier, a horrific incident shattered the lives of five teenagers, including Allie. Drinking and partying in the woods, they played a dangerous prank that went tragically wrong, turning deadly. The teenagers kept what happened a secret, believing that getting caught would be the worst thing that could happen. But time has taught Allie otherwise. Not getting caught was far worse. 

Allie has been haunted for two decades by what she and the others did, and by the fact that she never told a soul. The dark secret has eaten away at her, distancing her from everyone she loves, including her husband. Because she wasn't punished by the law, Allie has punished herself, and it's a life sentence. 

Now, Allie stands on the precipice of losing everything. She's ready for a reckoning, determined to learn how the prank went so horribly wrong. She digs to unearth the truth, but reaches a shocking conclusion that she never saw coming - and neither will the listener. 

A deeply emotional examination of family, marriage, and the true nature of justice, Someone Knows is Lisa Scottoline's most powerful novel to date. Startling, addictive, and with an ending that's impossible to forget, this is a tour de force by a beloved author at the top of her game.

©2019 Lisa Scottoline (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

“Scottoline fills the pages with twists and turns and plenty of skeletons in family closets...[fans] will race to the end.” (Booklist)

“[A] heartfelt tale that touches on family, marriage, justice, and how emotional wounds drive the choices people make. Scottoline’s fans will be well satisfied.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Scottoline knows how to keep readers in her grip.” (The New York Times Book Review) 

Just wretched

I am starting to wonder if this is a new trend among mainstream authors. That trend being to pump out stories with characters that posses absolutely no redeemable qualities. This is another of these regrettable novels. The protagonist is a spineless, whining little wimp, void of any positive character at all. Every single other character is either vapid, phony, stupid, egotistical, psychotic or a pedophile. Of the twenty or so main personalities in "Someone Knows", there is not one that has any sense of decency or an inkling of core values. I would posit that it would be impossible out in the real world to find a concentration of depravity that is this high. Only the dog has value. If the author views her work as representative of anything out in the real world, then her world is dismal indeed and she may require some intensive therapy herself. In a word, this work is drivel.

Great story until....

This book held my interest until the last few chapters where it became maudlin and cliched. It’s worth a listen, but be prepared to power through the last few chapters

Don’t waste your time!

I don’t even know where to begin with this review. This is one of the worst books I have ever listened to. It started off with a decent idea for the storyline, but the characters were not in the least bit compelling. The conversations were ridiculous, and would never happen in real life. Then the story whipped absolutely out of control at the end. It was so asinine that I was actually rolling my eyes and laughing. I used to be a big fan of this author, but her books have been steadily going downhill, and this was the absolute worst.

Pretty good...not the greatest

I loved the different characters and their individual stories, but the narrators were a little too exaggerated sometimes. I'd recommend it because it is a good book and i loved how intertwined the different characters were. The ending was a good conclusion, but I find it a little hard to believe that so many of the events the female character supposedly forgot could realistically be so easily forgotten.

A bit disappointed......

I was really into this book... Until the end. I'm sorry, the ending was just so unbelievable. Please know that I have loved every book I've read by this author. I always preorder the audiobook and always listen to it in one day. This one was just a disappointment. The ending, that is. The rest of the book was as awesome as usual. I'm looking forward to next year's book.

WOW WHAT A RIDE!

This is an amazing book and I could not recommend it any more highly! The story line becomes more intriguing and fascinating with each chapter. The reader finds out early on that there was a tragic accident in the main character’s teenage years Involving herself and three other peers. The subsequent chapters go back to that time and grips the reader’s interest on so many different levels with every single story line equally interesting and suspenseful! Even as the book is almost at the end, the reader is still left gasping at the last few pages. The narrators are excellent and each chapter clearly identifies which character it is profiling. Be prepared to block out long segments of your day when you start listening to this fascinating story! There is one particular scene that will stay with me for a long time when a frantic parent is trying to locate their child and it is so heartbreaking and you can feel that parent’s anguish and fear so clearly! I have read several other novels by this author and am now determined to find others because she has an amazing gift for writing! Thank you Lisa Scottoline !

Not my personal favorite

The narrators did a fine job and so did Lisa in leaving clues each time the character was changed—so that I could keep track of them all. Lisa did an outstanding job of writing and plunging into the mind of a teen. I was very impressed! The story though was something I had a hard time with. It was so very sad from beginning to end. I couldn’t take the pain in myself for the characters. If you feel and carry the emotions of others—this may not be for you either. I listened to the first 60 chapters and then went to the last 4. So well written though—for me to feel it so deeply.

Narrators were great! Story, not so much.

Someone Knows was a tedious and frustrating listen which I endured only because I’m hosting the book club discussion for it. Repetitive dialogue was consistently used as a filler which took the story no where. It’s not a believable story by any means. The main character meets the other protagonists on the same day which seems to be a day or two before the books main event takes place with a fifth character meeting this group of four. More than forty chapters are devoted to these two/three days, after which the characters don’t see or speak to each other for twenty years. Logically, this translates to no deep or abiding friendship between the main character and the others. Yet the author tries to make a case for loyalty and love to childhood friends. That’s not what they were. They were neighbors who met briefly and didn’t speak again for twenty years. Honestly, a better story could’ve been had with ships passing in the night. Additionally, some of the knowledge and activities of the teenagers seem incongruent with their age and the time they were placed in.

THRILLING AND DISTURBING

Another great book from Lisa Scottoline. The ending, however, was off the wall. It was quite exciting taking a virtual tour through Chester, Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Longgggggggggggg

Great story but very very very long... like I couldn’t wait for it to end!! I wanted it to be over so much the ending didn’t really mean that much to me .