by Alyssa Cole
SYNOPSIS
Years after a breakdown and a diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder derailed her historical preservationist career, Kenetria Nash and her alters have been given a second chance they can’t refuse: a position as resident caretaker of a historic home. Having been dormant for years, Ken has no idea what led them to this isolated Hudson River island, but she’s determined not to ruin their opportunity.
Then a surprise visit from the home’s conservation trust just as a Nor’easter bears down on the island disrupts her newfound life, leaving Ken trapped with a group of possibly dangerous strangers - including the man who brought her life tumbling down years earlier. When he turns up dead, Ken is the prime suspect.
Caught in a web of secrets and in a race against time, Ken and her alters must band together to prove their innocence and discover the truth of Kavanaugh Island - and their own past - or they risk losing not only their future, but their life.
REVIEW
One Of Us Knows doesn't just tell the story of Kenetria Nash. There are a whole cast of characters in this novel, but it just so happens that the majority of them are all coming from inside the same body (or I suppose I should say mind) as Kenetria has dissociative identity disorder. She wakes one morning to discover that she is fronting out of the group of 'alters' and that they are on their way to Kavanaugh Island for a job she has no memory of applying for (having recently been dormant for years). Ken is about to become the caretaker of a historic home on an isolated island, and the storm heading their way will soon leave them trapped. When a member of the conservation trust arrives, it turns out that he is someone from her past, a time she would rather forget, and Ken's grip on reality starts spiralling.
This was a really surprising psychological thriller. I didn't know much about dissociative identity disorder before reading and the way it was tackled really highlighted the confusion which sufferers must constantly face. I originally thought that the different 'alters' wouldn't be aware of each other, and that they would switch in and out of different personalities without realising what was happening. The way it was described in the story saw each personality having to deal with missing time, being aware that they've been away and that someone else had taken over. but having no idea of the things that had occurred during that time. The 'alters' were all having conversations with each other. I'm used to crime novels having a detective duo trying to get to the truth but here we had a whole team trying to figure out what was going on!
I have to be honest and say that this was a complex plot and slightly tricky to keep track of what was happening because there were so many points of view, each of them having a different take on the things that were going on. Having said that, I think that the author dealt with this really well, it can't have been an easy narrative. I also really enjoyed that the setting was just post-Covid and the way that this was worked into Ken's confusion of the way things had changed since she had been dormant. I thought that the links with this and how it affected people's mental health were interesting, and overall it was a really twisty and unique thriller.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Alyssa Cole - @alyssacolelit and Harper 360 UK @harper360uk for the opportunity to read and review.
Publisher: Harper 360 Genre: Psychological Thriller / Mystery
ISBN: 978-0063114951
Pages: 352pp