★★★½☆
Nobody Heard a Thing is a suspenseful, cleverly plotted thriller with plenty of red herrings and twists—but for me, it was also a very uneven read.
The story centres on a twenty-five-year-old disappearance that has haunted the narrator ever since. When a documentary maker begins digging into the cold case, long-buried secrets resurface, and it becomes clear that someone will do anything to keep the truth hidden. While the premise is compelling, I found the final line of the blurb—“And they know I’m the only witness…”—to be misleading. The novel isn’t really about that idea in the way the blurb suggests, which set up expectations the story didn’t fully meet.
I very nearly DNF’d after the prologue. The early writing felt extremely rough, with a lot of telling rather than showing, frequent grammatical errors, and awkwardly punctuated complex and compound sentences. The heavy use of connectives (as a result, later on, afterward) made the opening chapters read more like an essay than a novel, and the POV/narrative voice felt off. Thankfully, the writing does improve as the book goes on, but the need for a much stronger edit was hard to ignore.
There were also some strange and unnecessary story choices—particularly involving Evan. As a social worker, Ava should realistically have known that a convicted felon being approved as a foster or adoptive parent was highly unlikely, and his criminal history felt completely unnecessary to the plot. I was also frustrated by the introduction of multiple new POVs in the second half of the book, which always feels lazy to me, especially when several of those perspectives add little value.
The narrative often felt cluttered, with too many characters, too many lies, and too many storylines—many of which aren’t fully wrapped up (I can’t go into details without spoilers). Toward the end, the pacing slowed considerably, with large chunks of background information dumped all at once instead of being woven through earlier chapters. What should have been a fast, punchy read ended up plodding.
That said, once I settled into the story, I was genuinely engaged and really wanted to know what happened twenty-five years ago. The plot is intricate, the story is entertaining, and there’s no shortage of twists—but unfortunately, many of them felt predictable and built on recycled tropes. The final quarter of the book was frustrating rather than surprising, which kept it from being truly memorable.
Overall, this is an engaging and suspenseful thriller with a strong core idea, but it tries to do far too much. With tighter pacing, fewer POVs, and a stronger edit, it could have been something special. As it stands, it was an enjoyable but messy ride.
Thank you to the author, Storm Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.