What You Don't Know

by JoAnn Chaney

Overview

"Superb characters, sparkling dialogue, and a gripping, terrifying plot, plus flashes of humor to boot; JoAnn Chaney's What You Don't Know has it all." —Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author
A series of murders brings Denver to its knees in this wonderfully voice-driven, dark, wry, and wholly original page-turning debut.

He didn’t take their lives — but he ruined them.

The final victims of an infamous serial killer may be the ones he didn’t kill.

Hoskins cracked the case of one of the most infamous serial killers — and then it cracked him. He’s in cold cases, as is his career.

Sammie was the lead reporter who broke the story, but now she’s selling makeup at the mall. She wants back on page 1.

Gloria claims she was the unsuspecting wife. She didn’t know a thing.

And as new murders shake Denver, this is a final chance to get their lives back.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250160676
Publisher:	Flatiron Books
Publication date:	12/04/2018
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	731,439
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

JoAnn Chaney is a graduate of UC Riverside’s Palm Desert MFA program. She lives in Colorado with her family. She is the author of What You Don't Know, which was longlisted for the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award and was one of BookRiot's Best Mysteries of the Year, and As Long As We Both Shall Live.

Editorial Reviews

One of the most well-written thrillers I've ever read."
—BookRiot

“Striking…In this perverse first novel, the exploits of a murderer are viewed from three perspectives: that of his wife, who still loves him; that of a journalist, who made her career because of him; and that of a police detective who is still obsessed with him.”
—New York Times Book Review (Best and Latest in Crime Fiction)

“Addicting…a rich, character-driven story…leaves the reader affected long after the last page is turned.”
—Mystery Scene

"Gritty…What You Don't Know takes readers to some crawlspace-creepy places."
—Colorado Springs Gazette

“Outstanding dark debut…it paints an absorbing, graphic portrait of the dangers of getting too close to evil, and is breathtaking from the first page to the last.”
—Daily Mail

"Superb characters, sparkling dialogue, and a gripping, terrifying plot, plus flashes of humor to boot; this book has it all. It's very hard to believe this is Ms. Chaney's first novel."
—Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author of The Travelers

“JoAnn Chaney's book, mysterious with all that is concealed and undeclared, compels the reader to acknowledge that things are not as simple as we like to believe, and to recognize that evil does not always lay outside of us, but deep within us. Chaney's psychological insights and social perceptions are infallible—brutal, indignant, and full of surprise.”
—Susanna Moore, bestselling author of Paradise of the Pacific

"In What You Don't Know, JoAnn Chaney beautifully analyzes the effect a monster can have on those in their orbit and how, in the need to catch one, so much is revealed about the monsters we hide in ourselves. A masterclass in character study, a beautifully woven story, and truly chilling at its core, this is a literary crime novel not to be missed!"
—Sarah Pinborough, bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes

“Crisp, dark, brutal and worth every nightmare it gave me. Chaney’s serial killer is chilling, her characters are humanly flawed, and her story is intense which creates the perfect recipe for a page-turner.”
—BookRiot

“A taut thriller…Richly drawn and vividly imagined characters…Tense, compelling greatness. Chaney is an author to watch.”
—Library Journal

“Unusually thoughtful…Relies more on character studies than gory details…It’s the escalating psychological tension and the interactions of three-dimensional characters that lift this well above the serial-killer norm.”
—Kirkus

“Well-drawn characters…a thrilling read in the tradition of Jeffery Deaver’s The Bone Collector.”
—Booklist

“Unsettling, well-crafted…All of the point-of-view characters are tragically flawed in believable ways.”
—Publishers Weekly

“This chilling debut novel balances the evil with some good, the gruesome with a bit of humor, while keeping tensions high and readers riveted to the pages.”
—RT Book Reviews

“A careful study in characters and deception...I read this book with my breath held and the lights on."
—Electric Literature

From the Publisher

12/12/2016
Set in Denver, Chaney’s unsettling, well-crafted first novel opens in December 2008, when homicide detectives Ralph Loren and Paul Hoskins arrest creepy Jacky Seever, a successful restaurateur, after a search of the crawl space in the home that he shares with his wife, Gloria, turns up bodies of murder victims going back decades. The subsequent investigation is covered by newspaper reporter Samantha “Sammie” Peterson, whose extramarital affair with Hoskins grants her special access. “It’ll never be over,” the incarcerated Seever predicts, and so it proves seven winters later when Carrie Simms, who escaped Seever in 2008, is murdered, along with others connected to the original case. The methodology mirrors Seever’s, including his trademark removal of one or more of the victims’ fingers, a fact that was never released to the public. All the point-of-view characters—Hoskins, Sammie, Grace—are tragically flawed in believable ways, though the flat, untidy ending may leave some readers feeling frustrated. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Gernet Company. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

01/01/2017
When Jacky Seever is arrested and sentenced to death for the brutal murder of 31 people, the Denver community is relieved to end this gruesome nightmare. But for three people intimately involved, there is no closure. How will Hoskins, the detective who solved the case, continue after witnessing such depravity? Can Sammie Peterson, the star reporter who covered the crime, ever find another story to match this explosive one? And how will Seever's wife, Gloria, who lived with a sadistic madman for decades, reconcile herself to the truth? This debut novel, in graphic and coarse detail, follows the lives of these three damaged protagonists. When seven years later a copycat killer begins butchering people linked to the original case, the trio are caught in a hellish sort of déjà vu with old and new horrors to confront. With an increasing sense of dread, readers are taken on a suspenseful and gruesome ride, and Chaney does an excellent job of keeping us guessing until the final page. VERDICT Full of unlikable and fatally flawed characters, this bleak and seedy tale is a fit for those drawn to gritty police procedurals and character-driven mysteries.—Amy Nolan, St. Joseph, MI

Library Journal

2016-11-22
A deranged serial killer is captured and brought to justice. That's usually the end of a good thriller, but it's the start of this unusually thoughtful first novel, which relies more on character studies than gory details.As the book opens, a string of murders in Denver is definitively pinned on Jacky Seever, a respected restaurant owner who's been stashing victims in his crawl space. But the cops who capture him are no paragons themselves: Detective Ralph Loren has an abusive temper and a strange fascination with Seever, to the point of dressing up in his clothes. His long-suffering partner, Paul Hoskins, is also prone to violent mood swings. His sometime lover is Sammie Peterson, a journalist whose career is made by the exclusive Seever stories Hoskins feeds her. Everyone is still scarred when the story resumes after seven years: Seever is in jail, Loren is still on the force, Hoskins has been demoted after one of his outbursts. Having lost her connection for news exclusives, Sammie is now selling makeup in a mall. And Denver suddenly sees a new string of murders that look suspiciously like Seever's. This time the suspects include Seever's wife, Gloria, who managed to stay oblivious while the bodies were being buried. The pace is unusually slow for a thriller with no grisly murder scenes, but that's part of the book's strength. It's the escalating psychological tension and the interactions of three-dimensional characters that lift this well above the serial-killer norm.

Kirkus Reviews