Solid read. All the pieces tie together so that's a plus. While it was easy to figure out what happened and whodunit, the characters make it worthwhile. The dolls were creepy though. ( )

Review based on ARC (Advanced Readers Copy received for free in exchange for an honest review).

I really enjoyed reading this book. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was expecting something extra creepy and maybe in the horror camp. This was more suspense, maybe a little lite-horror, some relationship building, and just good story-telling.

It's called "A Novel of Suspense," and I would agree with that. Even though you may (I did) "figure it out" really early in the novel, it still reads really well and still creates a tension and a suspenseful feeling as you quickly turn the pages to find out if you're right, *how* you're right (or wrong), *why* you're right (or wrong), and most of all, how it all resolves anyway.

I love the creepy doll backdrop and I enjoyed the different perspectives from which the book is told. Although I am not always a fan of the back and forth, and certainly not when such perspective is used for convenience, in this book, it really just worked. It was a quick and definitely enjoyable read for me, and I easily recommend to those who are looking for a quick, rainy-day read. A strong FOUR stars! ( )

You'll Never Know, Dear by Hallie Ephron is a fast-paced and engrossing mystery that centers around the forty year disappearance of Janey Woodham.

Every year on the anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance, Miss Sorrel Woodham runs a newspaper ad offering a reward for the return of Janey’s porcelain doll which vanished along with the long missing girl. This year, a young woman brings a doll that Miss Sorrel is certain belongs to her daughter. However, Lis Strenger, who continues to feel guilty for her sister’s disappearance, is not as convinced. That same evening, an inexplicable explosion injures both women and when Lis’s daughter Vanessa returns to the family home, she is confused to discover Miss Sorrel’s prized doll collection has been stolen. Equally puzzling is next door neighbor and family friend Evelyn Dumont’s insistence that Miss Sorrel’s conviction the porcelain doll belongs to Janey is nothing more than wishful thinking. Lis and Vanessa decide to locate the young woman who delivered the doll but will they find the answers they are searching for?

Lis wants nothing more than to find out the truth about what happened to Janey, so she is impatient with the local police department’s lack of urgency in locating the woman who brought them the doll. With Vanessa’s help, they quickly uncover the identity and address of the person they are searching for. Their arrival at the Maggie Richards’ home is just the first of many surprises surrounding Maggie and her mom, Jenny.

Despite police assurance they are taking the situation seriously, Lis continues her own investigation. She is puzzled when information she uncovers is quickly contradicted by the police. Are her results wrong? Or is there a more sinister reason for the discrepancy? Lis cannot begin to guess who would want to interfere with the investigation but she refuses to stop searching for the truth about what happened to Janey. The discovery that another young girl connected to her mother’s porcelain doll business also disappeared years after Janey’s kidnapping is yet another shocking bit of news and Lis is determined to continue looking for the truth. How far will the perpetrator go to keep their long buried secrets from being uncovered?

You'll Never Know, Dear is an intriguing mystery that fans of the genre will enjoy. The storyline is unusual and the creepy porcelain dolls are shudder inducing. While it is rather easy to guess the identity of the kidnapper, the motive for the crime remains elusive. Hallie Ephron brings this suspense-laden mystery to an action-filled, satisfying conclusion. ( )

Whatever you want to call this – mystery, thriller, psychological suspense – You’ll Never Know, Dear fits the bill. Three generations of women in a small town Georgia family are existing on the income earned from the matriarch’s doll-making and repair enterprise and their memories of the day a young sister was kidnapped with her own custom doll. When a clue finally arrives, so do the beginnings of fear, as danger begins to surround them. As the strings tighten around the women, the missing girl’s now-grown sister begins to find the answers to the knots in the mystery and to untangle them.

I thought Hallie Ephron wrote a tight mystery with characters who felt real to their circumstances. Learning a bit about doll-making was an extra perk. ( )

You’ll Never Know, Dear by Hallie Ephron is a 2017 William Morrow publication.

Deceptively addicting-

Three generations of women work to find the answer to a forty- year old puzzle in which the biggest, most important clue is a priceless porcelain doll.

Miss Sorrel, is a doll maker and collector, who at one time had a booming doll making business and made a name for herself among collectors. But, the doll that means the most to her, the one she is always in constant search of, is the one that disappeared along with her daughter, Janey forty years ago.

Lissie never got over the disappearance of her younger sister and always blamed herself for what happened. The incident has haunted her all her life, even through marriage, divorce, and motherhood.

Vanessa is Lissie’s only child, a sleep/dream researcher who returns home after her grandmother has a health scare. Little does she know her area of expertise will come into play while she is there.

With all three generations now under one roof, the women are ready to seriously consider the possibility that Janey’s doll has found its way back to them and that the doors of the decades old cold case are about to blow wide open.

I thought the cover of this book was a little creepy, and the title was intriguing. While the missing child theme is hardly a new one, I always find this to be a compelling storyline, and also falls within my favorite mystery trope- the cold case.

This book also appealed to me in a way because my grandmother made her own ceramics, and on occasion made porcelain dolls, as a hobby. Not only that, my daughter had a nice doll collection we displayed behind glass when she was younger, so I could understand the value and work that goes into the making of these dolls.

The mystery is intriguing, and kept me interested, and guessing for a good while, but I did guess who was behind the kidnapping before it was revealed. Still, I couldn’t figure out the motive, so there was still an element of mystery to keep me invested in the story. There were a few too many conveniences, and for some reason the dream thread didn’t do anything for me.

But, I did like the way it all came together in the end, although one may have to suspend belief a little for it to work. However, the feel good, grab a tissue, emotional parts won me over, causing me to overlook a few implausibilities.

I’ve never read anything by this author, so didn’t have any expectations one way or another, but I liked this book well enough to give the author’s other work a try. Even though it wobbles here and there, I enjoyed the book, overall. ( )