You Should Have Known
A Novel
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2.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Perfect for fans of Helene Tursten and Caroline B. Cooney, a grieving grandmother turns to murder in Rebecca Keller’s taut debut mystery that explores the bonds of family and the grudges we refuse to let go.
When retired nurse Frannie Greene moves into a senior living apartment, she finds a compelling friendship with her new neighbor Katherine, only to discover that Katherine is married to the judge who Frannie believes is implicated in the death of her beloved granddaughter.
Observing the medication cart sparks Frannie’s darkest imagination, and her desire for revenge combines with her medical expertise. In one dreadful, impulsive moment, she tampers with the medicine. However, the next day, someone is dead, and Frannie realizes the gravity of what she’s done.
The police get involved, and suspicions gather around someone Frannie knows to be innocent. Wracked with remorse, Frannie’s anxiety becomes unbearable. As she works to make it right, Frannie discovers that things are more complicated than they seem.
She’s spent years aching for accountability from people in power. Is she the one who now needs to be held culpable? What really happened that night?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Retired nurse Frannie Greene, the narrator of Keller's nicely observed if downbeat debut, reluctantly bows to her grown children's urging to move into Ridgewood, an assisted living facility in a Chicago suburb. She's slow to make friends until she meets Katherine Kearney, who's everything Frannie is not. When Frannie discovers that Katherine's husband, fellow Ridgewood resident Nathaniel, is the corrupt judge who freed the killer of her granddaughter, her unresolved grief turns into a desire for revenge. When Frannie spies an unattended medication cart, she uses her medical expertise to tamper with Nathaniel's medication. The next day, someone other than the judge is found dead. Suspicion eventually points toward a Ridgewood employee whom Frannie knows to be innocent. The remorseful Frannie strives to make things right—and in the process uncovers the real culprit. Some readers will be more engaged than others with the author's unsparing depiction of the myriad humiliations inflicted on the old by both institutional caregivers and well-meaning children, but the carefully crafted plot balances Keller's joyless depiction of old age. This isn't for those looking for a puzzling whodunit.
