No One You Know by Michelle Redmond

I had read her first book The Year of Fog last year and rated it 4 stars. So I was very excited to get an advance copy of her next book, No One you Know, from the Early Reviewers at Library Thing. I brought it with me on vacation and it was the first book I read.

The story centers on Ellie and her sister, Lila. Or, rather, Ellie’s life before and after her sister’s death. 20 years after her sister’s murder, Ellie is looking back at her sister’s life, finally facing who might have killed Lila and working through her own personal issues.

I was not fond of this book. Ellie’s sister, Lila, was a mathematician and was working to prove a famous theory. A lot of the language in the book was very ‘mathy’, meaning only a small group of folks have every heard of these terms and theories before. I am not fond of reading detailed descriptive information in any book as my book club can attest. I am more of a ‘just give me the plot information’ and not all the flowery descriptions of the location or the people. So all this information about the high level math, the theories and proofs, was too much for me.

The characters were believable and likable. I liked the plot and the fact that Ellie had to reconsider the 'truths' of her life. The story had lots of potential

I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, especially with math and technical items. But I felt dumb reading this book when she talked math. And it was too much for me to get over and enjoy the rest of the book.