What July Knew by Emily Koch

I would like to thank Kate from Harvill Secker for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Harvill Secker

Published – Out Now

Price – £14.99 hardback £7.99 Kindle eBook

JULY KNOWS 18 THINGS ABOUT HER MOTHER. BUT HER DEATH REMAINS A MYSTERY.

Like number thirteen: she loved dancing on the kitchen table. And number eight: she was covered in freckles.

And then there's number two: she died after being hit by a car when July was small.

She keeps this list hidden in a drawer away from her father. Because they're not allowed to talk about her mother. Ever.

But an anonymous note slipped into July's bag on her tenth birthday is about to change everything she thinks she knows about her mum.

Determined to discover what really happened to her, July begins to investigate, cycling around the neighbourhood where her family used to live. There she meets someone who might finally have the answers.

July wants her family to stop lying to her, but will the truth be harder to face?

We tend to think looking at the world through a child’s eyes must be a wondrous thing. Seeing the world for the first time; no cynicism, and simple joy at the simple things. But the downside is children cannot get all the context of the situation; they can see only what we explain to them which can lead to confusion and sometimes danger. In Emily Koch’s magnificently tense thriller What July Knew we have an unique thriller that gives a warm setting of the 1990’s but hides within its cold secrets and a huge amount of worry over the fate of our main character – a ten-year-old girl named July.

In 1995 July lives in a small community where her Dad Mick is a well-respected landscape gardener and member of the local church. He has remarried and so July lives with her ‘Auntie Shell’ and sister rebellious but equally aged step-sister Sylvie. While July loves her Dad and enjoys having Sylvie’s love there is a nagging question – what her birth mother Magge Hooper was like. All July knows is that she died when July was just two years old in a car crash. Her Dad refuses to tell her anything else; July keeps only a small number of facts and so many questions – what was her favourite colour; did she like the Beatles and so on. When her school teacher announces the summer project is to write about a family member then there appears an opportunity to learn more but will her family be pleased if the truth comes out. Especially when someone has written a secret note to July saying her Mother did not die in the car accident.

Emily Koch has written a stunningly smart thriller that weaves a powerful mystery into a story that manages to capture the warmth of childhood and yet delivers shocks, tension and fear in equal measure making it one of the tensest reads I’ve had in a very long time. The warmth comes from July. While third person we are getting very much for most of the story July’s thoughts and comprehension of the world. She is smart, loving, playful and this bespectacled little girl just wants to know her missing mother and keep her family’s love. We will marvel at her ingenuity; how she starts to put pieces of the puzzle together and also laugh at her occasional mix-ups. She brings heart to the story, and we want her to find the truth. Alongside this is the 1990s setting while clearly this helps as the lack of Internet access ensures July gets no answers) we also get what for many of us may be familiar – warm summer; familiar fashions, pop references and even flumps and pogs! So the background and the centre of the story are quite warm; it’s just everything else that will unnerve us.

We are used to the idea of the unreliable narrator but here we have more the unaware main character. Here Koch as well as making us try to piece the clues for July’s mother we also have to interpret her world with adult eyes and that will make us see less a warm and friendly environment but an increasingly dangerous one. This is achieved by three key plot strands – in terms of the key questions to what happened to Maggie Hooper we get many conflicting clues and revelations that start to conflict and Kock keeps us guessing throughout. We feel like July we know we have the answer and then feel disappointment to find it was not quite the truth. Around this is the idea that so many adults have taken that July is better off not knowing what happened. This almost conspiracy means nothing is simple; everyone has motives for lying that they believe are for the best. People have been hiding it from July nearly all her life. It’s a cruel kindness that makes us feel more for July and also makes us start to distrust those around her – the idea that children cannot be informed and should be left in ignorance and all done out of ‘love’ is a chilling one.

But the other key strand is the more we follow July the more we recognise she is in great danger. Her home is not the place of sweetness and light that July believes it to be. July deeply loves her father and just wants his love but we see he is a man who does not like to be disobeyed and wants to control all of life’s events. We start to realise he is so worried over July finding out the truth that he will lose that fragile temper he has. We find the duality of the Mick as a pillar of the church and  the Mick indoors quietly terrifying and we also see another part of the 1990s which is how people in roles of power and just nearby keep their heads down; ignore the warning signs and turn the radio up to avoid hearing things they don’t want to  but Koch quietly makes us witness. We are so used to thrillers where the simple mystery of a murder has to be solved post event here we have a unique thriller where the investigation into a seemingly simple act is the most dangerous aspect as the truth will shatter an uneasy peace. This makes the latter third of the book terrifying aided by some cryptic notes from a few years later and the ending is a magnificent set-piece of emotions, revelations and final explanations.

What July Knew is a thriller that just as much can warm us with the way of being a child again it will chill us as to the danger some families face on a regular basis. It’s a powerful mystery but equally a passionate look at social issues we tend to forget about. A thriller that I hope raises some questions and makes us all take a closer look at the world. I strongly recommend this book!