The door to the lighthouse opens with a horror-movie creak, revealing a musty space with a basic kitchen, and a spiral staircase leading up to a circular room dominated by the giant light that helps passing ships safely navigate the perilous seas and rocky coastlines off Tasmania.
Eve Sylvester had wanted to visit Breaksea Lighthouse since she’d first spied it weeks before from the teak deck of the Torrent as she sailed towards a mansion and vineyard where an exciting opportunity was promised. It was a life-changing offer for a young woman with no support.
Eve had fallen in love with lighthouses while crossing the South Pacific with Xander, a casual travel pal who became a whole lot more during their six months at sea. But now Eve was far from tropical oceans, carrying Xander’s baby, and once the gruff, secretive Joseph finished unloading the camp mattress and food crates and left in the dinghy back to the Torrent, she’d be all alone. Pregnant, hidden away, trapped on a rock surrounded by ferocious seas.
Adventure-loving Auckland lawyer and internationally bestselling novelist Rose Carlyle avoids any “difficult second novel” wobbles in her cracking new thriller. Fans of Carlyle’s debut, The Girl in the Mirror, and new readers alike will find plenty to enjoy in this twisty, propulsive tale.
After a car crash rips away the future that Eve was hoping for on her return to Sydney from overseas adventures, the former foster kid is left broke, desperate and pregnant. She has no living relatives and no good friends she can lean on.
Achingly aware of the impact of growing up in tough circumstances, Eve can’t resist a lucrative offer to nanny for Julia and Christopher Hygate, a wealthy and charming couple. She will have a home, getting to live in their mansion estate on a remote Tasmanian island, and her child will grow up in Paradise Bay rather than what Eve could otherwise offer alone.
But has Eve made a Faustian bargain out of love for her unborn child rather than any personal greed or gain? She’s a young woman scrabbling to survive after her life has been upturned by fate and circumstance, but others see her as a fitting solution to their own problems.
Only two novels into her career, Carlyle shows great mastery of pace and narrative drive. She lures readers in quickly to Eve’s story, and unleashes a harrowing series of events and perilous challenges. No One Will Know hurtles along like an America’s Cup hydrofoil, while also engaging emotionally with Eve’s story and underlying themes of motherhood and family.
It’s a sitting-or-two tale propelled by plenty of suspense and uncertainty, and even for avid “beach read” or “airport thriller” readers who may think they can foresee any dangers, lurking offstage or masked in plain sight, Carlyle does a good job throwing in a few googlies.
No One Will Know, by Rose Carlyle (Text, $38), is out now.
