From the Bookshelf of Q&A with Michelle Richmond…

No One You Know

Michelle Richmond

Why we're reading this: About the book (from Booklist):
As in her previous two novels, Dream of the Blue Room (2003) and the best-…more
[close] About the book (from Booklist):
As in her previous two novels, Dream of the Blue Room (2003) and the best-selling Year of Fog (2007),Richmond turns a family crisis into heartbreaking and compelling reading. Ellie Enderlin has never recovered from the unsolved murder of her sister, Lila, a Stanford math prodigy, some 20 years earlier. The day her sister went missing has become "the touchstone from which all other events unfurled." Compounding the tragedy is the fact that her English professor, the person to whom she confided some of her most intimate feelings about her shy, private sister, has turned the tragedy into a best-selling true-crime book. To have those moments turned into fodder for the public's voyeuristic appetite has felt like another violation. When Ellie, a world traveler and coffee buyer, meets up unexpectedly with the brilliant mathematician implicated in her sister's murder, she sees it as a way to wrest back control of her own narrative and solve the crime. Richmond gracefully weaves in fascinating background material on the coffee culture and the field of mathematics as she thoughtfully explores family dynamics, the ripple effects of tragedy, and the importance of the stories we tell. Combine all that with perfect pacing and depth of insight, and you have a thoroughly riveting literary thriller. ~Joanne Wilkison -- Booklist, starred review

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Jun 26, 2008 Toni rated it really liked it

Shelves: general-fiction, mystery-suspense

I really appreciate a truly well written book, and No One You Know definitely fits that criteria. This follows The Year of Fog, and should solidly place Michelle Richmond in the company of other exceptional writers of her time.

I am only left to wonder what happens with Henry.... Hm-m-m-m

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Oct 03, 2008 Laurel-Rain rated it it was amazing

“A Story Has No Beginning or End…” this is a quote from an English professor who writes a bestselling novel.

For more than twenty years, Ellie Enderlin has lived in the shadow of her sister’s murder. Before that, her life was overshadowed by Lila, her brilliant mathematical genius of a sister.

Lila always knew her path – one that included a professional quest for proof of mathematical theorems. Ellie floundered, unsure of her direction.

In the months following the murder, Ellie turned to someone sh “A Story Has No Beginning or End…” this is a quote from an English professor who writes a bestselling novel.

For more than twenty years, Ellie Enderlin has lived in the shadow of her sister’s murder. Before that, her life was overshadowed by Lila, her brilliant mathematical genius of a sister.

Lila always knew her path – one that included a professional quest for proof of mathematical theorems. Ellie floundered, unsure of her direction.

In the months following the murder, Ellie turned to someone she considered a friend – Andrew Thorpe, an English professor and a great listener – only to find herself betrayed when he turned her confidences into a novel that became a bestseller. In the novel, he named one of Lila’s colleagues (and her lover) as the murderer. However, the police had never arrested anyone for the murder.

Pursuing her own career now as a professional coffee buyer, Ellie’s work takes her to far-flung places, including Nicaragua, and it is here that she first sees Peter McConnell, a self-imposed recluse who has escaped the prying eyes of those who have read about him in the book – “Murder By the Bay” – and also to distance himself from the tragedy of a life cut short.

Conversing with him, Ellie learns that Lila had left behind a notebook, one that she always carried with her. It included many of her mathematical equations.

When Ellie also comes to question that Peter McConnell actually committed the crime, she begins a quest – one that leads her back to San Francisco and surrounding areas, meeting and interviewing and finally arriving at her own conclusions about what happened.

Will Ellie find the truth? Will the mathematical equations Lila sought to prove finally reach realization? And what will Ellie rediscover about her relationship with her sister and about her own somewhat superficial connections to others?

This tale is much more than a crime novel – it is a story of life interrupted. Not just the life of the murdered girl, but the sister left behind, whose own connections with her sister were severed by another person’s actions. It is also a story of betrayal, secrets and, finally, a peaceful resolution.

Like Richmond’s previous novel “The Year of Fog”, this story is gripping and compulsively readable.

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Dec 03, 2008 Sue Daniels rated it it was amazing

The very talented writer, Richmond , draws you into the mind and soul of a very ordinary and very likable character,Ellie, and makes her so real. At the time of the murder of her sister, Ellie is 19. she finds her life changes, her parents lost in their own grief allow their previous very happy and stable, marriage to fall apart. She finds that the only person who she is comfortable with is her English professor and she confides in him, how she feels ,how the murder of her sister has changed eve ...more

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Aug 16, 2008 Kathleen Hagen added it

Shelves: 2008-mysteries-suspense, 2008-audio-books

No One You Know, by Michelle Richmond, B-plus, narrated by Carrington McDuffy,

This is the story of Ellie Enderlin, whose sister was murdered. Lila had been the smart one, a math prodigy from whom great things were expected. Ellie didn’t seem destined to be famous for anything. Ellie was 20 when her older sister disappeared. Her body was found in a couple of days. Her family was decimated, her parents divorced, and Ellie spent the next 20 years trying to live with Lila’s death. Her professor had ...more

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Dec 10, 2008 Kit Cat rated it really liked it

Shelves: michelle-richmond

I bought this book as part of a sign up for a book club. I was slightly intrigued by the small blurb of a description. Once I began to read i couldn't stop. I was caught off guard by the eventual solution of the mystery, but the growth of the main character was just as engrossing. I highly recommend this book. ...more

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Aug 18, 2008 Reca rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2008

This book tells the story of a woman who starts to re-think the details of who really was responsible for her sister’s murder 20 years prior. Considering the details she believed were in the form of a true crime novel that a friend of hers wrote against her wishes, there was a lot going on in this book and quite a few lessons to be learned along the way. I could hardly put this one down. Michelle Richmond is definitely a must read author.

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Nov 21, 2008 Johnna rated it it was amazing

I picked up the book without having heard anything about it from the library. The cover pulled me and and the summary sounded good so I thought why not? I have found that some of these books with no expectations turn out to be the best!

I loved the writing style and the overall story. I liked how it was a mystery without really being a mystery story. It was more about finding out who she really was while remembering her sisters murder.

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