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Lissie and Janey Woodham were playing house with their dolls in their yard when a puppy showed up. Lissie, who desperately wanted a puppy, followed the dog into the woods trying to catch it hoping she would be allowed to keep it. When she gave up the chase and returned to the yard, she assumed Janey had tired of waiting for her and gone inside. By the time the family realized Janey was missing, valuable time had been lost and Janey was gone. Because the girls were playing with their custom-made portrait dolls and Janey's doll went missing with her, her mother, known to all as Miss Sorrel, placed an ad in the paper each year for a reward leading to the return of the doll.
Fast forward forty years when Maggie Richards answers the ad with a doll that, although in very bad condition, might be Janey's. From there the plot moves in a predictable direction. The woman panics and runs off leaving the doll behind, Lessie and her daughter Vanessa track down the woman and discover her mother, Jenny, could possibly be the long lost Janey. Not wanting Miss Sorrel to get her hopes up Vanessa tries to nail down Jenny's past. There are the expected family secrets that eventually come out as well.
There are some twists along the way. An explosion damages the Sorrel house, causing both Lessie and Miss Sorrel to be hospitalized. A break in leads to the loss of the most valuable of Miss Sorrel's doll collection including all of the remaining portrait dolls she and her neighbor Evelyn had made. Vannessa's research on nightmares figures into the plot as well.
The characters were well developed and for the most part likeable. The pace of the book is just right giving readers enough to keep them turning the pages to see what the next revelation would be and how it would fit into the puzzle. The subplot concerning Vanessa's research on nightmares was quite interesting. I just wish that Ephron had spent a little more time working on hiding the solution to the long-ago crime. For me at least the "who did it" was pretty obvious fairly early in the book.
In spite of its not too well-concealed solution, readers who enjoy a suspense filled book with a few interesting side plots should enjoy YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR.
§ Caryn St.Clair resides in University City, Missouri and is a former elementary school media specialist, President of the Parks Commission and a docent at the St.Louis Zoo.
Reviewed by Caryn St Clair, July 2017
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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