No One Can Know

December 18, 2017
Headstrong ER nurse Francesca “Frankie” Stapleton once again turns sleuth in Kerr’s solid sequel to 2016’s Time of Death. Frankie’s return to her hometown of Stillwater, Ill., was supposed to be temporary, but lately she’s finding reasons to stay—namely her job in the Stillwater General ER and a newfound connection with her family and with her ex-fiancé, sheriff’s deputy Noah MacLean. When a nervous young man comes into the ER with a dislocated shoulder, Frankie senses something amiss. Before she can pursue her hunch, an ambulance brings in crash victim Kathleen Tibbs, the pregnant wife of congressional candidate Steven Tibbs. Kathleen dies, but her baby boy is delivered alive. When Frankie returns to the exam room, the young man has disappeared. Did he run Kathleen off the road, and if so, why? Was it because Kathleen worked for Child Protective Services, or because of Steven’s political ambitions? When the Tibbs baby is kidnapped, Frankie determines to find him and bring a killer to justice. A distinctive setting and relatable characters are a plus. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary.

January 1, 2018
A nurse's curiosity and strong sense of duty involve her in a high-profile murder case.Frankie Stapleton left her busy job as an ER nurse in Chicago to help her family back in Stillwater, Illinois, deal with an emergency. Feeling pushed to take over the family hardware store and marry her high school sweetheart, Frankie had fled to Chicago, where she entered and broke off two other engagements. Now she's sharing a room with her niece, helping in the store, and working a short-term contract at Stillwater General, where she was recently instrumental in solving several murders (Time of Death, 2016). Her night shift is interrupted when a man claiming his name is John Mueller walks in, saying that he was in an accident and hit a deer. Frankie senses that he's lying, but before she can do anything, an ambulance arrives with Katherine Tibbs, a heavily pregnant woman badly hurt after driving off the road. The team saves her baby but not her. Katherine's husband, District Attorney Steven Tibbs, was hailed as a hero for rescuing people in a big fire when Frankie was in high school. Now a candidate for Congress, he has wealthy backers and a savvy handler who give him a good chance. The hospital is flooded with police after Mueller walks out, making himself the prime suspect for who might have deliberately run Katherine off the road. Despite mutual hard feelings, there's still a spark between Frankie and her first ex-fiance, sheriff's deputy Noah MacLean, who's constantly warning her to keep out of police business. Mueller turns up at Katherine's funeral but escapes again in the uproar over the announcement that Trey Tibbs has been stolen from the neonatal unit. Things go from bad to worse as Frankie joins in a desperate search for the missing baby.A nicely balanced blend of medical knowledge, political trickery, and hints of the heroine's future.

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January 1, 2018
In this sequel to Time of Death (2016), ER nurse Frankie Stapleton is part of a medical team working on an automobile-accident victim, a pregnant woman who was dropped off at the ER by a very agitated man who left the hospital almost immediately. The woman dies, but her baby lives. Frankie, who has a nose for crime, soon wonders whether the woman was murdered and whether the man who dropped her off, the man Frankie watched walk of out the hospital, was actually her killer. When the newborn baby vanishes, Frankie determines to find the child and bring the killer to justice. Kerr nails the details of a nurse's work life beautifully in this vividly realistic novel; the mystery plot, too, is thoroughly believable and nicely developed. If this series hasn't landed on your radar yet, make sure it does soon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)