No One Can Know: A Novel

Content Warning: The novel contains descriptions of emotional and domestic abuse, anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and references to suicide.

No One Can Know is best described as a murder mystery and psychological thriller, though it also includes many tropes common in Gothic fiction. The novel uses setting, atmosphere, and psychological horror to deepen its plot and themes. One of the staples of Gothic fiction is an ominous building, often used as a metaphor for its occupants’ troubled psyches. The Palmer House and its grounds follow this convention; though lavish from the outside, the house harbor terrible secrets, such as extreme abuse and criminal activity. The house’s history as the site of Randolph, Irene, and Nathan’s murders also gives it a foreboding mood. Marshall modifies the Gothic-fiction trope of the ominous house to emphasize the novel’s domestic horror and psychological realism. For example, instead of the creepy statues and dark corners of Gothic houses, the author heightens ordinary elements of the house, such as the piano or wallpaper, into symbols of danger. This shows that everyday, seemingly ordinary domestic spaces can be sites of extreme fear and oppression. The Domestic as a Dangerous Space is an important theme in the book.

While the Gothic elements add to the novel’s atmosphere, narrative devices such as unreliable narrators, plot twists, and scattered clues deepen suspense and emphasize the novel’s mystery genre elements. For example, the author presents information in a non-linear fashion, introducing clues slowly, presenting a puzzle for the reader to solve. Another way in which the book succeeds as a murder mystery is that Marshall prolongs its secrets until the very end. For example, the complete truth about Randolph and Irene Palmer’s deaths are revealed in the final section of the novel.