Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“She’s waited years to uncover the truth. But will the real murderer find her first – and silence her forever?”

Gosh. I felt like I was holding my breath throughout the entirety of this book. I am exhausted! What a stunningly written thriller to really get your teeth into! I feel like I suspected everyone at one point. It completely absorbed me and had me questioning everything. I can’t wait for more people to read this. I’m so happy to be sharing my review of If You Didn’t Kill Her!

About the book

Fifteen years ago, Chelsea was convicted for the murder of her university roommate, Isabella.

Now, she’s being released early, and she just has one thing on her mind – clearing her name.

Chelsea has always maintained that she was wrongfully accused. Now’s her chance to prove her innocence, once and for all.

But as Chelsea starts digging into the past, new details – and suspects – start coming to light. And the closer Chelsea gets to the truth, the more dangerous things become.

She’s waited years to uncover the truth. But will the real murderer find her first – and silence her forever?

The beginning

I knew from reading the first few pages of this book that I was going to love it! After so many years in prison for being wrongly accused of killing her roommate, Izzy, Chelsea is finally released early due to good behaviour and overcrowding. Her mother had suddenly died during her sentence, so she goes to live with her aunt, Nikki. We see how she tries to adjust to her new life, everything unfamiliar and so uncertain. She feels everyone’s eyes on her. Do they remember her? Do they still think she’s a murderer? The book is split into two different times in Chelsea’s life; one in the early 2000’s where she starts university and meets Izzy and her other friends, and the other exploring Chelsea’s life after prison. The contrast in these timelines was just so good and I couldn’t wait to explore everything in the before and after Izzy’s murder. There were a couple of names I could not pronounce without looking them up (thanks, Google) but after this, it was a breeze, haha! Such a strong opening!

“It’s not only that the prison walls have hidden her from the real world, but this question, this one burning question has taken over everything: if Chelsea didn’t kill Izzy, then who did?”

Every main character is really well developed and it was so easy to imagine how they looked, the kinds of people they were, how they acted around one another. Izzy’s character really stood out to me, she seemed to have everything on the surface but it isn’t long before Chelsea picks up on things amiss. She started questioning their friendship. Was it true, or a friendship build on convenience? As Chelsea gets used to a life out of prison, one thing is on the top of her agenda; clearing her name and uncovering the truth about who killed Izzy. She has a name, someone she thought could be capable of killing her roommate – Jamie Sinclair. A lecturer at their university, someone who made my skin crawl before we’d even met him in the book. Could Izzy’s innocent crush have gotten out of hand? Chelsea’s search for answers takes her back to London, back to her old friend, Ayesha. The one friend who still believes her. I was so absorbed in the book by this point! So brilliantly written.

The middle

The more I read, the more questions kept building up. The more people I suspected. The more determined Chelsea is to find out the truth. An interesting twist in events sees Izzy’s mother, Camille, hiring a familiar police officer to re-investigate Izzy’s murder – the very same police officer who arrested Chelsea. They know something wasn’t right about Chelsea’s arrest all those years ago and things needed to be put right. I loved joining Chelsea as she starts an extensive search, travelling to old places, talking to significant people who may be able to tell her what she needs to know. It was so completely and utterly engrossing. I really looked forward to the odd chapter from Izzy’s perspective on the night everything changed. We slowly learn how the night unfolded and these snippets were so tense. I was just waiting for everything to be revealed, what Izzy went through and who exactly was responsible for her death.

“But when they hug goodnight she’s sure Izzy holds on just a little bit longer, a little tighter than usual, her whole body clinging on to something that might hold her still and root her to the spot, if only for a little while.”

Getting to know Izzy’s brother was interesting. I could definitely see him being Izzy’s killer. He has so much pent up rage and anger and he and Izzy seem to clash a lot about various things. He’s so focused on his father’s business, even inheritance. Would Izzy be in the way? Did he need to get rid of her? My mind was whirring with possibilities at this stage, but I wasn’t sure. I loved the transcripts of his interviews with the police just after Izzy’s death. They slowly reveal so much extra information that we aren’t told in the other perspectives which I thought was really clever and worked perfectly. I’ll admit, I did find the book to be much slower paced than I was expecting, definitely more of a slow burn, but it wasn’t really an issue. It felt like I could really get my teeth into the whole mystery of Izzy’s death which felt so incredibly satisfying as a reading experience.

The end

Izzy’s mother, Camille, requests an official meeting with Chelsea which put me on edge; why would she request this the official way rather than just contacting her through her private investigator or by simply sending her a message, giving her a call? I didn’t like it and I needed to know more! I thought it either meant something bad or something big. It felt so tense here, like anything could happen. I had one culprit in mind for Izzy’s murder here and I was so confident it was the truth, but I know in books like these, they tend to through you off completely, so I wasn’t 100% sure where things would go. There’s a really emotional scene as we finally see the moment Chelsea finds Izzy’s body, but what we discover afterwards was truly shocking and blew my predictions out the water completely. But it keeps getting deeper, more gets unravelled and I wasn’t quite sure where the twists would end – I absolutely loved the delivery of it!

“Every time she closes her eyes, she is back in prison. Every time she contemplates the future, she is forced to think about the past. All that time she’s lost, everything and everyone she’s had taken away from her.”

I felt weirdly emotional and mentally wounded as everything came together, and it was such a satisfying end to the stress of the entire investigation and Chelsea’s quest for answers, for finding the truth and clearing her name. The epilogue gave me goosebumps and I loved thinking about the details that aren’t explained completely. I love having something extra to think about when finishing a book and I’m sure this book will be one I think about for months! Placing myself in Chelsea’s shoes for the whole book felt so easy, and because of how attached I was to this character, turning that final page was difficult. What a journey, with characters so full and wonderfully developed that you don’t know who to trust. I really can’t wait to read more books from Annie – she has such a brilliant way of writing and I know anything else she writes will be just as gripping!

Overall thoughts

If You Didn’t Kill Her combines gripping dual timelines, a brilliant cast of characters and plot that is instantly intriguing to create an intense, memorable thriller. After Chelsea is released from prison for the murder of her friend and roommate Izzy, a crime she did not commit, we explore the lengths people will go to hide their secret, and also to clear their name. It’s such an absorbing read, the dual timelines so beautifully organised and the ending as satisfying as they come. A must read and an author to watch out for!

Huge thanks to the author, Annie Taylor, and the wonderful team at Michael Joseph for my copy of If You Didn’t Kill Her! You can grab your own copy right now on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Make sure you’re following the author over on X/Twitter and Instagram for more updates!

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