“This rare ribbon of information was handed over by her grandma, who promptly realised she had pulled it loose from the forbidden fabric of conversation that was July’s mother, and pinned her lips shut.”

What July Knew is the third novel by award-winning British author, Emily Koch. July Hooper has always wanted to know more about her mother, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone she can ask who isn’t distressed by it in some way. It brings her Yaya, Maggie Hooper’s mother, to tears, and asking the one person who would know everything, her dad, just makes him angry.

There are eighteen facts she has collected from random comments made by people who knew her, and each one she treasures: “These facts were a precious collection of ribbons, scraps of thread and shreds of cotton, the odd button and a sequin – each torn from the patchwork quilt of actions and wishes and feelings that, sewn together over a lifetime, had made up her mother.”

She has, in her notebook, a Big List of Questions she would like to ask, cleverly written in code so no-one who might see it could be upset. She already knows Fact Number 15: her mother always had stiff shoulders from the hours she spent hunched over her sewing machine, so “Did Mariah Carey ever do any upholstery?“ is really a question about Maggie Hooper.

Then four things set her on a tenacious path to find out more: her year-five teacher sets a Summer Project to learn about a relative, living or dead; a note in her workbook has her doubting what she knows about her mother’s death; her beloved Yaya gives her the freedom of a bicycle for her birthday; and her best friend Katie-Jaye is away visiting grandparents for the summer vacation.

She will have to do it surreptitiously, so no-one gets annoyed with her, but it turns out that some of those around her believe she has a right to know what really happened.

On her bike, July happens upon Almond Drive, the street where the family used to live before Maggie Hooper was hit by a car when July was two. Now they live with dad’s new wife, Auntie Shell and her daughter Sylvie Rose (and her Stepsister Rules), in Harmony Court. But her search, aided by a bundle of photos and snippets of information, leads her to someone who knows the truth.

While it’s July who narrates the story, other characters occasionally set the scene or provide some backstory. Supplementing the narrative are letters that hint at tragic consequences of July’s investigations. Eventually revealed, along with Maggie’s actual fate and other secrets, is a daughter desperate for love, and so anxious to please her controlling, gaslighting father that she rationalises away his cruelty and violence as he “Teaches Her A Lesson”.

With its ten-year-old protagonist and English village setting, as well as Koch’s gorgeous descriptive prose, this novel is initially reminiscent of Joanna Cannon’s The Trouble With Goats And Sheep, and is equally satisfying. Koch’s plot is expertly crafted, with a few red herrings and twists that will have the reader, at the reveal, marvelling at how it was done.

Koch’s characters can’t help but endear themselves to the reader, and any first-time reader of her work will find it hard to resist seeking out her backlist. Intense and moving, this is an utterly captivating mystery.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Random House UK/Vintage.