No One Knew

• Author: Kendra Elliot
• Genre: Mystery
• Publication Date: January 6, 2026
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Series: Noelle Marshall #2

Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

For a detective and an FBI agent, two seemingly disparate murder investigations collide with a twist in an explosive novel of suspense by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

In the crisp mountain air of central Oregon, a teenage girl’s search for discarded cans leads to a horrifying a body, brutally murdered and abandoned in the woods. The case falls to Deschutes County Detective Noelle Marshall, who finds herself navigating a community steeped in secrets, suspicion, and distrust of outsiders—especially law enforcement.

Miles away, FBI Special Agent Max Rhodes investigates a different kind of darkness—chatter about a violent uprising from a shadowy militia group preparing for war. The two cases seem worlds apart. But as Noelle digs into the murdered man’s past and Max closes in on the source of the terror plot, their paths begin to converge in a terrifying way. This was no random killing. It was a message. A merciless killer and a hidden army are operating in the same shadows, and finding the link between them is the only thing standing between a single murder and a full-blown massacre.

I first came across Elliot’s work through another of her many books, and this one sounded really intriguing. The fact that it was an audiobook only made it more appealing, since I tend to do a lot more audiobook reading than any other kind. However, this is the second book in a series, which I didn’t realize until after I had already started. Luckily, I didn’t feel as though I started watching a movie in the middle of the action, and instead was able to follow along even without knowing anything about the series.

Stephanie Németh-Parker narrated this story, and I thought that she did a wonderful job with the story and the characters. She speaks in a range of tones, accents, and pitches believably, and at times it felt as if more than one person was narrating. 

The story opens with a teenager named Emma scrounging for discarded cans and instead finding the victim of a murder. Quickly, Detective Noelle Marshall is dispatched to investigate and discovers an insulated and closed off community who is intensely distrustful of outsiders in general, especially law enforcement. She’s got her own issues, though, and knows when to push and when to back off and try another technique. She uses them to connect with the characters, and Noelle becomes concerned about Emma’s living situation when she sees the backwoods cabin without heat and bare shelves in the fridge and cupboard. Instead of drawing attention to it, she finds out how to take action and connect with some community members who can help without making it feel like a big deal or an insult to Emma or her father. 

It’s hard not to love Emma. She’s got a wonderful mix of naïveté and practical knowledge that can often be found in rural communities who homeschool rather than sending their children to public school. Emma has been taking care of the home while her father doesn’t seem to do much more than provide her with the basic necessities, although he isn’t at the cabin and clearly hasn’t returned for some time, since she has nothing to eat or warm the cabin with. 

It isn’t long before FBI agents are dispatched to investigate rumors of a plot involving a secretive militia group preparing for a war, and there is a link discovered between the corpse found in the woods and the far-right extremist group plotting acts of domestic terrorism. The FBI agents and county police officers work together to solve both crimes and hopefully prevent a tragedy. 

Max Rhodes is one of the FBI agents and is dating Noelle. I liked Max as well as Noelle, and really enjoyed seeing their dynamic on the page as they got closer, but I would have liked to see more of these two together. Instead, they pass like ships in the night for so much of the story, aside from one really meaningful scene between these two. I had a hard time seeing what attracted them to each other as a partner. Since I didn’t read the first book, there must have been something that I missed, because I didn’t really have the context on the relationship: how they typically interact, what drew them together, what challenges they face as individuals in demanding and dangerous situations, and how the relationship impacts their ability to work together effectively since they are both in law enforcement. I personally would have liked to see the growing relationship between them on page a little more than I got.

The story starts out at a moderate pace, but picks up rapidly and slows down when building up to a twist or big reveal. I found the plot line to be exciting and there were some parts that had me on the edge of my seat. Any good mystery has to have some plot twists for me to really enjoy it, and Elliot peppered the story with twists and turns. Some were predictable, but others were real surprises, and the faster pace made it feel like the story was flying by even if there were some slower parts throughout the book. 

Overall, this was a good read. Sure, I would have liked to see a bit more romance blooming between Noelle and Max, since their interactions are mainly work-oriented in the story. This book did have some pacing issues and made use of tropes similar to Criminal Minds, so at least the second part worked well for me. I happen to love Criminal Minds and have seen all of the episodes except for the most recent season and an episode featuring a clown but I’d rather not discuss how I feel about clowns. Back to the story at hand (pun intended), I don’t know if the first book also has the same issues that didn’t work so well for me in this book, namely the ebb and flow of the pace and the lack of romance and scenes between Noelle and Max, but I am going to give the first book in the series a read and find out for myself. Basically, this is right up your alley if you are a diehard fan of law enforcement procedurals in television or other books.

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