Please Don't Tell

By Elizabeth Adler

Fen Dexter’s quiet life on the idyllic California coast is interrupted one stormy night when a blood-covered man shows up on her doorstep, claiming to have had a car accident. He tells her that he is on his way to San Francisco to help the police solve the murder of his fiancé. Unable to make it to the hospital because of the storm, he stays the night at Fen’s, and the attraction between them is obvious. The next morning he heads to the hospital where Fen’s niece, Vivi, is an ER doctor. Vivi is treating the most recent target of a serial killer whose signature move is to leave a note saying “Please Don’t Tell” taped across his victims’ mouths. When Fen’s mysterious stranger comes to Vivi to have his wounds stitched she agrees to set him up to talk with the police about his fiancé. Who is this man, really? What does he want with Fen and her family? And will they live long enough to uncover the truth? Told with Elizabeth Adler’s knack for terrific female characters and breathtaking twists, Please Don't Tell will keep you guessing, right up to the end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Jul 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781250019899

Elizabeth Adler

ELIZABETH ADLER is the internationally acclaimed author of more than twenty novels, including The Charmers and One Way or Another. She lives in Palm Springs, CA.

Reviews for Please Don't Tell

[tricoteuse_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book was in desperate need of a better editor. The timelines were really screwed up in terms of when things happened in relation to one another, the lead detective calls the victim by name a chapter before they learn her identity, and characters who met two chapters ago are reintroduced as though they're supposedly meeting for the first time. There might have been a decent story in there but it was buried under the amateurish mistakes.

[rhobsd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I thought I knew "who-dunnit" fairly early on but I had to keep reading to see if I was right and how the situations resolved themselves. I enjoyed this book. I had been reading mostly non-fiction and needed to read something else. A treat. Thanks to the drawing I got to read this ARC and can tell others about it!

[4leschats · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was an okay genre fiction--romantic suspense--with multiple story lines that too conveniently crossed one another. Fen, an older woman on her own, has 2 nieces, one of whom, Vivian, is an ER doctor in a nearby city. Vivian treats a woman who survived a recent serial killer attack and works with the investigating officer. Of course, Vivian becomes the target of the killer. The side stories deal with a stranger who shows up at Fen's during a storm and the arrival of JC. While the author tries to use the various males as love interests/suspects, the killer is pretty obvious by mid-book. As with many newer books, this one seemed to have only cursory editing with multiple incongruities not addressed.

[carol420 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fen Dexter is a solitary woman who prefers a quiet night at home with her dog, Hector, over anything else --- except maybe the company of her two nieces she raised. One evening, as she happily prepares for a night in, a nasty storm hits the California coast. When Fen's power goes out, a relatively frequent occurrence since she lives on the outskirts of town, and a stranger comes knocking on her door with a knife in hand, her evening goes from quiet to scary in a heartbeat.

Vivi, Fen's oldest niece, is dealing with her own problems. Having recently broken up with her fiancé, she's emotionally overloaded, and as an emergency room doctor, she needs to keep her emotions in check. Wanting nothing more than to see her Aunt Fen, the storm feels like one more hurdle to overcome in an already hectic night. A young woman is brought in. She is soon identified as the victim of a serial killer that murders his victims and leaves a post-it not saying "Please Don't Tell.

Betwen the three women , the detective, the man who invades Fen's world and a renowned surgeon that is interested in Vivi, the worlds collide. Events take a strange turn and no one knows how anyone or anything is interconnected. The biggest question they have is... is there a killer much closer than they think?

There's a bit of everything in this novel --- suspense, romance, action --- and it all blends together very well. It's a fast read, and you'll keep reading just to discover what will to happen to these three women. All are immensely likable characters thrown into some crazy situations.

3 &#9733 for a quick and entertaing read.

[kmt01_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was creepy, romantic and funny. Fen, an older woman who lives in a somewhat rural area, has two nieces whom she raised after their parents death. The two nieces, Vivian and JC, her nieces, each has her own problems. Vivian is a busy emergency room doctor, just getting over a break up with a Frenchman. JC is an unsuccessful entertainer who, at this stage of her life, is out of a job and penniless and seriously rethinking her life and career. On a stormy night, a stranger comes to Fen’s door, seeking help after an accident at the edge of her property. At first, Fen is frightened, but later becomes more relaxed, to the point of enjoying the man’s company, once he stays a while. Meanwhile, there is a serial killer lurking, worrying Vivian and JC, and all signs point to this stranger as the killer. None of them believes this to be true. How will they all figure out what is going on? Is the stranger from the accident the serial killer? If not this man, then who is the killer? However I found myself guessing what was going on about two thirds through the book and figuring out who the killer actually was. Still, I continued to read the book, because I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the romances going on. Overall, this is a book I would recommend to someone who enjoys a good, fast moving, intriguing book.

[nwieme-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kept me interested for a while...once I decided who the killer was, it seemed all too obvious. The ending was a bit contrived.