Don’t Tell Anyone: A Mystery

A year after Tara Neville is murdered, her boyfriend Jordan Dukes is found guilty of the crime. This should bring some measure of peace to her grieving mother, Grace, but it’s just the beginning of more questions.

In the few years leading up to her death, Tara’s life had been upended when her father, Archie, announced he was leaving Grace to live with his mistress. As Grace dealt with the betrayal that her husband was leaving her for someone younger and richer, Tara was seduced by all the cool things that came with living in a nicer house with access to things Grace couldn’t afford. Unfortunately, the teenager was also seduced by something else.

After Jordan’s father, Allan, pleads his son’s innocence to Grace, she responds as any grieving mother would. She angrily dismisses him. Grace believes Jordan killed her daughter and his gang affiliations do nothing to convince her otherwise. But then someone breaks into her home, going through Tara’s belongings, and Grace is forced to admit she didn’t know her teenage daughter at all. Tara had many secrets and it becomes clear one of them got her killed… and possibly not by Jordan.

Don’t Tell Anyone’s premise is interesting, but it was a hard read. Many areas dragged on unnecessarily, and despite the fact that the protagonist is a grieving mother, it was difficult to feel any sympathy for her. Grace allowed her bitterness and hurt over Archie’s affair to blind her to the fact that things weren’t quite right with her own daughter. And it’s impossible to believe that a smart and educated woman such as Grace wouldn’t have seen through Archie’s nonsense sooner. His character was so blatantly terrible and full of shit.

The supporting characters were a bit of a distraction instead of adding anything substantial to the story. No one had any nuance. Everyone was dialed up as high as they could go: overbearing, filter-less sister; brash family friend with questionable ties to organized crime; predatory and insecure mistress. Again, it didn’t make sense that the mystery hadn’t solved itself almost immediately because everyone in the story was extremely transparent.

The reveal at the end (Tara’s killer and why) fell flat. It was equal parts ridiculous (Gray didn’t sell that Tara would be seduced by this person and it felt like a shock for the sake of having one) and disrespectful to children who are abused.