I really like Coben’s books. He always keeps you guessing. His plots are deep, devious and very satisfying. And he has a way of revealing details that keep me turning the pages – like an archaeologist slowly uncovering a skeleton with a whisk brush.
Coben seems to be very fond of stories of dead people who aren’t quite dead – see Play Dead and The Woods. The mostly dead person in this case is the wife of the protagonist, Dr David Beck. She died 8 years prior in an unprovoked attack on both of them in the woods (yes, more woods). Beck is knocked unconscious and nearly drowns yet survives – he doesn’t know how – only to find that his wife has been murdered. But 8 years after that horrible night – and after 2 bodies are uncovered at the site of the attack – he begins to receive mysterious anonymous coded messages (which include the admonition to “tell no one”, hence the title). He begins to suspect that his wife may still be alive. But why would she disappear for 8 years?
Unraveling that question – and the mystery of how Beck survived the attack in the woods and why they were attacked at all – is the core of the plot. But while Beck is trying to figure it all out he finds that he is the prime suspect in the murder of one of his wife’s friends and also in his wife’s murder. He has to go underground to avoid arrest and death by the hands of two thugs who are gunning for him. What the heck is going on?
Find out for yourself. Perhaps not quite as good as The Woods, but close.
9 out of 10.