Promise Not to Tell: A Novel | 
| Author: Jennifer Mcmahon
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $2.00
You Save: $11.95 (86%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 10758
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0061143316
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780061143311
ASIN: 0061143316
Publication Date: April 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered—a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del—shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl"—was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems . . . and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten. More than just a murder mystery, Jennifer McMahon's extraordinary debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, is a story of friendship and family, devotion and betrayal—tautly written, deeply insightful, beautifully evocative, and utterly unforgettable.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 A Little Too Dark July 17, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I had to read this book for my book club summer pick. The title, and the cover both looked like it would be a good read. And it was...only I was looking for a little more. Maybe a little more character development?? It was such a dark book. Could anything more happen to the potato girl? She's beaten, bullied, burned, molested, and finally murdered. ( I'm not taking anything away, you learn this in the first few pages) Why would I want to read about such horrors that happen to a young girl?
The rest of the characters are very different, and at times a bit strange. The book does have a supernatural, ghostly appeal if you're into that. I found it too far fetched to be real.
 Fast paced and riveting July 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was a great read, I finished it in one sitting cover to cover. The characters were detailed and lifelike. The setting was also interesting, and the flipping from one time period to another. Awesome and suspenseful. A must-read.
 Mysterious and ghostly July 13, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
A mystery story which lurches into the supernatural, this uneven debut by a new author holds your interest until the last page. You are in the hands of a skillful storyteller, who introduces the reader to likeable characters, and keeps you on the edge until the very end. I found myself caring about the protagonist Kate, and her best friend Del even though they are flawed people who hurt each other badly.
There were a few times when I found the story too fantastic to believe. What began as a realistic thriller turns into a ghost story. The ghostly elements were a deus ex machina that didn't fit well in the plot. Some of Kate' interior dialogue and her romantic choices were unbelievable to me, given what I understood about her. Nevertheless, these are minor complaints about an impressive first novel. I read it quickly, and you will too!
Although it shows only the head and neck of a young girl, I was surprised to discover that the cover photo on this edition is by Jock Sturges. There is a subplot about child abuse in the story, and the author does not sugar coat it. It demonstrates an astounding error in judgment to put Sturges on the cover, since some of his work borders on child abuse itself. (n.b. I know that authors often do not have a say in the cover art of their books.)
Great! June 20, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read a review for this in people magazine and was very excited when I saw it at Sam's club one day...
I too read this in two sittings...would have been one but by two o'clock in the morning I just couldn't keep going ;)
I went to the store before I had even finished it and bought her other book...
I will say though that for the first time ever I found something cheaper in the store than on amazon...This book was only $6.41 at Sam's Club.
 I can't believe she went there! June 11, 2008
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
I'm afraid of the dark. Or, more exactly, I'm afraid of what could be in the dark: ghosts and goblins and boogy-men. This book promised to be full of those irrational fears, based on the summary. Though I'm afraid of the dark, and all it could contain, I know that the fear isn't rational. I began reading this book expecting to work through those crazy ideas but, ultimately, end with a reasonable explanation. Boy, was I wrong. Those irrational concepts became more and more solid until the supernatural was all-pervasive. I can't believe the author went there! And that's where she lost me: just because I'm afraid of ghosts doesn't mean that they are real. In a book, seemingly set in reality, she veers off into the wacky. She turned, what I expected to be, a quirky mystery into a loopy romp with ghosts. There are no reasonable explanations to be found anywhere. Instead there were mysterious pictures, crazy visions and possession. In this book it doesn't need to be dark to have ghosts and boogy-men coming out to haunt. If you have a single foot grounded in reality you may want to avoid this one. I promise not to tell anyone to read this.
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