TELL NO LIES by Gregg Hurwitz-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 20, 2013

A series of anonymous threats intended for others puts a man—and everyone he loves—in the path of a relentless killer

Daniel Brasher has always been something of a disappointment to his old-money aristocratic San Francisco mother. Daniel left his high-paying job as a money manager to marry his community organizer wife and work at a job he loves, leading group counseling sessions with recently paroled ex-cons. Now he’s ready to move on and start a private practice.

But before he leaves, he finds an envelope in his department mailbox—one intended for someone else that was placed in his slot by accident. Inside it is an unsigned piece of paper, a note that says only “admit what you’ve done or you will bleed for it. you have ’til november 15 at midnite.” The deadline has already passed and the person to whom the envelope was addressed was brutally murdered. But this first warning is only the beginning.

Soon, Daniel finds more warnings in his office mail, to people that the police cannot track down, and to victims that cannot be saved. Daniel’s efforts, however, have alerted the killer to his involvement and next he gets a threat of his own. Now, with the clock ticking, Daniel—with no clue what he’s supposed to have done or to what action he must confess—must somehow appease, or outwit, a seemingly unstoppable killer.

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REVIEW: TELL NO LIES is a contemporary mystery storyline of murder and suspense. This is my first Gregg Hurwitz novel.

The focus is on thirty something Daniel Brasher. Growing up privileged Daniel thumbed his nose at his family’s prestige and wealth and ventured into the world of psychology, group counseling with one-time rapists and thieves. A married man in a loving and committed relationship with his wife, three times per week Daniel leads and challenges a group of ex-cons and parolees to look within themselves at the who and what in their lives. But soon, Daniel will find himself on the receiving end of mysterious envelopes containing misdirected threats of murder and revenge. The messages are cryptic, threatening and contain deadlines for action.

We are introduced to the colorful and diverse group members through a series of one on one interactions where each participant must face the reality of what they have done and how to make amends. And in doing so, the reader as well as our hero will discover that not everyone is who he or she pretends to be. Everyone has a secret to tell.

As the storyline unfolds our hero Daniel is thrust into a world of grisly murders and psychotic killers. The local police detectives have nothing on Daniel as he seems to be able to ferret out the next victim before the authorities have time to blink and in doing so, Daniel places himself into a position where the killer begins to pull Daniel into the mystery that is unfolding before his eyes. But all too soon, the threats become personal and through a series of his own investigations Daniel will discover that the killer intends to make Daniel suffer in the same way the killer has suffered in the past.

This is a story of murder and revenge; a story where the killer believes he has been betrayed down to the deepest part of his soul; and a story where one man’s grief turns ugly with the need to avenge a death that he believes could have been prevented if not for the money behind the rich and powerful. Tell No Lies is also a study of the sociological implications of who has the power over life and death; and the greed of big money, big business and big medicine.

Gregg Hurwitz pulls the reader into a storyline of twists and turns. There is limited foul language; the murder scenes are not as graphically descriptive as are some other storylines I have read, but they do leave nothing to the imagination. The group of counseling characters are an interesting mix of cons, thieves, gang bangers and screw ups who through one reason or another have an axe to grind about how society and the ‘man’ have ruined their lives. And in the end, each will face their demons and come out of the sessions for better or for worse.

TELL NO LIES is a dark tale where one man’s choices will snowball into a story of revenge: where money and power have all of the control; and where the lives of everyone you love will hang in the balance when horrendous grief knows no boundaries or ends.

Tell No Lies takes the reader on a trail of mysterious messages, missing bodies, murder victims and revenge. Gregg Hurwitz writes an interesting story that will captivate the mystery lover in all readers.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netalley

Reviewed by Sandy

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Gregg Hurwitz is the critically acclaimed, New York Times and internationally bestselling author of twelve novels, most recently They’re Watching, You’re Next, The Survivor and Tell No Lies. His books have been nominated for numerous awards, shortlisted twice for best novel of the year by International Thriller Writers, nominated for CWA’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, chosen as feature selections for all four major literary book clubs, honored as Book Sense Picks, nominated for the Galaxy National Book Award, and translated into twenty two languages.

Gregg has written screenplays for or sold spec scripts to many of the major studios, and written, developed, and produced television (including ABC’s “V”) for various networks. He is also a New York Times Bestselling comic book writer, having penned stories for Marvel (Wolverine, Punisher) and DC (Batman, Penguin). He has published numerous academic articles on Shakespeare, taught fiction writing in the USC English Department, and guest lectured for UCLA, and for Harvard in the United States and internationally. In the course of researching his thrillers, he has sneaked onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALs, swum with sharks in the Galápagos, and gone undercover into mind-control cults.

Hurwitz grew up in the Bay Area. While completing a BA from Harvard and a master’s from Trinity College, Oxford in Shakespearean tragedy, he wrote his first novel. He was the undergraduate scholar-athlete of the year at Harvard for his pole-vaulting exploits, and played college soccer in England, where he was a Knox fellow. He now lives in L.A. where he continues to play soccer, frequently injuring himself.