Reviewed by: Mayra David

It starts with a chilling scene: Seventeen year old Terri Farr is disturbed in the night by a noise; a dangerous presence. As Terri makes her way through the dark house she is overwhelmed with a powerful feeling of dread…and with good cause. Terri finds her father and stepmother savagely murdered in their bed. And before the gruesome sight even has time to sink in, she hears a horrific scream coming from the bedroom of her beloved little stepsister Celeste…

Seven years (and a death sentence for the convicted murderer) later, Terri’s life seems to be finally moving forward. She is living again in her home town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia where she has just opened a riding school. Though there are people – many people – who still believe Terri was the one who murdered her hated father and stepmother, she is mostly left in peace. She has her horses, and a few close friends. She even thinks she might be getting over Mac, her ex-fiancé and first love who, in a serious lapse of judgment, betrayed Terri by kissing another woman. For the first time in a long time she is able to look at Mac and not feel anger – which is not to say she doesn’t feel anything at all!

What Terri doesn’t know is that other things are moving forward as well. After being stabbed, Celeste, who was just a child then, was so traumatized that she stopped speaking. But after seven years, she has suddenly found her voice and seems willing to talk about that tragic night. Coincidentally, Roscoe Lee Byrnes, the man who has been on death row for the murders of the millionaire Mr. Farr and his young wife, has just recanted his confession. Clearly, he is just trying to avoid his execution – only a week away…

But then the notes start. Terri receives menacing messages connected to the murders, threatening to expose her. It becomes obvious that the terror which took place so many years ago is not yet over. In fact it has been around her all this time. As things begin to unravel, Terri learns there are very few facts about the killings – and even fewer people – she can trust.

If You Ever Tell is Carlene Thompson’s twelfth book and with it she delivers a classic thriller, plus a few dozen twists. Thompson is truly skilled at creating intense suspense and then sustaining it throughout an entire book. Though sometimes weighed down by exposition, this book is such a fast-paced read, full of twists and turns, that I hardly came up for air till I got to the rather surprising end.