"A twisting, turning tale of love, greed, murder, and madness; Patricia MacDonald never disappoints."
Reviewed by Lynn Cunningham
Posted June 25, 2016
Mystery
Eden Radley's mother left her with her father for another
man when she was a young girl. Tara Radley became Tara Darby
and had a baby boy with her new husband, Flynn. Sadly, their
baby, Jeremy, was born with a rare but debilitating disease
that causes death at a very young age. The Darbys moved away
to a city closest to a clinic that specializes in this
disease. Eden rarely spoke to her mother after that, and she
never met her little half-brother.
One night Eden is in her favorite bar waiting for a date
that she had set up from a dating website. While she waits,
her mother texts her and asks if she can talk. Eden ignores
the text and finishes her drink which turns out to be on the
house because the cute bartender is flirting heavily with
her. Her date never shows so she thanks the bartender who
tells her his name is Vince and goes home.
At her editing job for a big publishing house, she opens her
computer and sees a report of a murder/suicide. A mother has
apparently killed herself as well as her young disabled son
by carbon monoxide. This mother and son turns out to be Tara
Darby and her son Jeremy.
Eden is in shock. She flies to the city where her mother was
living and attends the funeral. She also meets Flynn Darby
and is not impressed. During her stay there, she talks to
the police as well as a couple of insurance agents. The
police feel that it is an open and shut case while the
agents have received a tip that it might have been something
more of a suspicious nature.
Feeling that she owes it to her mother and little brother to
make sure that what the police believe is true, she begins
her own investigation into their deaths. At the same time,
she is informed by her publishing company that Flynn Darby
has written a book about the relationship between Tara and
him, and he has requested that Eden be the editor. Working
with the despicable Flynn is the last thing she wants to do.
However, she decides that having to be closer to him might
help her in solving what really happened to her mother and
brother.
The problem is that there is someone who does not want Eden
to find the answers she seeks. This puts her in more danger
than she would have expected. While she may get the answers
to her questions, she may not live long enough to share them.
I have been reading Patricia MacDonald's books forever and
she has always been a favorite of mine. Packed with plenty
of suspense, creepiness, mystery and characters who fairly
leap off the pages into your living room; this is a writer
who never disappoints her readers. Solid plotlines filled
with very different endings form all of her books and DON'T
BELIEVE A WORD is no exception. You will never believe what
is really happening here until you reach the jaw dropping
finale.
DON'T BELIEVE A WORD is one of those books that you just
want to keep reading and hate when it ends. You are carried
right along with Eden as she does everything she can to find
out what really happened to her mother and little brother.
The guilt she feels at the resentment she has held her
entire life for her mother leaving her as well as having
never even met her little brother Jeremy is shared with you
in a way that you will feel just as deeply as she does.
Suffice it to say that DON'T BELIEVE A WORD delivers
everything that a great mystery book should. The answers to
all of the questions are there and you will learn them all
by the final page.
SUMMARY
A daughter sets out to discover the truth about her
mother’s death in this absorbing novel of psychological
suspense. Eden Radley had a strained relationship with her mother ever
since Tara deserted the family nine years before to run off
with her much younger lover. But when she’s told that her
mother has killed herself and her severely disabled young
son, Eden’s half-brother, Eden is ridden with guilt. For her
mother had tried to get in touch with her on the night she
died, and Eden had ignored her text. Was Tara calling for help? Heading to Cleveland, Ohio, for the funeral, Eden discovers
there was so much she didn’t know about her mother, nor
about her enigmatic, troubled stepfather Flynn Darby. And
the more she learns, the more convinced she becomes that
Tara’s death was no suicide. Could Flynn really be guilty of
murder …?
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