Please Tell Me by Mike Osmer is a psychological thriller novel about a little girl who was captured for more than a year, having finally escaped her captors. However, with her ability to talk and communicate normally having been severely impacted due to her trauma, a veteran therapist must find a way to help not only the little girl cope with her year spent in isolation but also to get enough clues that may help in identifying her abductors. This is my first novel from the author, with it being free for Amazon Prime reading for the November selection. In one word, the author is amazing. Mike Osmer is what they mean when they say a “no nonsense” writer. The story, pacing, excitement, build-up and tension is done to the point where there is just enough of everything but without overdoing it to pad the page count.

I tried to guess the mystery villain but, alas, was unable to. The good news is the author did sprinkle in the hint somewhere in the story, but I either forgot about it or wasn’t able to piece it together. Being that it wasn’t a brain twister at all, I felt more embarrassed that I missed it, but it was also satisfying in that it made sense towards the end and wasn’t something that just came out of nowhere because the author wanted to be witty. If there’s any negative or holes to be poked at in the story, I found the part regarding Kathy losing her voice and being unable to identify the villain a bit unsatisfying. Not in that she couldn’t have lost her voice due to the trauma, but she became a mute, she didn’t lose her eyesight. Why couldn’t the police have shown her pictures of possible suspects. The story mentioned that people around the town thought the abductor was someone close (family member or friend) to the girl. Could they not have shown pictures of them to Kathy?

Please Tell Me likely wouldn’t be my last novel read from this author. I really like his no-fluff writing style. Any psychological thriller and crime fans should really give this one a read.