Point Pleasant, West Virginia - Present Day

Eight years after the murder of her much hated father and stepmother, Teresa Farr is finally content. Leaving town under a cloud of suspicion after barely saving herself and her eight-year-old half sister the night of the murder, Teri has returned to open her own business stabling horses and giving riding lessons. When the serial killer who confessed to the murders recants on the eve of his execution, and Celeste begins speaking for the first time in eight years, everything that Teri has worked so hard for is suddenly in jeopardy. Celeste's odd and confusing outburst in a popular local restaurant begins to cause people to eye Teri once again with suspicion. One night, as Teri leaves the nightclub of her ex-fiancé, Mac Mackenzie, with whom she hasn't spoken in years, she finds a nasty message left on the seat of her car. The anonymous taunts continue and grow more threatening with each new communiqué. When her stable hand is murdered in her barn, Teri realizes that the danger has become personal, and a killer is looking to tie up loose ends.

Mac has never gotten over losing Teri, and after the killer recants, Mac feels that he must lend her his support. But Teri no longer trusts him, even all these years after she caught him in a compromising position with another woman. After he learns about the threatening messages she is receiving, Mac is able to convince her that she needs a friend and some protection. When long held secrets are revealed by others close to the murdered couple, however, Teri isn't sure whom to trust. She isn't the only one who didn't tell the whole truth about her father and the murders, making Teri realize that many people had reason to want Hugh and Wendy Farr dead. While her feelings for Mac are beginning to rekindle, she must question each decision she makes. Trusting the wrong person now may prove deadly.

Additional characters include Teri's mother Marielle, who disappeared the night of the murders; Carmen, Marielle's best friend; Kent and Sharon Farr, Teri's brother and sister-in-law; Emma Mackenzie, Mac's mother; and Jason Warner, Celeste's father. While Teri knew that her father was a self-absorbed womanizer, what she learns about him now shocks her. As Sharon begins to start a slide toward irrationality, it brings painful memories of her mother's fragile mental state to the surface and makes each new blow that comes at Teri all the harder to handle. When Celeste is threatened too, Teri has to find the strength to confront the past and a vicious murderer.

IF YOU EVER TELL is a gripping story of suspense in a small town. Teri is a strong and independent woman who finds herself confronting a terror that forces her to face the childhood she hoped to leave behind. Mac is hoping against hope to recapture his one true love, but will settle for any place in Teri's life that he can occupy. Their reconnection is slow, haunted by their past, and sincere. The taut pacing and excellent plotting ratchets the tension up page by page leading to a heart-stopping climax that is filled with twists and shocking truths. The everyone knows everyone and their business rural setting adds to the atmosphere of suspicion and isolation that Teri feels. Readers won't want to miss the chilling dark secrets to be found in the highly recommended IF YOU EVER TELL.

Jennell