i absolutely LOVED this book. it’s unlike anything else i’ve ever read and it genuinely kept me guessing. i couldn’t turn the pages fast enough because trying to figure out what that little girl witnessed was addicting! i highly recommend this book!

This was my first book by this author and I loved it! I will surely keep coming back for more! The story had me hooked and begging for more.

I have chosen this book because the premise sounded interesting and luckily for me I wasn't mistaken. It's the first book I've read by Mike Omer and it certainly won't be my last as I'm curious to find out what else he has written. This book came out on the first of December. I received a copy from Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley.

Eight-year-old Kathy Stone turns up a year after her abduction. She is extremely traumatized and doesn't speak. Robin Hart, who is a child therapist, has been asked to work with this girl. While using play therapy Kathy shows some horrific scenes with children's toys - each session a toy dies. Somehow this turns out to be connected with real unsolved murders. Will Robin be able to stop the murders with the help of Kathy?

This book is filled with lots of tension and quite some action turning this thriller into a fast paced story. The main characters are worked out well enough to understand them for the story. Some could have been worked out a bit more. I found the repeating of the actions of Kathy by Robin a bit weird - I couldn't get used to it actually. The storyline, the suspence and the action made up for that, luckily.

4/5 ⭐

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Unsettling: 😬😬😬
DEATH: 💀💀💀
INTRIGUE: 🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠
Plot: 5/5

Place: Bethelville, Indiana

Tropes: Thriller, Serial Killer, Murder Mystery

TW: Kidnapping, Torture, Narcissistic Characters

Main Characters: Robin, Nathaniel, Kathy, Claire



This book hav me so much moe than I bargained for when I picked it up. I thought that it would be a decent thriller. Boy was I wrong. This was a fantastic thriller with amazing twists and turns.

I never expected for there to be so many complexities that are woven within the storyline. I figured there would be one but there were multiple.

I loved Robin and how much she brought to the story. I loved her perspective on everything. It gave more perspective than just a one sided storyline.

I loved having multiple POVs because it provided depth. It showed how much of an impact everything was having. It wasn't just the main character and their experience. Though I do think that if there would have been some insight from Kathy that would have blown this story even further out of the water.

I can't wait to pick up more from Mike and see where he takes me!


I received a complimentary copy via the author and Netgalley. All opinions are my own, honest and voluntary.

It took me a long time to get through Please Tell Me because I struggled to care about any of the main characters (although, I thought Jimmie was great!). I typically enjoy Mike Omer books, but this one fell flat for me. The story felt jumpy and sometimes inadvertently confusing. The “twist” was a let down. I couldn’t become invested enough in the action. I thought Jimmie was funny and I enjoyed Robin’s dream sequences; those particulars felt like good storytelling. I’ll definitely read Mike Omer again because his previous books were better than this.

This was a DNF for me. The plot was boring, the main character was annoying, and there were some gross body shaming comments I was not here for. Absolutely not.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.

Please Tell Me is the story of a young girl that was kidnapped and escapes after a year being held in captivity. When a man finds her on the side of the road, she is missing her shoes, and her feet are bloody and peeling. But worst of all she can't speak.

Eight-year-old Kathy Stone is happy to be reunited with her parents but doesn't seem to be dealing with the ordeal she has experienced. Unable to tell anyone and afraid to be near anyone she doesn't know, her mother Claire turns to Robin Hart, a child therapist and friend to help her daughter.

Robin has had some success with other children using play therapy. The more time Robin spends with Kathy she realizes in spite of not being able to speak, she is trying to tell her in her own way what happened while she was abducted.

Meanwhile, someone is following Robin and monitoring her movements. The closer Robin gets to the truth, the closer the murderer gets to her as she becomes the next target.

This was a fantastic, intense, domestic thriller. It kept me on the edge of my seat. I really enjoy the writing of Mike Omer. I love how he tells a story.

3.5 stars rounded up
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🔹️ Multiple POV
🔹️ Slow burn
🔹️ Red herrings a plenty
🔹️ Toxic mother-daughter relationship
🔹️ Creepy kid using toys to act out murder scenes
🔹️ A smidge of romance

This one lost me with the ending, but I still enjoyed the ride to get there. Best not to take this one too seriously (as with most books).

📣 Read responsibly - check your triggers.

I know some people consider covid to be a trigger – there’s a good dose of covid talk, vaccines, social distancing, etc as this story takes place later in the pandemic.

Thank you @Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer @amazonpublishing for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Posted to my IG @rolandreviews 12/08/2023
Posted to my Goodreads 12/14/2023

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book. This was a slow burn for me. It had an interesting plot, but seemed slow to me. More of a YA read.

When nine year old Kathy Stone is found a year after her disappearance, she doesn’t come home unscathed. She is no longer verbal, making it very difficult to ascertain what has taken place in the past year. Where has she been, who took her? Clearly traumatized, Kathy is making little progress until her parents take her to see Robin Hart, a child therapist. Through play, Kathy soon acts out death scenes. Scenes that are quite graphic, but is it something she has seen or something she has watched on TV. Little by little Robin puts some of the pieces together and with the help of a police officer investigating a murder, they are soon on the tracks of a serial killer. Will the investigation put Kathy back in the limelight or is she once again in danger after her escape? Can Robin break through her silence before it’s too late? This book was quite riveting and Omar does a very nice job with the red herring, leading the reader astray throughout until the final pages are turned. Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Special thanks to NetGalley, Mike Omer and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC of this incredible thriller.

I absolutely LOVED this dark, twisted and creepy novel - could not put the book down for the life of me. Highly recommend.

The story starts out with a frightened child found alone on a dark rainy street. She appears to be very traumatized and doesn't speak. Through diligent detective work she is id's and returned to her frantic parents. Enter a child therapist who works with traumatized children and through art therapy and play acting a story emerges about torture and murder that the girl was exposed to. As the playacting centers on an old Victorian dollhouse the clues to solving the deaths that the child seems to have witnessed starts to take shape until one murder happens after the child returns home. There are twists and turns and as the tension builds, I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough to find out what happens next. And it's a big surprise with a great reveal. I enjoyed the story, the characters and I'd gladly recommend the book.

Twists and turns ... this one kept me guessing right up to the end. Fast-paced - LOVED it - a true psychological thriller.

Thank you #netgalley and #thomasandmercer for the eARC.

Thank you Netgalley & Thomas & Mercer for an eARC of Please Tell Me by Mike Omer. I really enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would! Not sure why, but the missing child trope often doesn't meet the mark for me and can sometimes be overdone, but this one was really unique.

What's it about?
8-year old Kathy turns up on the side of the road a year after she was abducted from her front yard. Everyone wants to know what happened, but Kathy won't speak a word to anyone. Robin Hart is a child therapist and uses play therapy to help Kathy process what happened to her. Sounds cute, right? Wrong.

Kathy's sessions end with another toy dying - and she seems to be playacting real unsolved murders.

Again, really unique premise that I so enjoyed! Loved the psychology aspect of the book and the author does a great job of not only unraveling the plot but giving us more backstory to Robin's family and love life - Hi, I am invested and now need a pt. 2, thanks!

When a local girl who has been missing for more than a year randomly turns back up on the side of a road, the town is relieved to have her back seemingly unharmed.... except she won't speak, so they have no idea what happened to her. Working with a child psychologist, the little girl silently acts out the horrors she's seen with dolls. As the psychologist tries to help the little girl, she quickly learns the little girl might not be the only one her mysterious captor has harmed.

I loved and hated this book for the exact same reason. I absolutely loved the whole play therapy angle. It's very unique and definitely helped to make this book stand out from the hundreds of other crime fiction novels out there. 10/10 for the idea. On the flip side, the way the concept of play therapy plays out (no pun intended) makes for a very tedious read. Since the girl won't speak, the psychologist describes everything the girl does aloud: "The doll is walking. The doll is going away. The doll is hitting the other doll." At first I thought it was very interesting, but after the fourth or fifth time it got kind of tedious.

Overall a decent book, just a very slow burn.

Unrelated to the story, the NetGalley description of this author is gold. "He is father to an angel, a pixie and a gremlin. He has a voracious hound that wags his tail quite menacingly at anyone who dares to approach his home." I laughed so hard. Absolutely perfect.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for letting me read this ARC for an honest review.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with this book, it’s the first novel I have read by this author.

Kathy is a young girl that goes missing and suddenly reappears over a year later. She is so traumatized by what happened to her that she does not speak. Psychologist Robin Hart is very familiar with the case and has a personal connection to Kathy, so it doesn’t come as a surprise when Claire, Kathy’s mother and Robin’ past high school peer, asks her to work with Kathy. Robins counseling approach with children is letting them reenact their traumas in her office playroom so they can cope with what happened to them. However, when Kathy starts reenacting horrific murders with the dolls from Robin’s playroom dollhouse, it confirms that Kathy has really been put through the wringer.

As the story goes on you start to see the perspectives from Kathy, Robin, Kathy’s family and her captor. Is Kathy really safe and does Robin have the tools to help her overcome this traumatic experience?

I really liked the fast paced style of this book along with all the different connections between characters. I really thought I had the ending figured out and then the twist just came out of nowhere. I was up late making sure I finished the book. Definitely a great read, would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers!

This is an honest review in exchange for an ARC from NetGalley and the publishing house.

A young girl has been missing for a year and suddenly reappears. She is found walking, with wounds and no answers to where she came from. She is non verbal and thus begins the challenge of deciphering her past year.

This incident has caused a major rift between her parents. Both parent differently and want the best for their daughter but both approaches are different. The girl is being seen by a therapist that helps kids deal with trauma. What is unknown to most is that she comes to the story with her own baggage that requires her to deal with during this time.

As more time is spent in play therapy the story slowly starts to unravel. The therapist is joined by a detective that has noticed done irregularities in another case he is trying to find answers to. Once they work together things make more sense and an answer comes to light.

This is a heartbreaking story but one that I could not stop reading. The atrocities the girl witnessed are graphic but necessary to understand what she went through.

This is a well written book and left me thinking about it for a while. I would highly recommend it to my friends.

This is a physiological suspense thriller with a cover I actually really like, it’s like a dollhouse which reminds me of children and children are scary. Speaking of children, the book revolves around one, Kathy an 8 year old who disappeared from her home and then suddenly 15 months later she returns but is unable to communicate on what she witnessed. She sees a child psychiatrist for help who gives her toys to enact the ordeal and it becomes very apparent the brutal violence she went through so enter our detective who investigates some crazy shit that’s going on. I know all the thriller buffs will be hyped about this. Well worth the read, entertaining as hell.

This was my first Mike Omer book, and I’m adding his entire police procedural backlist to my TBR.

What a book! I was hooked from the very first page when we meet poor little Kathy. By 50%, I committed to staying up as late as I needed to in order to finish the book. And by 70%, I was shaking with anxiety and horror about what was going down in the story.

I could have done without the romance storyline—it seemed superfluous.

I didn’t love any of the characters except for Kathy, Amy, and Jimmie. I hated Robin’s mom. I thought Robin needed to see a therapist and cut off her mom. And WHY are Evan and Pete such terrible humans? Ugh men :::rolls eyes:::

Highly recommend this one.

This book was Awesome!!! The author does a fabulous job of leading the reader in one direction allowing them to think that they have it figured out but in actuality it is far from the outcome.
Of course it is hard to imagine or think about an 8 year old being kidnapped. But seeing it on the other side after she is recovered is a little easier. I also like seeing the process from the psychologist of trying to help her come to terms with what happened.
The story merging with Robin Harts own issues in her personal life add to the novel and leads the reader to one conclustion....but it is the correct one.