They know your secrets. They moved in next door to use them.
When the Paines arrive on Tall Oaks, a quiet cul-de-sac outside Philadelphia,
they are everything new neighbors should be: warm, attentive,
impossibly well-prepared. They remember birthdays. They bring
the right casserole. They know things one conversation too early,
one detail too specific, that no one told them.
For most of the street, the Paines are a gift.
For Sandy Hackman, they are a threat she cannot name out loud.
Sandy has a secret she has spent fourteen years protecting.
The name on her mailbox isn't the name she was born with. Her
marriage isn't legal. And hidden in a drawer upstairs is evidence
of a crime she witnessed the night she finally ran, evidence she
has carried in silence ever since, telling herself she would know
when the time came to use it.
The time may have just arrived. But so have the Paines.
As the neighborhood's secrets begin surfacing, a financial
disaster here, a shattered reputation there, Sandy is the
only one who sees the pattern. The only one watching the
watchers. The only one who understands that the cheerful
couple at the end of the circle didn't stumble onto this
street. They chose it. And they chose it for one reason:
Someone on Tall Oaks owes them something.
Sandy has to find out who, before they find out who she really is.
Before You Tell Me is a gripping, razor-sharp domestic suspense
novel for readers of Liane Moriarty, Lisa Jewell, and Freida McFadden.
It asks the question no smart home, data broker, or friendly neighbor
can answer for you: can you ever truly be known and still be loved?
