In Lakehaven TX, just outside of Austin, Danielle Roberts' body is discovered by two teenagers and everything goes crazy. Danielle was an adoption facilitator, she helped folks who wanted to do international adoptions from Russia, China or Ghana. What made her so dangerous to someone? Her neighbors, the Pollitts, are devastated; Danielle was responsible for their son Grant's adoption from Russia. The storyline goes back and forth between present day and the Pollitts' journey to adopt Grant. Someone in Russia did not want that baby taken out of Russia and the repercussions are world-shattering. Abbot specializes in writing domestic thrillers focusing on the impact of crimes on the lives of regular suburban families. This one was rather formulaic, so it took me a while to get into it. But I was surprised by the ending; I did not see it coming.

A family's decision to adopt a child from Russia gets quickly complicated when the birth mother wants her son back. The story just gets more absurd and convoluted, 4 murders, everyone is a suspect, and you need to suspend disbelief to get through much of this crazy plot. This just wasn't the book for me - too political, too spy-forward. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

I went into Never Ask Me without reading the description because I wanted to be surprised. Much of the book was predictable, so there really weren't any surprises. I liked that the book was written about my home town. That's really the only thing I liked. I was not a fan of how the women were written. I think Iris was supposed to be seen as a strong woman, but she came off as hysterical and a loose cannon. None of the characters had the development and depth that I hoped for. All in all, a forgettable read. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this!

I really loved Blame, so when I saw this I was super excited. For me this was a hard story to get into. All of the characters were unlike-able, and the back and forth between characters and the journal entries was giving me whiplash and I felt like there were too many characters involved in the story. The last, maybe 25% of the book is what I found page turning. It took me months reading a little and then putting it down. When I got down to the end, it was unputdownable.

What a topsy-turvy family thriller. I personally enjoy thrillers where I am kept guessing about who did what until the very end, and Never Ask Me certainly delivered. This story follows the community of Lakehaven after the shocking death of Danielle Roberts. As with all small towns, this death starts to uncover family secrets, ones that people will do anything to keep hidden. I love family dramas like this one, and I would recommend to anyone that enjoys books where you don't know what is happening until the last chapter.

Told from every point of view, this mystery about a international adoption kept me reading until 2:00am! Jeff Abbott did a great job of getting into all of the charters heads and keeping us guessing until the end about what happened to Danielle and who/why did she die. Recommended for all mystery fans.

This was a good story, but it never really grabbed me. I had trouble really caring about what happened and the characters.

In Lakehaven, a quiet and affluent Austin suburb, two teenagers discover a murder victim along the greenbelt that meanders through the edge of the neighborhood. She is a well-known member of the community and an adoption consultant who specializes in international adoptions. As the murder is investigated, it becomes apparent that many people in the community have secrets they are determined to hide.

The story, told from several points of view, as well as entries from an “adoption journal”, moves between two timelines. Anonymous emails and packages, lies, and secrets (both past and present) combined with an increasingly convoluted plot and interesting characters are just some of the elements that will keep a reader engaged to the very end. I enjoyed Jeff Abbott’s latest book, Never Ask Me, and I definitely recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

I've been a fan of Jeff Abbott for a few years now and followed his career with interest, so when the opportunity came up to read and review this book before publication day I wasn't going to miss out.

The book starts with a punch. I like it when a book starts like this as I know it's going to keep my interest. Young friends Ned and Julia are out catching critters; a young persons craze like Pokemon. They head to the park and come across a woman slumped over on a bench. When they check on her they discovers she's dead. What they don't realise is that she's been murdered. The book then picks up pace from here.

The book is fully of family dramas; secrets and lie upon lie. Who has killed the woman and why? Who keeps leaving cryptic messages in a tree?

It was a slight diversion from regular Jeff Abbott novels and this time involved the subject of overseas adoption and corruption. It's full of intrigue and suspense and much more.

I didn't connect with some of the characters like I normally would, and found some a little narcissistic. However I really enjoyed the novel nonetheless and would recommend it to those who like thrillers and books that keep you guessing, which this one certainly did.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

Apparently, Jeff Abbott is somewhat prolific: a quick look on Amazon shows LOTS of titles, many with “A Thriller” prominently displayed on the cover, just in case the reader/shopped isn’t aware of the genre. I certainly wasn’t, when I received a copy of Never Ask Me from Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. BTW, this is a standalone novel, not featuring one of his series characters.

The story is set in an affluent suburb of Austin called Lakehaven. It’s the kind of place the upper-middle-class folk from Austin who are looking for “good schools” (read:White) buy homes. One of those is a woman named Danielle, an international adoption consultant whose murder shocks this community. Danielle’s teenage son and his close friend Julia are out early one morning, playing an online game (think Pokemon Go) when they discover the body.

Julia’s parents, Iris and Kyle, adopted their teenage son Grant from Russia, with Danielle as their consultant. Grant starts getting anonymous messages (both email and gifts left in his favorite outdoor hiding place) that suggest his parents have been lying to him. Both Iris and Kyle seem to have secrets — oh, wait! So does Julia! And Grant! And Danielle’s son Ned!

Told from alternating points of view, including excerpts from Iris’s “adoption journal,” the book does a great job of pointing toward various suspects, both major and minor characters. In the end, a convoluted tale unfolds, involving Grant’s adoption, secrets both old and new, and revelations that threaten to break families apart. I didn’t guess the ending (not unusual for me) and I got a little cranky whenever my reading was interrupted as I raced through this one in a little over a day. Four solid stars. Great fun!

With Never Ask Me, Jeff Abbott returns to the exclusive enclave of Lakehaven, Texas – the iconic setting of several of his stand-alone thrillers. Like Blame and the others, Never Ask Me stands on its own with only the fictional setting uniting them. Never Ask Me focuses on the Winding Creek subdivision, bordered on one side by the greenbelt – a wilderness path that meanders its way behind many of the homes in the community.

Sometimes you pick up a book and just have no idea what type of journey you are about to partake in. Never Ask Me is one of those books. Jeff Abbott eases the reader in with what seems like a traditional crime component – a murder that needs to be solved – but then rips the rug out from under the reader, exposing the more thriller-esque backstory that led to this current predicament. This makes for an extremely satisfying, and at time shocking, reading experience.

Never Ask Me opens with two teenagers, Ned Roberts and Julia Pollitt, exploring the wooded area around their homes in search of digital critters to capture while playing the hottest new videogame on their cellphones. Things take a turn for the worse when they stumble upon Ned’s mother, dead, seemingly on display upon a secluded park bench. The discovery of Danielle’s body exposes both of these prominent families to unbelievable stresses, communal suspicion, and internal strife.

The plot in this novel unfolds from many points of view. The four members of the Pollitt are given multiple chapters: The mother, Iris; her husband, Kyle; their daughter, Julia; and their adopted child, Grant. But there is also commentary on the unfolding drama from other unique sources. There are the police interview transcripts relevant to the discovery of Danielle’s body, as well as a few snippets from the notes of a journalist working on a true-crime article related to the incident. The last piece of the puzzle is probably the most interesting, and also the most complex: Iris Pollitt’s adoption journal – an accounting of her family’s trails and tribulations on the path to completing the overseas adoption of their son, Grant.

At the same time the investigation into Danielle’s murder is taking place, Grant is receiving anonymous e-mails telling him that his family has been lying to him. But if they truly have lied, what is it they are trying to keep from him? And who is this mysterious person who seems to know more than they should? In an effort to find out, Grant reaches out to Danielle’s boyfriend’s son, a computer expert and technical wiz. As the sphere of influence expands, so do the risks to everyone involved.

The title phrase – “never ask me” – is uttered by several characters and the topic about which it refers shifts and progresses as the novel unfolds. As the tangled web between these two families grows increasingly dangerous, readers will find their reading pace reaching frenetic levels. There is a point where the desire to know what the hell is going on gets so intense that the final section of the novel must be consumed in as few sittings as possible.

With Never Ask Me, Jeff Abbott has provided the perfect novel for the strange summer ahead. It is a quick read that easily distracts from our real-world problems, while entertaining and surprising readers in equal measure.

Jeff Abbott takes a lot of risks with this novel, and they really pay off for the reader.

In a quiet neighborhood in a wealthy suburb of Austin, Texas, two teenagers discover the body of Danielle Roberts on a park bench. Danielle was a beloved member of the community, an adoption consultant who delivered the joy of parenthood to a number of local families. Her murder shocks Lakehaven.

Perhaps no other family is as crushed as the Pollitts, who lived two houses down from Danielle and thought of her almost like family. Her death becomes the catalyst for a maelstrom of suspicion and intrigue. You have been told a huge lie, an anonymous email charges the son, Grant. No one can learn the truth now, thinks the father, Kyle. Never ask me what I'd do to protect my family, resolves the wife, Iris. I'll do whatever it takes to save him, vows the daughter, Julia, of Danielle's grieving teenage son.

The Pollitts thought they'd always be there for each other. When each begins to suspect the others of the unimaginable, the strength of their bonds will be tested in extraordinary new ways, and the questions they'd hoped they'd never be asked threatens to expose their darkest secrets. Highly recommended.

When a boy and his best friend discover his mother dead, the wealthy Austin suburb of Lakehaven is changed. The dead Danielle Roberts has been a well-liked member of the community. She is a lawyer who helps families adopt children from other countries. The murder shocks the Pollitts who live two doors down. They thought of Danielle as family. She had helped them adopt their son, Grant, from Russia. As the story unfolds, its discovered that many in the neighborhood have lots of secrets to hide and family members begin doubting one another as they try to figure out who was the murderer.

What can I say? Jeff Abbott knows what he's doing. While I've enjoyed some of his other books more, the guy just knows how to pace a thriller. My primary issues here were simply with believability, and the lack of complexity in the mystery. If you guess the ending halfway through the book you'd probably be right. Nevertheless, this was a fun read and I blew through it.

Never Ask Me by Jeff Abbott is a highly recommended domestic thriller.

The quiet, wealthy Austin suburb of Lakehaven is shaken when Danielle Roberts is found murdered, her body left on a park bench. Danielle was an adoption consultant who had helped a number of community members adopt a child. Iris and Kyle Pollitt and their teenage children, Julia and Grant, live just two houses down from Danielle and are shocked. Danielle helped them adopt Grant from a St. Petersburg orphanage when he was a baby. Danielle's son, Ned, and Julia are good friends and they are the ones who found Danielle's body. At the same time, Grant is contacted through email and someone appears to be watching him while telling him he has been told a lie.

After a strong start with Danielle's murder, finding the body, the Pollitt family's reaction, and Grant's anonymous contact, the novel slows down to a leisurely pace until the last third. Then, that last portion of the plot takes a weird twist that will grab your attention, but it will also leave you saying "what the heck?" The narrative unfolds through the point-of-view of the members of the Pollitt family along with excerpts from the adoption journal Iris kept when they were working with Danielle trying to adopt Grant. There are a whole lot of secrets everyone is keeping from everyone else. The characters are well-developed, although with all the secrets everyone is hiding it does take a while to establish exactly who these people are and what they are hiding from each other as well as others.

The weirdly-twisted ending makes Never Ask Me suddenly very tense, action packed, and exciting and it does provide closure to the various plot threads and secrets everyone has been keeping from each other. Everything is in some way tied back to Iris's statement, "Never ask me what I'd do to protect my family." 3.5 rounded up.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grand Central Publishing.
The review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

This book is so much more than the typical psychological thriller. The author's use of utilizing different characters' points of view allowed me to invest in each of them. This made the read more enjoyable than if it was focused on one character's point of view. The relationships and pasts of the characters were complex. Overall, this is a great read!

Julia and her friend, Ned, are enjoying playing video games on their phones as they walk to their neighborhood park. They see a woman sitting on a bench with her back to them. They realize it’s Ned’s mom, Mrs. Danielle Roberts. When she does not respond to their greeting, they realize she has blood on her face and is dead. The neighborhood is shocked.

Danielle was a well-respected lawyer who specialized in being an adoption consultant. She was divorced from Gordon, Ned’s father, who lives in London. She had been dating a widowed man in the neighborhood with a teenage son named Peter.

Julia’s parents are Kyle and Iris and she has an adopted teenage brother named Grant. Danielle had helped with his adoption from Russia years ago. Iris and Kyle went through so much to adopt Grant but they were determined to do so even if they were met with roadblocks and crossing palms. Iris decided to keep a private journal of their journey and kept it hidden to maybe share with Grant one day.

When we learn that Ned and then Julia are keeping frightening secrets, it all escalates finally imploding their lives. Who is behind the murder of Danielle and who is after the downfall of their children?

This is the first book I have read by Jeff Abbott and it started out interestingly enough but there seemed to be a lot of repetition until later in the book which came to a relatively fast conclusion throwing all kinds of espionage scenarios around until my head was spinning. An OK read but I don’t care for all of the espionage. Sorry, not my cup of tea.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A reader walks in to a book thinking it is a domestic thriller to find out it isn't. I felt a little mislead. The books starts out with a dead neighbor and a big pile of secrets all around her and her neighbors. A good start! Let's start weeding through all those secrets and see who had enough to lose to kill someone. But at one point, it feels like one author has put down the manuscript and another has picked it up. The story starts getting quite different. I really don't want to say more because I don't want to give away major parts of the plot. But things get a bit political, a bit international, and a bit much for me to really find believable. Still a good read, just not what I was hoping for.

“What makes a family in our modern world where people can feel hyper-connected yet so alone?” This question is asked and answered in Jeff Abbott’s newest thriller Never Ask Me.

Lakehaven is a peaceful suburb of Austin, Texas. People move there for the excellent school system, quiet neighborhood, active volunteers and sense of community. So it is a shock when the body of a single mother, Danielle Roberts, is discovered by her son Ned and his best friend, Julia Pollitt. Danielle was a lawyer who brokered foreign adoptions and several of the Lakehaven families have used her services. In fact, she helped Kyle and Iris Pollitt, Julia’s parents, when they adopted their son Grant from Russia. The story of that adoption weaves through Never Ask Me in diary form as the police investigate the killing. Many people have secrets to hide, secrets that prove to be dangerous or deadly. All the main characters keep those secrets from not only the police but husbands, wives, brothers, sister and friends until shocking revelations try to tear relationships apart.

In Never Ask Me, Jeff Abbott writes “We choose to love”. While love is the theme here, this fast-paced thriller crackles with suspense and intrigue. It is definitely a 5 star read!

Thanks to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing and Jeff Abbott for this ARC.