Promise Not to Tell : A Novel [Paperback]

Jennifer McMahon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2005

Part mystery-thriller and part ghost story, McMahon's well-paced debut alternates smoothly between past and present. In the fall of 2002, 41-year-old Kate Cypher, a divorced Seattle school nurse, returns to New Hope, the decaying Vermont hippie commune where she grew up, to visit her elderly mother, Jean, who's suffering from Alzheimer's. Kate has avoided New Hope since the grizzly, unsolved murder of her fifth-grade friend, Del Griswold, 31 years earlier. Kate fears she betrayed Del, a free-spirited farm girl. Did her betrayal cause Del's death? Who killed Del? Another local girl is murdered in a similar manner at the time of Kate's return. Could the killer be loose again? Meanwhile, Jean appears to be possessed with Del's spirit and may have the answers to these questions. As Kate investigates, she learns stunning truths about many events and people from her youth. McMahon does a particularly good job of portraying the cruelty of school children. (Apr.)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harper (2005)
• ASIN: B002CEOS46
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,021,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in 1968 and grew up in my grandmother's house in suburban Connecticut, where I was convinced a ghost named Virgil lived in the attic. I wrote my first short story in third grade. I graduated with a BA from Goddard College in 1991 and then studied poetry for a year in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. A poem turned into a story, which turned into a novel, and I decided to take some time to think about whether I wanted to write poetry or fiction. After bouncing around the country, I wound up back in Vermont, living in a cabin with no electricity, running water, or phone with my partner, Drea, while we built our own house. Over the years, I have been a house painter, farm worker, paste-up artist, Easter Bunny, pizza delivery person, homeless shelter staff member, and counselor for adults and kids with mental illness -- I quit my last real job in 2000 to work on writing full time. In 2004, I gave birth to our daughter, Zella. In 2005, we left the woods (for now), and moved to Barre, Vermont -- producer of one-third of all the granite gravestones and mausoleums in the US.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A riveting read!, June 24, 2007

By 

Z Hayes (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Promise Not to Tell: A Novel (Paperback)

Jennifer McMahon's debut novel is impressive and showcases the author's narrative skill. The story centers around protagonist Kate Cypher, who returns to her childhood home in New Canaan in 2002, and finds herself revisiting memories of the past, way back in 1971 when a girl Del Griswold, nicknamed the Potato Girl is found murdered. Interestingly, and ominously, a murder takes place in the present, also involving a young girl, Tori. The story weaves back and forth between the past and present,but it never seems disjointed. Instead, it makes for a compelling read...not to give too much away, there are various themes explored here, such as bullying, child abuse, betrayal, and even a supernatural element. It could have been confusing, instead the author skillfully weaves a thought-provoking, intriguing story that will hold you spellbound.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting and Beautiful Story Awaits You, May 10, 2007

By 

E. Lawrence "MovieFan" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Promise Not to Tell: A Novel (Paperback)

I can't even remember the last time that I read a book as multi-faceted as "Promise Not To Tell." Within the span of just 250 pages, I was seriously frightened. And then laughing. Followed by a lump in my throat. Finished off by a darn good mystery. I am going to recommend this book to everyone I know. I can't stop thinking about it even now. You will never meet a more unforgettable character than Delores Griswold. I was scared both for her and by her. Jennifer McMahon, I'll be remembering your name in the future! Wonderful!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Intuitive Entertainment, July 9, 2007

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Promise Not to Tell: A Novel (Paperback)

For a debut novel, Jennifer McMahon's "Promise Not to Tell" provides its reader with an entertaining blend of suspense, the supernatural and self-discovery that succeeds on many levels.

As a documentalist, McMahon does justice to the era of the 1970s where hippie communities like the fictional New Hope, Vermont brought up a generation of free-love progeny that needed to assimilate from the blue jean wearing age of Aquarius to the pin-striped world of yuppie Wall Street as they left the cooperative and entered their revenue-generating adulthood. With a confident finesse, she focuses on her main character Kate's outsider status, flip-flopping the perspective from that of a hippie-raised ten-year-old girl to that of a divorced 41-year-old woman returning to the commune to deal with her aging mother's Alzheimer's.

Kate's psychological issues exceed the responsibility of caring for her mother. As a lonely child, branded as one of the hippie children with the need to be accepted by her classmates from town, she has but one friendship, a secret relationship with the school pariah, Del, unaffectionately called by her peers, `the Potato Girl.' Due to circumstances that Kate feels she has orchestrated and for which she cannot forgive herself, an unknown assailant brutally kills Del in 1971. Now almost thirty years later, the murder of a teenage girl makes it seem as if the long-dead Potato Girl seeks an voracious retribution that may include payback directed towards her one time friend.

McMahon's strength as a writer lies in her ability to forge empathy between the reader and her heroine that is believable from Kate's past and present personas. Meeting characters from 1971 and revisiting them with their additional adult layers in 2002 adds just enough nuance to perhaps a routine suspense story to make it notable with intuitive passages that are worth reading again. Especially enjoyable was Kate's reunion with Nicky---an event the reader anticipates, but appreciates because of the delicious tension the author so shrewdly and honestly facilitates.

Bottom line? "Promise Not to Tell" explores themes of adolescent friendship, betrayal, loyalty, forgiveness and ultimate absolution that work well within the framework of a hippie community 30 years after its founding. Recommended for its wonderful characterizations; the suspense story reaches only a secondary level with a rather two-dimensional portrayal of the murderer at large.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"