Review: PROMISE YOU WON’T TELL by John Locke

“I think something might have happened to me Saturday night. Something bad.”

Saturday afternoon Riley quietly placed a little strawberry sticker on her private area and pretended it was a tattoo. She didn’t tell anyone about it. That night she went to a slumber party that featured drinking and boys. Riley fell asleep, woke up the next day with no reason to think anything happened…

…Until Monday, at school, when a classmate called her Strawberry.

Coincidence or crime? Dani Ripper agrees to investigate. And the roller coaster ride begins.




My thoughts: Dani Ripper is a private investigator specializing mostly in catching marital cheaters and liars in the most unorthodox methods, like using soiled panties. Well, like she said, to be a P.I., “you must be…sensual, cute, adorable, cunning, clever, and so much more…[It] requires a computer, a car, and a reliable bladder.” (409)

Then Riley, a 17-year old girl, comes in, claiming she may have been molested at a slumber party. The case is on for Dani.  

The whole thing was mostly written is a back-and-forth conversational tone with Dani asking the questions and her receiving short, quick answers (this was an interrogation, after all.)

“Every predator I’ve ever met had a Jekyll and Hyde personality…I need the photos. They’re as critical as Monika Lewinsky’s dress. Without the dress, there was no affair.” (1517) Each new clue brings the perceptive Dani closer and closer to the truth. What the heck happened on that night? You just have to know!

Narrated in Dani’s sarcastic and brazen voice, this book is a quick mystery and good for a laugh. It was like reading her journal—she was basically talking to it (or the reader, actually.) Dani Ripper was the female Holden Caulfield; she had the same humorous, snappy quips as Lorelais Gilmore, but in a more crude and cynical way. She was good—a sure spit-fire!

At first, I thought we weren’t going to know what happened on that tape, after finally getting our hands on it. I thought, “What a rip!” But it turns out it was just Dani’s way of making a bad joke to the reader. So not funny. I liked that she didn’t go into graphic detail about what happened. I never would’ve anticipated the way it ended.

Wildly entertaining! I want to read more Dani Ripper mysteries/cases.

Up next in the series: Call Me (on my TBR list)

 

 

My rating: 4 stars