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Krentz has successfully published a multitude of well written novels utilizing three separate pen names. Those that I have been fortunate enough to read are all concisely written, capture the reader’s attention, and retain it throughout the book. No problem with “Promise Not to Tell;” it offers a well thought out and interesting plot, principal characters that are right on the money and an adventure that will definitely keep the reader intrigued and unable to put the book down.

Virginia Troy, an owner of an art gallery in Seattle, was one of many children caught in the machinations of a cult in their childhood. Her nightmares don’t leave her as she relives a narrow escape again and again from a fire set by the Cult founder to a small building with cult members in it. Her life and the lives of others were saved when a bystander uses an auto to smash into the building and save some of those imprisoned there. Now she is jolted when an artist featured in her gallery commits suicide, but not before sending a painting to Virginia. The painting causes her to doubt that the death was a suicide and additionally to further sink back into her own past.

Virginia decides to hire Cabot Sutter to look into the suicide. Sutter is a private investigator and another of the children that survived the long ago fire. Krentz portrays the hunt for answers in a logical progression towards solutions. The investigation proceeds quite realistically and in no way presents impossible actions.  Both can be physically hurt, and if so do not wake up and seconds later move forward as if nothing has happened.  That there are sparks between the two is not an impossibility.  Both have the mental scars of the long ago fire and each has the patience and inherent wisdom to understand that such an event and proximity to death just doesn’t go away.

A very well done addition to this author’s long list of good books.

1/18 Paul Lane

PROMISE NOT TO TELL by Jayne Ann Krentz. Berkley (January 2, 2018).  ISBN 978-0399585272. 336p.

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A brilliant novel about time travel, but not the usual book found under the Science Fiction category.  It is one that might best be categorized under social commentary similar to “Gulliver’s Travels.”

It opens in the year 1348 with the pestilence known as the “black death” rampant throughout the known world. Brothers John and William, residents of England, and frightened for their lives, as well as seeking redemption before death, are given a strange choice by an unknown entity. They can either go home and die with their families or seek redemption during six days. These six days to be spent moving forward in time by 99 years each day. Both brothers agree that they would rather travel in time than go home and die.

They suddenly find themselves in the year 1447 and notice the differences between this period and the one they came from. There are small changes, but noticeable ones and so it is as they move forward 99 years every night. A calendar based on periods BC and AD is utilized by all, clocks are invented. Guns as weapons of war are evolving, the new world is discovered and most important things that they took for granted in 1348 prove to be short lived. They interact with people in each period and find them the same but different due to the influences prevalent in the time period they are living in.

Mortimer, a noted historian in his own right, has succeeded in bringing each period visited to vibrant life allowing the reader to experience that time and the people living there.  A memorable novel and a fascinating read.