If You Tell: A Novel

· Thomas & Mercer
5 reviews
Ebook
430
Pages
Tools
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About this ebook

A #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen’s shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother’s house of horrors.

After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.

For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.

Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a survivor’s story of absolute evil—and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for. Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today—loving, loved, and moving on.

A #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller. #1 New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen’s shocking and empowering true-crime story of three sisters determined to survive their mother’s house of horrors. After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sam...

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Ratings and reviews

5 reviews
Arnold Harleson
October 4, 2026
I found If You Tell fascinating because it shows how people can survive incredibly difficult circumstances. The relationship between Nikki, Sami, and Tori is one of the strongest parts of the book. Their loyalty to one another gives the story an emotional side that goes beyond the crime itself. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy serious and compelling true crime.
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Vali
October 4, 2026
This was one of the most disturbing true-crime stories I have read, but also one of the most compelling. The amount of research behind the story is impressive, and the details make the events feel frighteningly real. The sisters' strength and their ability to protect one another were the parts that stayed with me the most.
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About the author

I live in rural Washington State (a mile as the crow flies from Dr. Hazzard's infamous Starvation Heights sanitarium). My thriller, THE LAST THING SHE EVER DID, was an Amazon Charts bestseller. LYING NEXT TO ME was a reader favorite, charting at No. 1 in the Kindle store and the bestseller's list at the Washington Post. My true crime book, IF YOU TELL, found a home on Amazon Charts for more than 340 weeks. In fact, it was the bestselling Kindle ebook of 2020 (and the second-bestselling of 2021). THE AMISH WIFE was a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best fact crime book in 2025, and OUT OF THE WOODS held the same distinction in 2026. OUT OF THE WOODS was also a nominee for Book of the Year at Crime Con. THE BOY SHE LEFT BEHIND was a finalist for the International Thriller Writers of America Thriller Award for best juvenile novel. I have been a guest on Dateline NBC, NPR, Good Morning America, Early Show, FOX News, CNN, Anderson Cooper, Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, Extra, Access Hollywood, 20/20, Snapped, Deadly Women, William Shatner's Aftermath, and A&E's Biography.

I live in rural Washington State (a mile as the crow flies from Dr. Hazzard's infamous Starvation Heights sanitarium). My thriller, THE LAST THING SHE EVER DID, was an Amazon Charts bestseller. LYING NEXT TO ME was a reader favorite, charting at No. 1 in the Kindle store and the bestseller's list...

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