Dr. Nathan Conrad, a successful psychiatrist, lives in a luxurious Manhattan apartment building with his beautiful wife, Agatha, and his five-year-old daughter, Jessie. He has a new patient, an angelic-looking young woman named Elizabeth, who is accused of murder. Suddenly, Nathan's life is turned upside down. His child is taken from her bed in the middle of the night. What are the kidnappers after? Do they want money or do they want something else?

There is no mystery as to who the perpetrators are. Klavan spends a great deal of time familiarizing the reader with the revolting individuals who revel in torturing both adults and children. That is one of the main problems with this book. The scenes in which these characters are depicted masturbating, cursing, and torturing others are absolutely disgusting. I have read many thrillers featuring sadistic criminals, but few authors dwell at length on the perversions of these individuals.

"Don't Say a Word" fails as a suspense novel. The reader can see where the story is heading long before the end of the novel. The plot is incredibly melodramatic and completely unrealistic; the ending is way over the top.

"Don't Say a Word" doesn't work as a thriller and the repulsive scenes featuring the twisted minds of the criminals make it a book well worth avoiding.


Thrilling Suspense   August 30, 2001
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

Don't Say a Word is an in-your-face novel that practically reads by itself. Although the dialogue is often laughable and the characters are paper-thin, the hundreds of twists and turns are enough to keep you entertained well past your bedtime.
A psychologist's daughter is kidnapped by men who pretend to be able to see everything the shrink and his wife do. They want to get a number from a psychotic patient of the good doctor, a number which, of course, will bring them to a loot worth millions. The doctor has only a few hours to get the number and find his daughter.
The race against time plot is always entertaining. The action is non-stop and the finale is beyoung belief. This is a book you just can't put down. The plot lets you forget that the author has no real style of his own and that the dialogue is often horrendous. This is one novel that satisfies its reader from beginning to end.


One of the best novels I have ever read!   December 11, 1999
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I have only 3 syllables in order to describe this book...sus-pense-ful! I felt like i was on a nonstop roller coaster from the very first page! I had a very hard time putting this book down in order to get anything else done, and while I was engrossed in some chapters, things simply did not get done. This was a first novel by Andrew Klavin that I have read and it was worth every minute. I would recommend this book highly to anyone who can't get enough of heartstopping terror!


What Is the Number   January 29, 2001
 5 out of 9 found this review helpful

"What is the number?" is the all important question this stunning suspense novel by the talented Andrew Klavan. Written in 1991, it never achieved much notoriety. What a shame. This is a tense, nail-biting foray into sociopathic violence and the horror parents face when their child is suddenly kidnapped from her own bedroom.

The plot weaves in and out, with interesting characterizations added in support of the leading Dr. Conrad and his wife, Agatha. Elizabeth Burrows, the schizophrenic patient Dr. Conrad is mysteriously called on to help, is a heart-wrenching portrait of what parental misguidance can do to a child.

There are several heart-stopping scenes and an incredibly lurid villain named Maxwell.

This is a roller coaster ride of a book, and one definitely worth searching out.


A suspenseful read...   December 10, 2001
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

that I enjoyed by Andrew Klavan, I first read "Don't Say a Word" in 1992. With the 2001 movie starring Michael Douglas (probably good in the role, although I don't equate him physically with Nathan Conrad), I decided to revisit the book I once enjoyed before I see the movie (probably on DVD when it comes out). I was not disappointed. Klavan writes a suspenseful tale, but also tells the story of a very old-fashioned modern day marriage between Conrad and his admirable wife Agatha, a romance that is disrupted when his young daughter is kidnapped.

Central to the suspense is the tie in to a new patient of Conrad's, Elizabeth Burrows. The mystery encompasses her relationship to the kidnappers, who are observing the Conrad's from the apartment across the way, while pretending they have hidden a camera and microphones in the Conrad apartment.

Klavan uses an interesting author's palette, telling the story by the use of various points of view for various chapters, weaving the story as viewed by Conrad, Agatha, Elizabeth, and the head of the kidnapping gang, a cruel man known as "Sport".

The book is hard to put down, because your expectation is not of a happy ending. Klavan focuses more on events and dialogue than he does on character motivation and development, which makes for a brisk, page-turner of a suspense novel.

Klavan is an interesting author, formerly a journalist, of many suspense novels, and this, one of his oldest, is also one of his best.

Enjoy!