If You Tell cover art

If You Tell

A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood

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About this listen

2021 Audie Award Nominee for Best Nonfiction Audiobook

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.

©2019 Gregg Olsen. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Abductions, Kidnapping & Missing Persons Crime Murder True Crime Emotionally Gripping Exciting Scary Disappearance Serial Killers True Crime Amish Nonfiction

Critic reviews

"Peakes's performance sucks the listener into the scenes of abuse, torture, sadism, and, eventually, murder committed by Shelly.... Peakes's narration is compelling." --AudioFile Magazine

"This riveting account will leave readers questioning every odd relative they’ve known." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Olsen presents the story chronologically and in a simple, straightforward style, which works well: it is chilling enough as is." --Booklist

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In a way I wish I'd never listened to this- I should have read the other reviews more carefully! What goes on in this book is so darkly disturbing and far beyond what any "normal" person would imagine a Mother is capable of doing. There is extreme torture here- mental and physical- and after listening to the whole thing I feel tortured aswell, I know I'll be haunted by this for a while. The book deserves a good rating as it's so well written and the narrator does a brilliant job- all the voices come off as genuine. But I can't really say I'd reccommend this- how can you reccommend real life hell to anyone?!

Extremely disturbing/upsetting

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This was a very hard book to read, I enjoyed it but the abuce that was afflicted on the three sisters and the others in the father and mothers web was horrible. While the mother was the main culprit in my opinion the father was just as bad for not standing up to her knowing it was wrong. I won't say any more on this book as a lot of it was very distressing to read.

Difficult to read but fantastic and inspiring.

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i enjoyed this book, i liked the narration and would seeknout other books narrated by her. My first Grehg Olsen book, would listen another.

Tough subject

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for those of us that are non psychotic it is hard to believe the events unfolding in this real life story that uncovers years of torture and torment.

chilling

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What one twisted mind can do to others is just horrible. The fact that this is true makes it horrifying
Well documented and narrated

Horrific

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