You Can Tell Me
Author: Melinda Leigh
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: B+
What I’m Talking About:
On the anniversary of her kidnapping, a woman awaits a True Crime podcaster friend who never shows at the scene. Melinda Leigh beings a new series with a bang-up start.
You Can Tell Me is the first book in the Olivia Cruz series and new readers can absolutely begin here, but I came to this book high on anticipation because Olivia was introduced in the much earlier Morgan Dane series and became a love interest for a favorite side character in that series. Seeing Olivia get to be the center focus was neat, but I was eager to reunite with favorite Morgan Dane characters as well and I was not disappointed.
Olivia Cruz is a keen investigative writer who has helped solve perplexing cases and gone up against some dangerous and smart criminals to get her story in the past. Now her friend, Zoe, who is a True Crime podcaster, doesn’t show up and Olivia knows this is not like Zoe, so she goes to investigate. Olivia finds her phone and an ominous one-word message ‘run’ and she realizes this is not a case of Zoe just getting caught up in something innocent.
Olivia sees that the husband and police are not treating the situation with enough concern so she tackles the investigation and soon discovers Zoe was keeping secrets. With a relationship to Lincoln, a private investigator and friends with his partners, Olivia gets some solid help. This is a good thing because she’s waded into something dangerous alongside Zoe’s niece.
You Can Tell Me was more of Melinda Leigh’s signature thriller suspense as a new case and a new protagonist gets under way. Like in the past, the investigators led by Olivia are smart about how they go about things and work with the police for strong police procedural mystery solving. Not to say, people don’t do gutsy things or that unanticipated results come- the villain certainly wasn’t going to make it easy and I had fears for young Nicki, the niece.
I will admit that I might have been more into this one due to the Morgan Dane characters connection and there were some brief lag moments in my interest, but it was still a solid, engaging start to a new series, and I am looking forward to what comes next as Olivia and Lincoln’s relationship deepens and they will work together on more cases.
Romantic suspense and Thriller romance fans who like smart detecting and mature-acting characters need to add these to their wish lists.
My Rating: B+ Liked It A Lot
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
Crime writer Olivia Cruz is drawn into the dark secrets of a missing friend in a terrifying novel of suspense by #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh.
On the three-year anniversary of true crime writer Olivia Cruz’s horrific kidnapping, she’s scheduled to walk her podcaster friend Zoe March through the crime scene, but Zoe fails to show. Olivia knows Zoe would never stand her up—not today.
Zoe’s husband, who claims she never came home the night before, has reported her missing. But marital conflicts make the police suspect she has left him. Olivia thinks otherwise. The police aren’t looking for Zoe, so Olivia begins her own investigation. Retracing her friend’s last steps, she finds Zoe’s phone and a text with one chilling Run.
It soon becomes apparent that Zoe has been keeping secrets, and with her true crime podcast, there’s no telling what she has unearthed. To find her, Olivia must dig into her friend’s past. Did Zoe vanish to escape a killer, and is Olivia walking into a deadly trap?
Release Date: May 12, 2026
Publisher: Montlake
Series: Olivia Cruz #1
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Thriller
Format(s): hardcover (299 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley