Rating: 
Summary: Seamy book about psychotic and sadistic criminals.
Review: "Don't Say a Word," by Andrew Klavan, is an unpleasant book about a trio of perverted criminals who kidnap a little girl for strange reasons of their own.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.
Rating: 
Summary: What Is the Number
Review: "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.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastically Chilling
Review: "Don't Say A Word," is the ultimate book of all thrillers. The storyline makes the reader feel as though they have entered into the book, and, personally, that is a major necessity of a good book. Dr. Conrad is a man of many talents and shows the readers that he will do anything to get his daughter. Jessie, though a young girl is extremely talented, and uses her wit to win. Every character is unique and are extremely real. I recommend this to any lover of thriller books.
Rating:
Summary: What Is the Number
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: What do you expect?
Review: Ask yourself what you want of this book. If its an entertaining, reasonably suspenseful timekiller you seek, then this is a great choice. It's an old book experiencing a (slight) renaissance due to the release of the Michael Douglas movie. I would rather pick my own eyes out with a grapefruit spoon than see that movie but the book is the source and introduces a flawed psychiatrist and his small family and then subjects them to psychotics of every stripe. As a parent, I feel compelled to warn adults with children in the house that the novel preys on basic child-kidnapping fears. But you already know that, don't you? The ending is a bit pat and the improbable seems to trump the likely at every turn. Even so, it's a nice little romp, sort of thriller lite. It is particularly effective in its compression of time and its varied perspectives. If you've ever wondered about the mind of a psychopath, Klavan will gladly oblige you a peek.
Rating: 
Summary: stupid, stupid book
Review: believe me... the book is not worth reding.
I got the book because the movie sound interesting
but there wsn't much of a suspence in it
horror, the horror
Rating:
Summary: why is this out of print?
Review: Considering all the blah boring garbage books out there today,I would think this book would still be in print and very popular. It is very entertaining, flows swiftly. Has all the extreme emotions a Great thriller should have. And it ends well.
Rating:
Summary: A nail-biter all the way.
Review: Don't miss this one. All the characters are full dimensional and the main cop is a winner. I was reading so fast in order to find out how this would all end that I had to go back and re-read the final chapter! To show how much I like this author, I scoured the book racks for other of his works and bought two. So far I have passed this one on to a lot of people in hopes this author gets read. BUY THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling Suspense
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Pure adrenaline rush
Review: First of all - don't watch the movie. It really butchered the book, changing its core elements into something quite different and less interesting.
This book is the closest you get to Hitchcock, without watching the movies. The main character is an ordinary man, who is face with the order: "We have your daughter, we are watching you, do as we tell you and don't say a word, or we'll kill her".
Thus he is sent on a task he doesn't understand, and he is trying to deduce the wereabouts of his daughter and the mystery of the number the villains are trying to get out of his patient in a mental hospital.
The pace of the novel is superb, and the language is perfect for this kind of book. This is really the kind of book to keep you through the night.
The situation the characters are put in is really your worst nightmare - when the violence shatters your cozy little world, and you have to fight for everything you hold dear.
This book is equal to "Marathon Man" by William Goldman, shame it didn't manage to get as good movie version as that novel.
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