Tell Me Your Dreams: Book Review

Pratheek S

17th September 2020

Written by Sidney Sheldon, Tell Me Your Dreams is a mind-blowing thriller. (Source: Amazon.in)

If you are bored and your routine has hit an impasse in the lockdown, here is a 90’s classic that provides a perfect mixture of mystery, crime, suspense and fiction to jolt you out of the monotonous blues: Tell Me Your Dreams. It is a book written by Sidney Sheldon and published by William Morrow in 1998. The story mainly revolves around the characters Ashley Patterson, Alette Peters, Toni Prescott and David Singer.

“She had read about stalkers, but they belonged in a different, faraway world. She had no idea who it could be, who would want to harm her. She was trying desperately not to panic, but lately her sleep had been filled with nightmares, and she had awakened each morning with a feeling of impending doom.”

So begins Sheldon’s novel, Tell Me Your Dream. Three gorgeous young women are suspected of vicious murders. Consequently, they are arrested, leading to one of the most peculiar trials of the 20th century. The novel takes us from London to Quebec City to San Francisco, with an ending that promises to leave the readers stunned.

We first meet Ashley Patterson, a smart and beautiful “computer whiz” with an untaxing job at a rapidly-growing start-up computer graphics company in Silicon Valley. She is shy and feels isolated, living a life that is incomplete and unhappy for her. She is also completely convinced that she is being stalked by someone. Alette Peters and Toni Prescott are Ashley’s colleagues, however there ends the similarities.

Toni Prescott is British, lively and pugnant, with a fondness for online dating and dancing at discos. Like in their childhood, Alette and Toni do their best to keep Ashley out of their little inner circle, but find it extremely hard after a series of murders inevitably bring their lives together. Until three women are inexplicably brought together due to the murder investigation that lead to one of the most peculiar trials of the century, Alette, Toni and Ashley basically knew nothing about each other.

The mystery about the murders that lead to a bizarre trial, and the reasons for the murders binding the three women are in the latter half of the book. With a psychological insight about the psyches of the character, it keeps the reader immersed and thinking. What stands out the most for a reader in Sheldon’s writing is his usage of lucid language. This is his yet another masterpiece, and presumably his best book, which simply cannot be put down in a few words. Tell Me Your Dreams is an interesting read that gets the reader easily hooked on to the book by the plot, that throughout keeps them guessing about what is to come next.

Edited by Nayana Dhanya