He was the creator of TV shows ‘The Patty Duke Show, ‘l Dream of Jeannie’, and ‘Hart to Hart’, and was also ranked 7th in the best selling writer of all time list, the list which is topped by William Shakespeare & Ghats Christie. His other novels included ‘Master of the Game’, ‘The other Side of Midnight’, and ‘Rage of Angels’. He has also written his autobiography by the name ‘The Other Side Of Me’, and also many Broadway plays. Is published by Harper Collins, and It Is 341 pages long, which Includes mall story, Author’s note and bibliography at the end. The book Is delved over 3 parts ? Book 1, & 3. I took 4 days to complete this book.
This book as said is fiction based on actual events or cases. Book 1 contains 10 chapters (108 pages), Book 2 has 11 chapters divided over 1 50 pages, and Book 3 has 8 chapters. Tell Me Your Dreams is another Sheldon masterpiece that encapsulates the trademarks of the author- gripping plot and high-profile drama. Written in 1998, the book traces the story of three women- Ashley Patterson, an introverted workaholic; Toni Prescott, a girl who likes to live life to the fullest and is an outgoing dancer and singer; and Alter Peters, a shy painter ho has a calming effect on whoever she meets and Interacts with.
Without going into many details that would require spoiler alerts, the plot traces a series of gruesome murders that are taking place across the city wherein the victim Is castrated and horrifically murdered. At the same time, Ashley feels that she Is being stalked by someone unknown, and fears that her life might be on the line. The authorities feel that a mentally-deranged person may be behind all the murders and start tracing leads. What ensues is a psychological thriller that will keep you hooked o your seats and not let you sleep until you have reached the end of it.
All Sidney Sheldon novels are a perfect embodiment of the type of drama and crime thrillers that he was associated with throughout his career. The plots are engaging, have Just enough amount of detail to keep the reader Interested and directly appeal to the psyche. But at the same time, he takes care to write simply and lucidly, appealing to a wide reading audience. The language Is what represents America the best- simple, straightforward and not too flowery. Sheldon plays around with a lot of henchmen and human behavior that people are curious about- crime and psychological workings of the mind being the two main features.
This novel too has 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. ” Thus begins Sidney Sheldon haunting new novel, Tell Me Your Dreams. When a series of brutal murders is committed, the police suspect three beautiful young women. An arrest is made and what follows is one of the most bizarre murder trials of the century.
Based on actual events, Tell Me Your Dreams races at a feverish pace from London to Rome to Quebec to San Francisco, and builds to a shocking climax that will leave the listener stunned. This suspenseful follow-up to Sheldon most recent bestseller, The Best Laid Plans (ten weeks on the New York Times bestseller list), is rich with tension and heart- stopping action. Laced with the kinds of plot twists and turns that his fans love, Tell Me Your Dreams is an entertaining and gripping story. Well, for a change I again tried series-author.
Well, personally I never like to watch any superhero movie, but if I get I watch it on my laptop/pod/TV, similarly I never buy a book of a series-writer, that too who wrote suspense/detective/thriller genre like Ghats Christie, or likewise. Though later I bought & read one book of AC, and recently I am getting attracted towards James Hadley Chase Novels. So here as well I read 1st book of a very famous series- writer ‘Sidney Sheldon’, I don’t think that the name needs any introduction, and it was books good-luck that somehow I started reading it: P.
It was bought by my friend, I kook it from him and was in my attic from long time, but as usual because of my non- interest, I was not reading it. Then came a Journey and I want to take 1 book with me, and am not finding any less fatty book to take, all thin books are completed, so I opted this one to take with me, because of no other choice available. And then I started reading the book ‘Tell me your Dreams’ written by Sidney Sheldon. Plot and Characters: The novel opens introducing us to the heroine, Ashley Patterson. Although she cannot prove it, she feels and believes that she is being stalked by someone with murderous intentions.
She comes home from work (in Silicon Valley) one day to find that all the lights in her apartment have been turned on. Another day she sees that her lingerie drawer has been ransacked. In the next two chapters, we are introduced to Toni Prescott and Alter Peters who work at the same company with Ashley. Toni is six years younger than Ashley, born in England, she is a bit of a “wild child” with serious maternal issues. She is a wonderful singer, but her inner thoughts keep flashing back to her mother telling her she was no good and would never amount to anything. Toni likes to dress provocatively and o club hopping on the weekends.
She despises Ashley because Ashley is everything spoken, sweet artist who also has maternal issues. Though people around her keep telling her that she is an extraordinarily talented painter, she keeps hearing her mother tell her the contrary. Though she currently has a very close relationship with her father, Ashley is haunted by the memory of her father forcing her to leave her High School sweetheart, Jim. She had planned to run away and be married to Jim, but he never showed up at the train station. When Ashley attends her ten year reunion, she learns that Jim was viciously ordered and castrated the morning they were supposed to meet.
She is stunned and immediately suspects her father. When a man at work who has been bothering her meets the same fate after she complains to her father about him, Ashley is convinced that her father is behind these murders. On a business trip to Canada, Toni meets her Internet boyfriend for the first time. He presents her with a beautiful emerald ring and is then murdered and castrated. Layette’s artist boyfriend back home in California is also killed in this same fashion. Upon returning home, Ashley finds on her bathroom mirror the message Mimi will die”.
The deputy assigned to protect her is found the next morning in the alley, dead and castrated. When the emerald ring given to Toni is found in Ashley Jewelry box and her fingerprints and DNA at each murder scene, she is arrested. At this point, we are a little less than half way through the book. If you haven’t guessed from the review (l had already guessed from the novel), Ashley suffers from MED (Multiple Personality Disorder). Toni and Alter are both alters which had been created by a traumatic experience (when Ashley was six and eight years old). From this point backward, the novel had been gripping and enticing.
I couldn’t put it down. After this, I was thoroughly disappointed. Ashley father persuades a criminal lawyer turned corporate lawyer, David Singer to return a favor and represent Ashley. The second half of the novel deals with the trial, the fighting psychiatrists and Ashley treatment and introduction to her two alters in a state asylum. The most interesting part of this section was learning the horrific event that caused her fragile psyche to shatter as it did. Writing Style, Motif, etc: This novel was written in the third person, with insight into the minds of Ashley, Toni and Alter. The focus on MED was interesting, but slow paced.
It was frightening how someone can commit brutal murders, be released to an asylum for treatment and then released upon being deemed “cured”. I could tell that I was reading a Sidney Sheldon novel, but I missed the adventure, the world travels, the intrigue and thrilling plot twists to which I’ve become accustomed. Patterson, the heart specialist, known for his advances in medical field. She is also very insecure, and always think that someone is stalking her. She once loved Jim Clearly an aspiring footballer, but he never came back for her even when she waiter or her at the station long back.
Toni Prescott sings odd rhymes, and is very authoritative, and she is daring, a firecracker and is from London with pure British accent. She chats with men but hate them as well. But she started loving Jean Claude Parent who is also a Jeweler, after introducing him at the chat room on Internet. Alter Peters is an artist who likes to draw paintings and hails from beautiful city of Rome. For her everything is colorful, and she is soft spoken and he started liking Richard Mellon, another artist painter. But it’s a detective thriller story, so it can’t be so simple.
The fact behind the story is all 3 ladies works for the same IT company ‘Global Computer Graphics’, Alter and Toni know each other but Ashley didn’t know them. And all 3 guys mentioned above are now dead, someone has murdered them. But who? You need to read the book to know it. There is also one more character picked right from the John Gresham books, a lawyer named David Singer who is currently a corporate lawyer working for a big firm, but then he has to go back to his earlier practiced field to become criminal lawyer and fight an interesting case.
So, does the plot seems interesting, well yes, it is interesting, it has full points as a Tory of a movie, and written in a nice and intriguing manner, till the time suspense is over, it goes good. The language is as simple as it can, which binds the reader throughout with it, the biggest proof is me, I Just completed it in no time, that was the good thing about it, and even when the book is more than 300 pages, you suddenly reach 150 pages in Just 1-2 days, Just like that, it’s the simplicity of books language.
But yes, the main reason behind the suspense seems old, and at many places we have either seen that or read that, don’t forget the fact that this book was written in 998, so it could be one of the first books to show that reason, but since I read it now, so the mystery seems old-fashioned. The place where book finds its climax (at the end of Book 2), looks like the climax is hurried off, Just in half page the case is solved, just like that, I didn’t liked that though.
And then the Book 3, makes you feel that maybe something else is going to happen, but nothing actually happens, I read this part very fast but nothing much come up in the 3rd part, so a bit of boringness at the end of the book is there. Reader may stop reading right after the climax part. Though last line is a good place to leave the book creating new suspense for the author, but that’s been done by many other authors of film-makers, so it seems repetitive, and a wise reader can guess it well before. The ‘David Singer’ character seems common, read or faced it many times before in other novels or places.
But if you want to start reading Sidney Sheldon, this book is for you, a simple read, with no dictionary words used, I didn’t know about his other books, so can’t comment on them. This one is good for a Journey though, my take 3. 5/5 for giving me a good Its Sidney Sheldon at his best again. One of the best Sheldon novels till date. Tell Me your Dreams explores the concept of MED, that is, Multiple Personality Disorder. There are many psychologists skeptic about the existence of MED to date. The master storyteller that he is, Sheldon, peaks his readers curiosity by using this fact to his advantage.
The book starts with a suspense scene, where the female protagonist (Ashley) feels somebody following her. You can almost feel the fear Ashley feels. In the beginning, she is very vague about the details of her past life, especially where it concerned her arenas. This confuses the reader but somehow encourages them to go on reading. Also, Sheldon subtly stresses on her father who is overprotective about his daughter. This followed by a series of murders being committed, from Ashley old high school love to her current persuasive admirer. This pushes Ashley to somehow suspect her overprotective father .
At this point of the book, two new characters are introduced. Both work in the same office as Ashley. One being Toni (Antoinette) who we come to know as a cocky, British woman who loves to sing. As she introduces herself into the Tory, we are informed of her deep hatred towards Ashley. She is a character full of hatred and angst and we also realism her deep hatred for her mother. She speaks of a secret which allows her not to do many things she wants to. She doesn’t allows herself to get too close to anyone which puzzles the reader. To get rid of the loneliness she feels, Toni starts chatting online.
She meets a man who she feels very connected to. Moving on to the next character, we meet Alter. She is a friend of Tonic’s but does not hate Ashley as much as Toni does. She seems to be a shy, hardworking person who also loves painting as a hobby. She seems to have voices in her head which makes the reader question her motives and sometimes her sanity. She meets a fellow artist whom she falls in love with. They both end up castrated and dead. The story moves on and Sheldon does not let the reader guess the stunning climax which leaves you shocked.
Not only is this book a great read, it also shows us the amazing skill which Sheldon possess to enthrall his readers. Sheldon gives out facts and information that support his fiction. After this great read, the readers are left with no doubt as to why this man is called a master storyteller. That Sidney Sheldon s a master storyteller needs no confirmation. Right from his first book The Naked Face, his novels have caught the readers in an irretrievable web. Designed as thrillers, Ass’s narratives usually have a woman at the center of catastrophic events. How his protagonist faces and survives odds forms the crux of his plots.
The best examples of this can be found in Rage of the Angels, Blood Line, Master of the Game, and yes, of course, Tell Me Your Dreams. Fiery Toni, and the timid Alter. Ashley is too much in awe of her father, Toni hates her mother, while Alter has her share of problems. The three women have their hare of relationships, or to word it differently, they try to have relationships. There is just one problem in this. The men are castrated and murdered. The police goes in a tizzy and does not know what, or rather, who has struck the poor victims ‘below the belt’. And suddenly one day, the police arrest Ashley.
This is AS at his thrilling best. What follows next should not be revealed here as that would ruin the excitement of potential readers. However, there is one thing that I would like to state here. AS is renowned for his thrill-a-minute effect. However, what goes unnoticed is his ability to make readers empathic with the situation of his characters. The three women in this novel are dealt with great sensitivity. According to me, one of the reasons why AS has managed to enthrall his readers for such a long time is the way he lends soul, flesh and bones to his characters. AS, apart from his narratives excels in the art of characterization.
His characters are real men and women surrounded by larger-than-life situations. That is probably what makes his appeal timeless. Tell Me Your Dreams is a thriller that also has social relevance, especially in India. The basic issue picked up in this novel is something that we read about in swappers. In fact, I do know of a lady who went through a similar problem (as depicted in the book) in childhood. Want to end the suspense. Then what are you waiting for? Just go and get yourself a copy of the book. Sidney Sheldon is a master of intrigue, suspense and mystery. Pick up any of his books for proof.
His stories are well-paced and imaginatively thought out. And of course, the ending is awesome and unpredictable to say the least. Tell Me Your Dreams is a perfect example of this. I believe that Sidney Sheldon has out done himself with this book. QUICK SUMMARY This is for those who do not want to read the entire synopsis. I have tried to keep it short and sweet. Here goes: Ashley Patterson is the daughter of a world famous doctor who works in a computer firm. Her life is moving along nicely until she gets the impression that someone is stalking her. She has no proof of this, Just a hunch.
But one fine day, she is accused no recollection of these killings yet there is undeniable evidence against her. As it turns out, she is suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder (MED), in which more than one personality resides in a body. Her evil persona, Toni, had committed the gruesome murders where five men were killed and mutilated. What follows is one of the most intriguing court cases ever. What will happen? Will she be convicted or acquitted? Is her condition curable? Read the book to find the answers. CRITICAL ANALYSIS Sheldon, as usual, is descriptive and yet manages to be concise.
He tells us nothing that is irrelevant and contains himself to all the important matters at hand. His explanation of MED deserves praise and the condition of the patients suffering from MED truly touches you. The ending is extraordinary and cannot be predicted. But I am such a fool! I read the last page when I was in the middle of the book out of sheer curiosity. I regret it deeply as it took the fun out of reading. The suspense is cleared in the final lines and the story changes track dramatically. Brilliant. Hats off to Sheldon. There are some authors whose books we read Just so that the end can thrill us.
Sidney Sheldon is focuses, one such author . So I think if I Just tell you what I felt after reading this book you should be able to make your decision whether to buy it or not. The author actually leaves you to think about it (the conclusion) in your own way and he also gives his own opinion – there’s a separate chapter “Author’s Note” at the ND. And this is what made me to simply shun the book! To simply dismiss it – Just throw it away and forget about it I read his other books The Best Laid Plans and The Sky Is Falling so I kept waiting for Vintage Sheldon’ but that eluded me till the very end!
And so I Just threw away the book and instead was looking around the house to occupy myself for something more interesting. For people who anti acquainted with Sheldon, by Vintage Sheldon’ I mean a fantastic ending; an absolutely mind-blowing climax. The book nonetheless is readable ; indeed many would find it good . I do not ant to mean that the book ‘isn’t complete’ but all I am saying is that it did not complete giving me the thrill I was looking for . Actually the plot that Sheldon draws is very interesting, you meet three very attractive ladies Ashley Patterson(28), Letter Peters(20) and Toni Prescott(22) .
All three ladies work for a software company in Silicon Valley. This gal Ashley is our protagonist . These three girls are all very talented. Ashley is very skilled at her work. Letter is a fabulous painter; Toni sings exceptionally well. Therefore the characters are very well defined indeed and the This book is a murder mystery . Ashley Patterson feels someone is stalking her. She gets nightmares. She is living in a flat alone in a town called Cupertino. And so the book is focuses a page-turner.
For the record, with Sheldon there anti any complicated philosophies or anything spiritual or mystical to deal with: it’s all very plain and earthy. Go for it but if you are a newcomer in the world of Sheldon then it would be better to first read better books by him say The Best Laid Plans or The Sky is Falling (actually these are only the other two I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed them especially the latter). The books also successfully addresses the issue of sexual violence against females also exploring the long-time physiological impact.
That ways Sheldon deserves huge amounts of respect for writing this book. There is physicality, and a lotto things happening in the book so that ways it’s good read for somebody whose Linked in someway with sexual crimes against women. Of all the books I have read, Pus’s The Sicilian is my eave book in this thriller category of books. Do try it. If u expected a spine-chilling thriller, as usually is the case with Sidney Sheldon novels, you are in for a bit of let down. This is not the kind of stuff we associate with the master storyteller and churner of potboilers.
It seems, with this book, Sheldon has tried to curb his uncanny knack of being unpredictably and cruelly surprising. Here, in Tell me your Dreams, the wizard of suspense goes slowly, not because he had a bumpy ride ahead but Just to make sure, he had a good close look at the ‘landmarks’ around. Tell Me Your Dream is story of a girl, suffering from a mysterious psychiatric disorder called Multiple-personality Disorder (MED). Multiple personality disorder (MED) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by having t least one “alter” personality that controls behavior.
The “alters” are said to occur spontaneously and involuntarily, and function more or less independently of each other. The unity of consciousness, by which we identify our selves, is said to be absent in MED. Another symptom of MED is significant amnesia, which can’t be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. Here, the protagonist Ashley Preston is suffering from the disorder and has two ‘alters’, who take control of all her activities at times, with she remaining completely oblivious of the transition she goes through while in control of her ‘alter egos’.
She has not the slightest clue of the two personalities inhabiting within her body and doing things that’s not in her very nature. The things take a ugly turn, when the alters, one being the most violent kind, go around killing people and leaving physical evidences of Ashley Preston at the murder sites. After brutal killings of five men, all at different places in different times spanning a decade, the police and FBI together collects evidences, all pointing (rather snapping) finger at Ashley. The poor girl is behind the bars and the subject of unprecedented hatred throughout the country.
The media is gunning for her and public baying for her blood. The hapless (so he pretended) father of the poor girl, than hires a lawyer, who surprisingly practices corporate law rather than criminal law. Even, the lawyer himself is flummoxed by the man’s choice of lawyer to defend professional inexperience, the lawyer sets out exploring the mental condition of the girl, with help of a seasoned psychiatrist. They then stumble upon one of the most mysterious and unfathomable mental disorder called MED. The fiction part of the evolve ends here and then begins the fact’ part of it.
The defense lawyer (read Sheldon himself) then scans through all the finer details of the disorder. He consults doctors, psychiatrists, professors et al to prove in the court that the disorder actually existed and that Preston was one of the live examples of the mysterious disorder. The novel is actually a comprehensive case study of MED. It discusses threadbare the nuances of MED, its possible causes and cures. Though I don’t want to discredit the author for the noble cause of creating awareness about MED through his book, I must ay he has sacrificed a lot in doing so.
