I was chatting with author Hank Philippi Ryan last summer at the Cape Cod Writers Conference in Hyannis. She was signing copies of her new book, “Trust Me.”
We had met once before when Hank was inducted into the Mass Broadcasters Hall of Fame. I knew she wrote crime novels and had won an Agatha Christie for her first one. I decided then to read all her mysteries in order, as I had done with Travis McGee, Spenser, Jesse Stone, Shane Scully, the Girl with the “Dragon Tattoo,” Wallander, Carl Hiasson, PJ Donaldson, and others.
Investigative reporter Charlie McNally is a great character in Hank’s first four novels. Then Charlie lives happily ever after, and we meet Jane Ryland, who is even more likable and, to me, a little more relatable. Also an investigative reporter.
I really like the way Hank switches POV - even within a chapter - and makes of point of having each character talk a little differently, like you’d imagine they would in real life.
Now I’ve finished all 5 Jane Rylands and have moved on to “Trust Me” that Hank was pitching last summer. It’s also a page-turner, but I’d love to see to reprise of Ms. Ryland on a murder case.

Flip to back
Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
OK
What You See: 4 Mass Market Paperback – 30 August 2016
by
Hank Phillippi Ryan
(Author)
Hank Phillippi Ryan
(Author)
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
|
See all formats and editions
Hide other formats and editions
Amazon Price
|
New from | Used from |
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry"
|
$17.25
|
$17.25 | — |
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
—
|
— | — |
Arrives:
19 - 23 Feb
Fastest delivery:
8 - 10 Feb
US imports may differ from local products. Additional terms apply.
Learn More.
Amazon Global Store
- International products have separate terms and are sold from abroad and may differ from local products including fit, age rating, and language of product, labeling, or instructions.
- Manufacturer warranty may not apply but you may have other rights under law.
- Learn more about Amazon Global Store
Releases March 2, 2021. Pre-order Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life now with Pre-order Price Guarantee.
If the Amazon.com.au price decreases between your order time and the end of the day of the release date, you'll receive the lowest price. Order now
Amazon Global Store
- International products have separate terms and are sold from abroad and may differ from local products including fit, age rating, and language of product, labeling, or instructions.
- Manufacturer warranty may not apply but you may have other rights under law.
- Learn more about Amazon Global Store
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
I’d like to read this book on Kindle
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Releases February 16, 2021. Pre-order How to Avoid a Climate Disaster now with Pre-order Price Guarantee.
If the Amazon.com.au price decreases between your order time and the end of the day of the release date, you'll receive the lowest price. Order now
Product details
- Publisher : Forge; Reissue edition (30 August 2016)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 076537496X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0765374967
- Dimensions : 12.19 x 2.72 x 15.62 cm
- Customer Reviews:
Product description
Review
Fully drawn characters, palpable suspense, and not one, but two unexpected endings are a plus.
"Publishers Weekly"
Award-winner Ryan is a master of her craft...This is exceptional suspense written in Ryan's inimitable style. "RT BookReviews (Top Pick!)"
Ryan...displays her trademark flair for knotty plotting...worth a night or two of breakneck reading. "Kirkus Reviews""
About the Author
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN is the on-air investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate. She has won 33 EMMYs, 13 Edward R. Murrow awards and dozens of other honors for her groundbreaking journalism. A bestselling author of mystery novels, Ryan has won multiple prestigious awards for her crime fiction: five Agathas, the Anthony, Daphne, Macavity, and for THE OTHER WOMAN, the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. National reviews have called her a "master at crafting suspenseful mysteries" and "a superb and gifted storyteller." Her 2013 novel, THE WRONG GIRL, won both the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel and the Daphne Award for Mainstream Mystery/Suspense, and is a seven-week Boston Globe bestseller. TRUTH BE TOLD was the Agatha Award winner for Best Contemporary Novel, an Anthony Award nominee for Best Novel, and a Library Journal BEST BOOK OF 2014, with starred reviews from Booklist and from Library Journal. She also won a second Agatha Award in 2015 for Best Nonfiction, as editor of WRITES OF PASSAGE, an anthology of essays by mystery authors. Ryan's follow up to TRUTH BE TOLD is WHAT YOU SEE, which debuted in Fall 2015. She's a founding teacher at Mystery Writers of America University and 2013 president of national Sisters in Crime.
Customer reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
47 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top reviews from other countries

Don Kelley
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love Jane Ryland
Reviewed in the United States on 11 March 2019Verified Purchase
One person found this helpful
Report abuse

Mark Baker - Carstairs Considers
4.0 out of 5 stars
What I See? Another Great Book
Reviewed in the United States on 26 February 2016Verified Purchase
Over the years, Hank Phillippi Ryan has earned a reputation for her page turning novels – and that reputation is well earned. What You See is the latest in her Jane Ryland series, and it is another book that will leave you reading well into the night.
Now this series is officially titled the Jane Ryland series, but I would argue that Jane’s boyfriend Jake Brogan should be just as much a part of the series title. They are both equally important characters in each book, contributing to the solution of the plot.
Boston detective Jake Brogan has landed a case with too many witnesses. A man has been stabbed in the middle of a small park near city hall at lunch time, and there are cameras and cell phones all around. Did one of these eye witnesses see the stabbing? Or did they capture a clue on their phone?
Meanwhile, reporter Jane Ryland is trying to land a new job. When the call about the stabbing comes in, she is interviewing at a TV station and is the only person around, so she heads out to cover it on a freelance basis. However, a family crisis with her sister’s wedding threatens to derail her career comeback. Can she solve her family’s problems?
If you are new to the series, you can certainly jump in here. Jane and Jake are wonderful characters, and it is easy to figure out their history from comments and exposition here. While a tiny bit of a sub-plot from the previous book is spoiled (explaining why Jane is once again unemployed), nothing major from any of the previous books is spoiled.
There really are two plots in this book that weave in and out of each other seamlessly. The book is a bit slow as the stories are built up, but once they get going, this book is a page turner. I had a hard time putting it down, always wanting to read just a little bit more. This book is longer than the books I normally read, but it didn’t feel like it as I was glued to the page. Of course, everything builds to a satisfying climax.
The story unfolds from multiple viewpoints, including Jane and Jake. This allows us to get to know several characters very well, which helps since we have a large cast of new characters here. All the characters are real, becoming fully fleshed out before we are too far into the book.
Unfortunately, the cuts between the multiple viewpoints was part of the problem early on in the book. In an effort to create tension, we had some quick cuts that were supposed to be suspenseful but were more annoying than suspenseful. As we got to know the new characters and the plots built, switching to another part of the story became a welcome thing because I needed to know what was going to happen.
I saw a description of this series recently that referred to it as cozy thriller. While I don’t know if I would go quite that far, these definitely fall closer to the soft boiled spectrum than the pure cozies I usually read. Mostly, this is noticeable in a few well-placed swear words. And the plot is definitely a step closer to thriller than cozies generally are as well, with more tension and more at stake but without the violence that genre usually has. Just keep this in mind as you pick it up to read.
Because I definitely recommend you read What You See. You’ll be caught up in the story before you know it.
Now this series is officially titled the Jane Ryland series, but I would argue that Jane’s boyfriend Jake Brogan should be just as much a part of the series title. They are both equally important characters in each book, contributing to the solution of the plot.
Boston detective Jake Brogan has landed a case with too many witnesses. A man has been stabbed in the middle of a small park near city hall at lunch time, and there are cameras and cell phones all around. Did one of these eye witnesses see the stabbing? Or did they capture a clue on their phone?
Meanwhile, reporter Jane Ryland is trying to land a new job. When the call about the stabbing comes in, she is interviewing at a TV station and is the only person around, so she heads out to cover it on a freelance basis. However, a family crisis with her sister’s wedding threatens to derail her career comeback. Can she solve her family’s problems?
If you are new to the series, you can certainly jump in here. Jane and Jake are wonderful characters, and it is easy to figure out their history from comments and exposition here. While a tiny bit of a sub-plot from the previous book is spoiled (explaining why Jane is once again unemployed), nothing major from any of the previous books is spoiled.
There really are two plots in this book that weave in and out of each other seamlessly. The book is a bit slow as the stories are built up, but once they get going, this book is a page turner. I had a hard time putting it down, always wanting to read just a little bit more. This book is longer than the books I normally read, but it didn’t feel like it as I was glued to the page. Of course, everything builds to a satisfying climax.
The story unfolds from multiple viewpoints, including Jane and Jake. This allows us to get to know several characters very well, which helps since we have a large cast of new characters here. All the characters are real, becoming fully fleshed out before we are too far into the book.
Unfortunately, the cuts between the multiple viewpoints was part of the problem early on in the book. In an effort to create tension, we had some quick cuts that were supposed to be suspenseful but were more annoying than suspenseful. As we got to know the new characters and the plots built, switching to another part of the story became a welcome thing because I needed to know what was going to happen.
I saw a description of this series recently that referred to it as cozy thriller. While I don’t know if I would go quite that far, these definitely fall closer to the soft boiled spectrum than the pure cozies I usually read. Mostly, this is noticeable in a few well-placed swear words. And the plot is definitely a step closer to thriller than cozies generally are as well, with more tension and more at stake but without the violence that genre usually has. Just keep this in mind as you pick it up to read.
Because I definitely recommend you read What You See. You’ll be caught up in the story before you know it.
6 people found this helpful
Report abuse

Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars
Always tells a good story
Reviewed in the United States on 19 March 2016Verified Purchase
Jane Ryland is a reporter currently out of work. When she hears of a story developing she heads to the site, grabs a kid filming everything, and sets off to hopefully get something she can use to impress a new boss. Low and behold, her boyfriend, detective Jake Brogan, is there. He is stunned to see Jane but even more surprised when someone mistakenly informs him she's working for a local television station. When did she find a job? Why didn't she tell him? Unfortunately he has no time to question her as he just might have the killer in hand, although the guy swears he didn't do anything wrong.
To add to the suspense, Jane gets a call from her sister. The woman is getting married that coming weekend and her fiance's daughter is missing. While he's overseas! Melissa is in a panic so naturally Jane has to respond.
I really liked the way the author took two separate stories and beautifully wove them together in the end. I also liked the way Jane put family above her own wants and needs, not realizing the two cases were actually connected. Jake was pretty amazing as well. In the midst of his case, he's still trying to help Jane find this young girl, showing how much Jane means to him.
This was a top notch story, fast-paced, and I love these characters. Just wish the author didn't take so long between books.
To add to the suspense, Jane gets a call from her sister. The woman is getting married that coming weekend and her fiance's daughter is missing. While he's overseas! Melissa is in a panic so naturally Jane has to respond.
I really liked the way the author took two separate stories and beautifully wove them together in the end. I also liked the way Jane put family above her own wants and needs, not realizing the two cases were actually connected. Jake was pretty amazing as well. In the midst of his case, he's still trying to help Jane find this young girl, showing how much Jane means to him.
This was a top notch story, fast-paced, and I love these characters. Just wish the author didn't take so long between books.
3 people found this helpful
Report abuse

Nancy
2.0 out of 5 stars
I got lost too many times
Reviewed in the United States on 14 September 2020Verified Purchase
A Long book that I think took place in 24 hours? I may have lost something because I skipped a lot to get through it.
Who did Lewis Whilhite turn out to really be??? Done with Jane Ryland.
Who did Lewis Whilhite turn out to really be??? Done with Jane Ryland.

karen espinola
2.0 out of 5 stars
Three stars
Reviewed in the United States on 11 August 2020Verified Purchase
Ive read a few other books by this author and enjoyed them. This one was long and drawn out. I did not enjoy it. The characters were boring and the plot was weak.
Get FREE delivery with Amazon Prime
Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to movies, TV shows, music, Kindle e-books, Twitch Prime, and more.