The Murderer's Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman
Random House: 8/18/15
eBook review copy, 384 pages
ISBN-13: 9780345545312
www.jonathankellerman.com
The Murderer's Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman is a recommended stand-alone thriller.
Grace Blades is an intelligent, very independent woman who works as a
psychologist specializing in treating victims of trauma. She is highly
recommended in referrals because of her devotion to and great empathy
for her patients. Much of Grace's success is due to her horrific
childhood. She was a neglected child living in an abusive environment.
After witnessing her parents murder/suicide at age 5, she spent several
years in the foster care system. She had a secure home, finally, at age
11. Her background helps her understand and treat her patients.
Now Grace is a consummate professional and devoted to her patients by
day, but engages in secretive, risky, dangerous behavior in her free
time. She has it down to a science how to initiate a one-night-stand, or
really just a quick hook-up to get what she wants from a man with no
commitment.
When Grace's latest patient turns out to be the man she gave a fake name
during to the escapades of the night before, both are shocked. Her new
patient gave her a fake name the previous night too. After an
uncomfortable brief meeting, Grace learns that the man came to see her
because of a paper she had written years ago on under the burden of
being related to a murderer, or living with evil. He quickly leaves her
office and later turns up dead.
Grace tries to figure out who this man really was, since he seems to
have given her yet another alias for his office visit. He said he was
from San Antonio, TX and came just to see her, but that also seems to be
untrue. And now someone might be following Grace, but she needs to
figure out why by herself so her secret duplicitous activities aren't
exposed.
The Murderer's Daughter is very well written. I wouldn't expect
anything less from Kellerman, who has successfully penned his Alex
Delaware series for years. Here, however, there is a plethora of
background information on Grace in chapters that alternate with the
present day. I was heartbroken and very sympathetic with young Grace
and her situation. I didn't so much care for adult Grace and her
reckless, foolish behavior, so I had a difficult time sympathizing with
her. If she is as intelligent as she is purported to be, she should be
smart enough to figure out a safer way to engage in her reckless sexual
behavior. Hooking-up with random strangers is stupid.
What the novel felt like, in the end, was the first book for a new
series in which all the character's background information was
presented. The thriller felt like it was added in between the character
development chapters.
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy
of Random
House for review
purposes.
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