The Therapist by SA Falk

Dr Fletcher works as a psychiatrist with some of the most serious criminal offenders who have been found criminally insane and thus evading the death penalty. Trent Davis, a musician who is suspected of killing six women, has landed under Dr Fletcher’s watch and she is hoping to find out what’s going on in his mind.

 

Through a number of sessions, Trent has the doctor spinning in circles as she learns about the abuse he suffered (or didn’t), about the demon coercing him (or isn’t), and the bodies he ate (or didn’t). Then packages start arriving for Trent and more bodies turn up – the work of a copycat? When one of the packages has the doctor’s home address as the return address, Dr Fletcher knows she is in danger. Is she too close to the case?

 

A psychiatrist working with the criminally insane – definitely the basis for a good story. Dr Fletcher’s interactions with Trent were very intense and the way he came across as completely sane in his thoughts but insane in his actions was macabre. His lyrics and convictions were disturbing and I was looking forward to finding out the whys and hows of his killing spree.

 

But then the concentration shifted. Suddenly it was all about the copycat and the answers about Trent never came. Dr Fletcher became more of an annoying character as time went by and her professionalism certainly fell by the wayside. The book moves from a heightened sense of emotions and a need to find out more, to a slower feeling of acceptance, and then moves into a possible life or death situation and suddenly (when your kindle says there is 9% left in the book), the story ends. And the ending feels like a copout.

 

The author has managed to convey Trent’s psychological state well, but the “unputdownable thriller with an incredible twist” did not come through.

 

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.

The Murder Club by Sam Baron

Susan Parker has been called to investigate the death of Derek Chen. But his mother, Margaret, is convinced it’s murder and that it’s linked to The Murder Club. Upon delving deeper, Susan finds out that there is a club of wealthy people who are currently stalking a murderer. Once who has videos of his killings and whose feed the club has hacked into.

 

Naved Seth, who is in local law enforcement, brings a young lady named Urduja to meet Susan. Susan knows her as the local pizza delivery person, but it turns out Urduja and friends have been gathering information on the murderer and have identified the type of victims and their connection. But is this enough to tie to the club murderer who has now taken another victim?

 

And then it becomes personal. With the murderer entering Susan’s home and intimating he can take her daughter or sislaw at any time, Susan needs to get her head in the game and stop him. Everyone has family somewhere, and rotten seeds make for rotten trees...

 

Having not read the book before this, it became a little confusing at times to figure out characters and where everyone slotted in. Yet even for someone starting the series with this book, it was annoying the number of times the murder case from the first book was mentioned. And about how great Susan is at her job and how amazing she was at solving the case. And the fact that she is a marginalised woman of colour. And her ire towards white males. I understand that these needed to be introduced to the story, but saying them over and over wanted to make me skip paragraphs.

 

A lot of themes from the first book are brought over like Susan’s husband’s death, her attitude towards her husband’s family, and other relationships, and most of these remain open. It leads me to wonder how many books will be written in this series where these questions are strung out while cases are solved within.

 

I didn’t really connect with any of the characters and mainly read it for the story. This is odd, as in most books I can identify with a character’s feelings or actions. And I did not find this to be a gripping thriller. For that to happen, I need to feel I can’t put the book down without reading just one more chapter. It didn’t happen here. Susan and her team were obviously very close, but some procedures broken and collective decisions made were very iffy. There is loyalty and then there is the law. The twist, well... the clues are there from the chapter that makes it obvious.

 

The writing is easy to read with no major errors and even though this book ends off with questions and leads into the next, I would not buy the next one to find out the answers. It was just a “meh” for me.

 

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.