THE PERFECT DAUGHTER
D.J. Palmer
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St Martins Press
April 20, 2021
384 pages
The Perfect Daughter is a thriller that explores the truth or lies behind a teenage girl’s multiple personality disorder, from D.J. Palmer, the author of The New Husband.
I do not read a lot of thrillers, these days they have become a dime a dozen. I happened to choose this one and I am glad I did. It is so masterfully written, I was drawn right into it.
I’m not even sure if “thriller” is the right classification. It is also a murder mystery, a medical mystery and a family drama.
The premise of the book is very simple. The birth mother of a young girl is found brutally murdered. The young girl suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder. (DID) (also known as Multiple Personality Disorder) This young girl is now in a psychiatric hospital awaiting trial. But, she might be not aware of committing the murder because it could have been one of her alternate personalities.
While the premise is simple, the execution of the story is complex. The author has done extensive research on the issue of DID. I trust the disorder has been accurately represented in the story.
The major characters are very well developed and believably portrayed. The mother will stop at nothing to see her daughter get justice. The doctor (who has his own demons) is putting a lot of effort to discover what may have happened because of the personality disorder.
While reading this book I had several prime suspects in my head. Those suspects changed back and forth with every page I turned. But, I did not figure out the true ending. It truly was a surprise! Well done!
The ending was good. I loved how everything was nicely wrapped up, all the loose ends were no longer loose.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
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I mainly read thrillers and lately they are all starting to run together, but this one stood out. This is my first DJ Palmer book, so I have nothing to compare it to but I am planning on reading more.
Grace and Arthur adopted Penny when she was found abandoned in the park. Or should I say Eve, or maybe Ruby or Chloe. The focus of this book is DID, or dissociative identity disorder. This is also known as multiple personalities and these all belong to Penny or so she claims. Penny is accused of killing her birth mother and none of her personalities remember much, but claim they didn’t do it, but Penny was found drenched in blood holding the knife.
Throughout the book, I was trying to figure out if Penny had DID or was faking. And I waffled back and forth with this in addition to trying to figure what other crimes she may or may not have committed and if it really wasn’t her, who did it. The plot is well thought out. The story is complex with all Penny’s alter egos, her step brothers, her psychiatrist with his own issues and her mother yet the author never leaves a piece of the plot dangling.
And to not mislead, this isn’t a pulse pounding thriller, but more a methodical game of chess. Moving the story along piece by piece. I really enjoyed the slower pace of this book. It gave me time to analyze all that was happening.
I really recommend this book for all the thriller lovers out there.
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