Review: The Murderer's Daughter: A Novel by Jonathan Kellerman

Title: The Murderer's Daughter

Author: Jonathan Kellerman
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine
Published: Aug. 18, 2015
Pages: 385
Genre: Mystery/Thrillers
Review: ebook provided by NetGalley and Publisher
Buy Links: Amazon, Amazon.uk

A brilliant, deeply dedicated psychologist, Grace Blades has a gift for treating troubled souls and tormented psyches—perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars: Only five years old when she witnessed her parents’ deaths in a bloody murder-suicide, Grace took refuge in her fierce intellect and found comfort in the loving couple who adopted her. But even as an adult with an accomplished professional life, Grace still has a dark, secret side. When her two worlds shockingly converge, Grace’s harrowing past returns with a vengeance.
Both Grace and her newest patient are stunned when they recognize each other from a recent encounter. Haunted by his bleak past, mild-mannered Andrew Toner is desperate for Grace’s renowned therapeutic expertise and more than willing to ignore their connection. And while Grace is tempted to explore his case, which seems to eerily echo her grim early years, she refuses—a decision she regrets when a homicide detective appears on her doorstep.
An evil she thought she’d outrun has reared its head again, but Grace fears that a police inquiry will expose her double life. Launching her own personal investigation leads her to a murderously manipulative foe, one whose warped craving for power forces Grace back into the chaos and madness she’d long ago fled.

I received this book via NetGalley for an honest review.

Man I don't even know where to start with this book. The title and the synopsis sounded like something that I was really going to enjoy. The book started off promising and it held my attention but I think when I got to where the detective ended up on Grace's door step is where I ended up losing interest. The ending was one of those ones that I was going whattttt?

We go back and forth between Grace's past and the present and it all comes together. The author did a great job with describing her past. 

So we start of the story with Grace and who her parents are and how she became the Murderer's Daughter. You feel so bad for Grace but you just have that feeling she is going to become something great in life. She ends up in foster home after foster home and is really intelligent for her age until she is finally adopted by two wonderful people. 

Then we move to the present where she is this awesome psychologist and everything is going good in her life, even her night light escapades. When she meets a guy in a bar and then ends up seeing him the next day as a patient that is when everything goes upside down for Grace. It seems that guy was more than just some random person, people in her past have came into the present. 

This whole time leading up to this I was hooked wondering what was going to happen next, then the detective came into the picture asking questions which is normal but then instead of leaving the investigation to the police Grace decides to go on about it herself. I could understand in a way why she was doing it but it felt unreal. She just went off by herself to catch a killer without any thoughts to what would happen to herself.  I felt I was left wondering why someone really wanted Grace and his brother dead. It really made no sense in a way. It was like we were left bread crumbs to find the answer but nothing was given. Then the whole scene towards the end with the bad guy and his sister I didn't understand  really what that was about or what the point of it was.

I think as a character Grace was well written but didn't feel real, I couldn't connect with her in any way. Also what is up with always telling us that she is eating jerky, it is one of those pieces of information you really don't need to know at ever turn.

This book didn't work out for me as well as I thought. The only thing I really enjoyed was Grace's past and how what she went through and dealt with made her who and what she was in the present. 

Jonathan Kellerman was born in New York City in 1949 and grew up in Los Angeles. He helped work his way through UCLA as an editorial cartoonist, columnist, editor and freelance musician. As a senior, at the age of 22, he won a Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for fiction.

Like his fictional protagonist, Alex Delaware, Jonathan received at Ph.D. in psychology at the age of 24, with a specialty in the treatment of children. He served internships in clinical psychology and pediatric psychology at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and was a post-doctoral HEW Fellow in Psychology and Human Development at CHLA.

IN 1975, Jonathan was asked by the hospital to conduct research into the psychological effects of extreme isolation (plastic bubble units) on children with cancer, and to coordinate care for these kids and their families. The success of that venture led to the establishment, in 1977 of the Psychosocial Program, Division of Oncology, the first comprehensive approach to the emotional aspects of pediatric cancer anywhere in the world. Jonathan was asked to be founding director and, along with his team, published extensively in the area of behavioral medicine. Decades later, the program, under the tutelage of one of Jonathan's former students, continues to break ground.

Jonathan's first published book was a medical text, PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF CHILDHOOD CANCER, 1980. One year later, came a book for parents, HELPING THE FEARFUL CHILD.

In 1985, Jonathan's first novel, WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS, was published to enormous critical and commercial success and became a New York Times bestseller. BOUGH was also produced as a t.v. movie and won the Edgar Allan Poe and Anthony Boucher Awards for Best First Novel. Since then, Jonathan has published a best-selling crime novel every year, and occasionally, two a year. In addition, he has written and illustrated two books for children and a nonfiction volume on childhood violence, SAVAGE SPAWN (1999.) Though no longer active as a psychotherapist, he is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Psychology at University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

Jonathan is married to bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman and they have four children.