TUESDAY POTPOURRI: EXCERPTS FROM “THE MURDERER’S DAUGHTER”

 

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by A Daily Rhythm.

Good morning!  I am getting off to a late start today, but I’m eager to feature one of my NetGalley downloads:  The Murderer’s Daughter, by Jonathan Kellerman.  It will be released on August 18.

 

 

 

Intro:  Five-year-old Grace lived with two strangers on the fringes of a desert.  Biology and the law labeled them her parents but Grace had never found them other than alien.  As best she could tell, they felt the same way.

Ardis Normand Blades was twenty-eight years old, tall, reedy, long-haired, and patchily blond-bearded, with a sliver of morose face dramatized by jug ears.  Those bat-like appendages notwithstanding, he was semi-decent-looking in a greasy, vaguely dangerous way.  Only semi because some of his God-given looks were long eroded by dope and alcohol and a near perfect record of bad decisions.

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Teaser:  Women of a certain type were drawn to Ardis’s easy smile and good bone structure.  Dodie Funderburk was one of those.  Her academic achievements rivaled Ardis’s and helped cement a shallow rapport. (2%).

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Blurb:  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.

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I am intrigued by these excerpts and the blurb.  Normally I have been drawn to the Alex Delaware series by this author, but this stand-alone novel has captured my interest.  What do you think?

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