What starts as a slow-burning thriller ends in a crescendo of intensity as D.J. Palmer’s newest thriller, The Perfect Daughter, explores the often-terrifying intersection of mental health disorders and the criminal justice system.
Palmer consistently opens his novels with a bang, and The Perfect Daughter is no exception. The story opens with Grace, a widow and mother to Ryan, Jack, and Penny, opening her front door to two police officers and finding that her teenaged daughter has been arrested…for murder. Based on the evidence at the scene, there is little question of guilt or innocence, but police are not yet aware that Penny is not always Penny.
After several issues in early adolescence, Grace began taking Penny to psychiatrists and Penny was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder. Due to this diagnosis and the seriousness of the crime, Penny is held in a psychiatric hospital while waiting for trial, but her mother never loses faith in her belief that Penny is not responsible for this brutal crime. As Penny’s doctor and her mother attempt to help unlock whatever information Penny’s personalities have buried, they ultimately begin to unlock darker and darker secrets.
Filled with more three-dimensional characters than any other book I have read recently, Palmer truly brings the reader inside the world of this story. Of course, there is a main character, but rather than everyone else simply playing the role they have in that main character’s life we get to see and know about the lives, thoughts, and feelings of those other characters as well. For instance, we don’t just see the doctor in the psychiatric hospital solely in his role as it relates to Grace’s daughter. We learn about him beyond this position and see some of what his life is like apart from who he is in Grace and her daughter’s story. It helps the reader understand the motivations of some characters, but also creates a more vivid world for the reader to drop in to.
Telling this story through multiple flashbacks and varying points of view also helps the reader learn more about all the characters, how they feel and what they think, rather than each of them being nothing but a part of someone else’s story. This gave the entire book a much more real-world feeling.
Full of twists and turns, readers will stay busy trying to guess just what is coming around the corner. But much like the poorly funded state psychiatric facility where a lot of the story takes place, there are some surprises that you will never be able to anticipate, and you better be on your toes and be ready for them!
The Perfect Daughter is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
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.
Grace never dreamt she’d visit her teenaged daughter Penny in the locked ward of a decaying state psychiatric hospital, charged with the murder of a stranger. There was not much question of her daughter’s guilt. Police had her fingerprints on the murder weapon and the victim’s blood on her body and clothes. But they didn’t have a motive.
Grace blames herself, because that’s what mothers do—they look at their choices and wonder, what if? But hindsight offers little more than the chance for regret.
None of this was conceivable the day Penny came into her life. Then, it seemed like a miracle. Penny was found abandoned, with a mysterious past, and it felt like fate brought Penny to her, and her husband Arthur. But as she grew, Penny’s actions grew more disturbing, and different “personalities” emerged.
Arthur and Grace took Penny to different psychiatrists, many of whom believed she was putting on a show to help manage her trauma. But Grace didn’t buy it. The personas were too real, too consistent. It had to be a severe multiple personality disorder. One determined psychiatrist, Dr. Mitch McHugh, helped discover someone new inside Penny—a young girl named Abigail. Is this the nameless girl who was abandoned in the park years ago? Mitch thinks Abigail is the key to Penny’s past and to the murder. But as Grace and Mitch dig deeper, they uncover dark and shocking secrets that put all their lives in grave danger.
