The Murderer's Daughter

A Novel

By: Jonathan Kellerman

Narrated by: Kathe Mazur

Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

From the number-one New York Times best-selling creator of the acclaimed Alex Delaware series comes a tour-de-force novel that introduces an unforgettable new heroine and illustrates perfectly why "Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller" (People).

Brilliant, beautiful, and stunningly effective, psychologist Dr. Grace Blades has a special gift for treating troubled souls and healing tormented psyches - perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars. Only five years old when she witnessed her parents die in a bloody murder-suicide, Grace took refuge in her towering intellect and found comfort in the loving couple who adopted her. But as an adult, Grace's accomplished professional life vies with a covert, high-risk dark side, played out harrowingly. And when Grace's two worlds shockingly converge, her past returns with a vengeance.

The crisis begins when the busy therapist encounters a new patient whose own bleak past seems to eerily echo her own grim childhood. But there's a complication: She's met Andrew Toner before, under bizarre circumstances, and must refuse to treat him. Thinking that this is the last she'll hear of the young man, Grace is stunned to learn he was murdered soon after leaving her office, a vicious crime that leads a homicide investigation to her doorstep.

Shaken by the killing and fearing exposure of her double life, Grace sets out to probe the crime herself. But when she stumbles on the dead man's true identity, a horrifying chapter from her childhood is violently reawakened, forcing her to confront a decades-old act of evil that cries out for retribution. Suddenly stalked by vicious predators, Grace must draw upon the fierce will to survive that has powered her entire life while facing down her darkest personal demons.

©2015 Jonathan Kellerman (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Mazur captures Blades's intelligence, intensity, and emotional highs and lows, varying her delivery with every passage. When needed, Mazur speaks in a tone of resigned understatement and then, seemingly without pause, turns it to raging intensity." ( AudioFile)

A Stand-Alone? How Dare You! But Then...

Kellerman is the poster child for series fiction in my world - Delaware, Sturgis, et al are long-distance friends that I'm always anxious to check in on every so often. So I was a little hesitant to burn a credit for new character and new narrator. But as with any good - no, great - author, Kellerman has drawn you into the Grace's world in a matter of a few minutes, and he's historically good with "damaged" characters. The pace was excellent as was the narration. For me, the ending was a bit disappointing, but I should probably get off my butt and write my own book that I can end how I like, no? Overall, it's an excellent listen.

Lousy ending

I really enjoyed this book until the ending. Nothing was really tied up for us. Enough wasn't explained and I felt we were left hanging.

I think I missed something

Although I enjoyed the story line, it was too busy and not well connected plus I never understood her obsession with the pickups

Entertaining

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Not keeping me on the edge but was a great book to listen to, it kept me very much entertained and fascinated.

Any additional comments?

This was a great listen, narration was great and the ploy was fantastic. Not sure why so many disliked it - but I enjoyed it. This is not a "who done it" but a more why I did it.

Really enjoyed this book!

The Murderer's Daughter was an excellent book. It was a written in a slightly different style than the Alex Delaware series. I really enjoyed the book. It kept my interest the whole way through and at the end I wanted the story to keep on going. I would say it was kind of in the style of Harlan Coben's suspense books also. If you enjoy Jonathan Kellerman or Harlan Coben's books you will love this book.

Engrossing and not predictable.

Finally a mystery with CHARACTER. Really surprising and engrossing. A fully faulted complicated heroine - or is she?

the narrator spoke to slowly

The narration was now to my liking she spoke too slowly the story line kept me in Sorensen until the very end.

Great Book

What did you love best about The Murderer's Daughter?

Everything was great. I had kind of tired of Kellerman's other, Alex Deleware, character. Almost did not buy this book. So glad I did.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Murderer's Daughter?

So many.

Which character – as performed by Kathe Mazur – was your favorite?

Who else but Grace.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Her kindness to damaged individuals.

Any additional comments?

His best book in a long time.

Better than okay, but...

In reflecting on what I enjoyed -- and didn't enjoy -- about this book, I think a lot of the issues I had with it comes down to the narrator. The story stars a child survivor who is eventually taken in -- and later still adopted -- by a couple of professors, so a considerable part of the novel deals with this man and wife couple, who serve as her mentors until their tragic death late in the book.

The problem comes about because the narrator has the man speaking in a kind of lilting, sing-song cadence, the sort of thing that be appropriate for a baby. But Grace Blades is an extremely -- really, really, super intelligent -- girl, then woman. That fact is laid on with a trowel. But the speech pattern -- which other adults also affect to some degree from time to time -- has the effect of making everything this supposedly highly esteemed Harvard professor say sound as though he's toying with her, teasing about everything. Not taking her seriously. And in the story line, clearly that's not it at all. Anyway, the voice affectation the narrator chose is supremely annoying. To listen to the audio book is one thing -- but if Grace had to listen to that for years on end, no wonder she's weird.

And she is weird. In the sense of a personal triumph -- an abused abandoned child who goes on to conquer the academic/psychological world -- it's inspiring. It could happen, one supposes. Such a child could, I suppose, eventually become fabulously wealthy. But then to turn this creation loose on those who victimize, and have her turn into a cross between Jack Reacher and a female Rambo is more than even the usually-great writing of Jonathan Kellerman can handle. Or maybe it's just that Kellerman's Alex-and-Milo stories are so excellent that something as messy as this tale is bound to frustrate his Constant Readers -- or at least me, and I'm a huge fan of the basic series.

There's a schism in the story line, too -- this could better have been two books. The story of Grace growing up, facing all the endless difficulties the "system" and the world present is one thing. The female Rambo thing is quite another. It doesn't flow -- or maybe it's that the character is not congruent, as perhaps Alex Delaware might suggest. Or is it supposed to be that way? That Grace Blades (the suggestive name is overkill, too) is just an an unpredictable mess, and that's the point of the whole thing? Could be.

I have the feeling this is intended as the first in a new series -- and I'm not looking forward to that. I might try another one as a "paper" book, minus the flawed narration, but I won't hustle out to buy it.

I wish Jonathan Kellerman would stick to what he does best. I wish he would stop trying to write books with various family members, books which end up being worse than dreadful. I wish he'd just focus on the Alex-and-Milo books -- although I sense he's coming to a Conan Doyle moment, when he's so tired of his own creation that he's ready to kill him off, just to get rid of him. I hope that doesn't happen -- but then again, I'd rather see the series end gracefully than to see Kellerman drifting off into these new unworthy waters. Kellerman is better than this book. Much better.

Dark and Introspective

Better than average psych thriller... The mood is pretty intense, but the pace is easy... A slow paced thoughtful, rather than action packed, thriller... The internal dialogues, and the obviously skewed inner mental workings of Grace bring a lot to chew on while offsetting a somewhat weak plot... This book is more about the protagonist and her survival/defense mechanisms... The flashbacks are weaved in seamlessly... The narration is just right for the voice of the novel... Essentially a story of a survivor and the lengths she will go to in pursuit of further survival on her terms...