A Dead Daughter

by Anna Celeste Burke

Review by Barry Boy

A Dead Daughter is a murder mystery written in the third person. It involves mostly Americans, but there is a lot of Hispanic dialogue and influence. In fact, at least two of the main characters have Spanish names. I have never been to California, but I liked that because it appealed to my sense of realism.

Without giving too much away, I hope, the plot revolves around the abuse, in a professional sense, of young rich heiresses by a psychiatrist and his partner in crime, although they both seem to have different motives for their actions.

The lead character is Jessica Huntington, a solicitor and wealthy heiress in her own right. In fact, the whole novel concerns wealthy 90210-types, who seem happy to include the maid and pool attendant in their expensive jaunts. In Britain, where I come from, that is unlikely to happen, but, as I said, I have never been to California. It is nice to think that it might there.

I found most of the characters believable, but thought that there were too many stories going on in the novel for my taste. There were at least three in my reckoning. This might be a genre thing or a style that I am not used to. I don’t really care about what people do in a story, but I insist on knowing why they did it.

That is just my preference.

A Dead Daughter is an enjoyable story, especially for people who know the area, as there is plenty of local colour. I enjoyed A Dead Daughter and am happy to see that there are both prequels and sequels.

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