Kate Devlin deals in secrets, lies, and betrayals. She’s a psychologist, an expert at digging up everyone’s dirt but her own—until she uncovers her opera star father’s murder. Flashing back to the night he died, Kate sees her father at the Metropolitan Opera, dressed to sing in the last act of Carmen, her ten-year-old voice yelling, “I hate you.” Suspicion that she played a role in his fatal fall compels Kate to investigate.
When her secretive new client disappears, Kate takes on this case as well, partnering with Flynn, an Irish-Apache private eye. As the partners track the minimal clues, Kate fends off threats to her life and sanity from Dr. Julius Cade—the shady psychiatrist who treated her father for PTSD and now runs a fringe trauma center in San Diego’s Anza Borrego Desert.
At the crime scene backstage at the Met, Kate is shaken to discover her father’s betrayals, her mother’s deception, and her godfather’s lies. She relives the trauma of being locked in a prop box, but she still can’t identify the perpetrator's voice.
The two cases merge in the crumbling Carrizo Badlands Mud Caves. As Kate penetrates her father’s secret life, she's caught in a replay of the murder and a paralyzing dilemma. If she uses her psychology wiles to unmask the truth, she risks facing her own guilt.
Assessment:
Plot: Certainly an intricately plotted work, this novel will readily engage readers. Enigmatic circumstances and an exploration of trauma provide uncommon depth and nuance.
Prose: Sharpe’s writing is consistently clear and concise, effectively serving the storyline and characterizations. Numerous passages provide excellent, memorably evocative descriptions.
Originality: This is an exceptionally clever psych thriller where almost no one is who they seem; there are plenty of suspects. Most compelling, however, is not the identity of the perpetrator, but the motive itself.
Character Development: Hall/Gerard is s very complex character, made particularly multidimensional as a result of his unusual actions, which ultimately drive the novel’s mystery. The protagonist is somewhat defined by her circumstances, but her profession and drive to uncover the secrets of her past, more than sufficiently carry the story forward.
Date Submitted: August 31, 2019
