Book Review: Deception

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Deception     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Denise Mina
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Little, Brown & Company, Aug 2004, $23.95, 320 pp.

The evidence was overwhelming as Andrew Dow’s DNA linked him to the victims and he confessed to being a serial killer. However, the close and shut case falls apart after the conviction of Andrew when he is in prison and additional murders using the same signature occurred. On appeal, the court frees Dow. Two months later, Dow’s new wife is missing and his prison psychiatrist Dr. Susie Harriot is found near his mutilated body.

At Dr. Harriot’s trial, the prosecution painted a picture of revenge claiming that Susie loved her patient, but when Dow married someone else, she went over the edge and brutally killed him and probably his spouse. Susie is found guilty. As much for himself and their nineteen-month-old child Margie, her husband Lachlan vows to appeal the conviction and uncover the truth, but he will find much more than he bargained for when he started his quest to free his lively beautiful wife.

Using diaries written by Lachlan as he makes one shocking discovery after another, fans will see the peeling away of the mask to the inner essence of several cast members. Especially shredded are Susie who hides a dark nature and Lachlan who hopes to recapture his Camelot, but feels as if he ventures into Dante’s realm as he interprets finding after finding to make it fit his reality. Denise Mina provides a stupendous stunner that will fascinate, entice, and shock readers who, like Lachlan, will continually hold to perceptions even as the chilling truth surfaces.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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