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Silent partner
First published 1989 · 585 pages
A guilt-fueled descent into the shadowy alleyways of memory, where childhood terrors hide behind glamorous facades.
What it feels like
Reading this psychological mystery feels like navigating a shadowy maze where every turn reveals another layer of buried trauma and regret. The narrative is driven by a propulsive sense of guilt, pulling the reader alongside a protagonist desperate to make amends for a fatal evasion. The mood is distinctly tense and somber, contrasting the glittering, ultra-rich pleasure palaces of California with the deeply disturbing, dark closets of family history. It is an atmospheric exploration of the alleyways of the mind, where childhood terrors still hold sway over adult lives. Fans of introspective, suspenseful detective fiction will be captivated by this dark, emotionally charged journey into the inescapable weight of the past.
- Mood
- shadowy
- tense
- guilt-ridden
- psychological
- Tone
- introspective
- suspenseful
- somber
- urgent
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- weight of the past · childhood trauma · guilt and regret · hidden family secrets · wealth and corruption
- The writing
- Atmospheric and psychologically probing, weaving suspenseful pacing with dark, introspective observations.
- The arc
- Moves from a sudden shock of guilt and regret into a tense, obsessive descent through the dark corridors of memory and trauma.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave psychological mysteries where the detective's own guilt fuels a dark journey into family secrets and childhood trauma.
Content notes
- suicide
- childhood trauma
- guilt and grief
About the book
The bestselling author of When The Bough Breaks, Blood Test, and Over The Edge delivers the most stunning novel yet and featuring psychologist-detective Dr. Alex Delaware. At a party for a controversial Los Angeles sex therapist, Alex encounters a face from his own past--Sharon Ransom, an exquisite, alluring lover who left him abruptly more than a decade earlier. Sharon now hints that he desperately needs help, but Alex evades her. The next day she is dead, an apparent suicide. Driven by guilt and sadness, Alex plunges into the maze of Sharon's life--a journey that will take him through the pleasure palaces of California's ultra-rich, into the dark closets of a family's disturbing past, and finally into the alleyways of the mind, where childhood terrors still hold sway. Also available on BDD Audio Cassette.From the Paperback edition.
Description from Open Library.
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