Murder Suicide : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A STRONG RECOMMENDATION FROM A MYSTERY MAVEN
Review: HAVE YOU READ A COMPELLING NOVEL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE LATELY?? If you are seeking substance and suspense, THIS author is for you!! This thriller has prize-winner written all over it. Warning: you will be rushing out to purchase all this author's satisfying previous narratives!

Rating:
Summary: exciting thriller
Review: John Snow was a genius who made millions from his inventions but the money came at a price. Every time he was near a breakthrough, he suffered a severe grand mal epileptic seizure. Unable to live with the affliction anymore, he decided to have cutting edge brain surgery that could cause blindness or leave him unable to remember any of the people closest to him. An hour before he was due for surgery someone killed him in the alley near the hospital.

Forensic psychiatrist Frank Clevenger is asked by Detective Mike Coady of the Boston police department to determine whether John committed suicide or was murdered, as the autopsy results were inconclusive. By accepting the case, Frank has to look at all the people who were closest to the man, his wife, business partner, children and mistress to see who had a motive. He discovers they all did.

Keith Ablow is one of the best thriller writers on the market today. His protagonist, a psychologically flawed person, overcomes the abuse he suffered from his sadistic father to help people and to make sure the killers are caught so they won't hurt anyone ever again. There is a lot of action scenes in MURDER SUICIDE but the best parts of this exciting thriller is watching the hero put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Not As Good as Psychopath
Review: This book was okay. It started out with an intriguing scene, in which it was unclear if Snow had been murdered or committed suicide, then continued through the investigation. Snow was well portrayed - a man who alienated friends and family through his demands for perfection, and whose demands on himself were so great they actually caused him to have seizures. However, the book never really gripped me the way Ablow's prior book, Psychopath, did. This book felt scattered, awfully slow at times, and I had a hard time making sense out of the key characters' actions or beliefs. Snow's decision to escape his life never quite rang true, somehow. This book did not have the original look inside the killer's mind which made Psychopath so exceptional. Also, the ending felt contrived. I did not get any sense of chemistry between Clevenger and Whitney this time, and the travel and scenery, which were excellent in Psychopath, were not well portrayed here. I look forward to Ablow's next book, and hope it is better than this one.