DEATH BY ANALYSIS

by Gillian Slovo ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1988

A second outing for London-based Kate Baeier (Morbid Symptoms), who plays saxophone and does some amateur sleuthing--this time at the request of her ex-therapist Franca, who wants to know if psychologist Paul Holland, dead in a hit-run, was deliberately murdered. Holland, a half-trained therapist striving to join the establishment, was in supervision, and perhaps more, with Franca. Kate talks to pompous Dr. Edgar Greenleaf, one of Holland's teachers, and to his pathetic daughter Regina. And then she's getting calls from one-time members of a 60's underground group, some of whom Holland was seeing professionally. Gingerly trying to figure out connections among actor James Stanford, health-food entrepreneur Laura Maxwell, wispy housewife Abbey Ashurst, other members of the group, and Holland's death, Kate's efforts are complicated by the murder of a witness to the killing. But the pieces finally fall into place, more or less, and Kate--in classic suicidal confrontation with the killer--is rescued in classic, hackneyed last-minute style. Rambling plot, fuzzy motivation, heavy doses of psychobabble, and a clutch of limp characters (Kate among them) make this story unappealing and, in fact, barely readable.

Pub Date: April 8, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION