AN IMPERFECT PAST

A therapist searches for a client’s long-missing brother while a figure from her own family threatens her view of her past.

After her boyfriend was murdered by her former stalker (Beautiful Losers, 2016), psychologist Kim Slade finally feels like her life is getting back on track. She’s returned to her job at Ellerslie Lodge, an intensive treatment center for women with eating disorders. Kim’s ability to form relationships with her clients stems in part from her own physical issues: a childhood accident left one side of her face marred by scars. Her close relationship with her clients is demonstrated when she responds to a summons from a former Ellerslie Lodge client’s bedside. Mimi Vellender first started showing signs of disordered eating when her older brother, Nicholas, disappeared many years ago. Even as she’s succumbing to symptoms of her illness, Mimi pleads with Kim to discover Nicholas’ whereabouts. Kim’s responsibility to Mimi will be tested by the challenge of wrenching information out of Mimi’s mercurial mother, Paris Vellender. Before Kim can get details from Paris, she’s trapped in a mystery of her own when Monica Slade, her mother, shows up out of nowhere. Monica all but abandoned Kim as a child but is now determined to get back into her daughter's life; Kim is certain that her mother has an ulterior motive. In trying to relax from the stress of the search for Nicholas and her concerns about Monica, Kim turns to Kyle Stannard, a man with physical scars of his own who may be developing more than a friendship with her.

Seymour, who could improve this series by paring down her subplots, aims to please readers who like to keep guessing and aren’t put off by a gruesome murder or more.