SEE ME

A therapist must solve the murder of one of her patients in Berlin’s mystery novel.

Seattle indie rock star Amy Nguyen has just died. Her death is ruled a suicide, but her therapist, Jackie Kessler, thinks she was murdered, and she’s running out of time to prove it—Amy’s family is suing her for wrongful death. Jackie recruits her friend’s son, Allan, a former police detective, to help her investigate. Jackie feels especially connected to Amy because their families have similar backgrounds—they come from generations of war refugees from Asia (Korea and Vietnam, respectively). As Amy observes, “My parents and older sister were boat people who barely made it to a refugee camp in Thailand. I’m the first member of the family born in the States. Some of that residual pain and suffering got handed down.” The narrative is peppered with flashbacks to Jackie’s sessions with Amy, which illustrate that Jackie and Amy had known each other for a long time, and that Amy, while troubled, was not suicidal. Allan pushes Jackie to explain how she knows Amy wasn’t suicidal, but talking about Amy goes against Jackie’s obligation to keep her clients’ secrets confidential. She may have to talk, though; Amy’s bandmates think she was murdered, too, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to prove it without digging into Amy’s life. This process makes Jackie rethink her own family trauma. The story is framed around Amy’s murder, but it’s really about Jackie; every time she learns something new about what was going on with Amy, she connects it back to her own experience and the generational trauma in her own family. The narrative doesn’t wallow; Jackie also has a supportive network of friends (and a caring husband) who help her and are integral to the narrative. Sometimes the author introduces characters or pieces of information without immediately explaining how they connect to the story, which creates some confusion and distance—the “whodunnit” aspect will keep readers turning the pages, though.

A thoughtful, compelling mystery and a complex look at how generational trauma continues to reverberate.