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Julia Lafferty, also known as PJ, loved her job as a psychotherapist on Rikers Island, helping the women who have been labeled by the law as criminally insane. When PJ agrees to a make-believe wedding for two of her patients to help them feel better about themselves, one of the patients is stabbed and killed when an alarm suddenly goes off during the ceremony. To appease the higher-ups, PJ is dismissed. She is devastated; she never wanted more than working at Rikers. Now she's forced into private practice, which is not exactly her strong point. PJ's personal life is in shambles. She's called PJ because it stands for "Poor Julia." Her parents were killed in a car accident during a terrible day in her past, but PJ can't bring herself to think about it. Her twin sister is a famous and wildly successful children's book writer and the two have a very angst-ridden and painful love/hate relationship going. And their brother has been a schizophrenic for years, living on the street and only showing up to make trouble. Oh, and PJ's ex-husband keeps coming on to her, telling her that he loves her but she has nothing but harsh words for him. One day she's contacted by one of her former patients, still inside Rikers, who tells her in her own convoluted way that the dead woman's violent ex-husband was seen there with a bloody knife on the day of the murder and is still walking around Rikers as an outside worker. PJ tries to get the police to investigate but since she has no evidence other than the word of a psycho ward inmate, the police aren't interested. As PJ tries to get better evidence she meets the dead inmate's aunt and son, and discovers the ex-husband has menaced the boy's life, but still no law enforcement agency seems to be interested in stopping him. Following the help of a writer of true-life crimes, PJ delves deeper and before long both of them are in terrible peril from the husband and his cohorts. THE SESSION, by Judith Kelman, is highly enjoyable. Kelman has an absolute genius for creating interesting characters and giving each one a unique voice. The job she does writing dialogue is superb. Even in creating a less than likable character in PJ, she manages to make the readers want to stick with her because she is wonderfully realistic as a person. Unfortunately, the ending of the mystery falls terribly flat and there's a too neat wrap-up that doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the book. The weak ending is all the more painful because of the outstanding quality of the characters in the story. I'll still recommend THE SESSION but I hope that the author finds a way to write better conclusions to her future books.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, February 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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