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Rebecca Butterman has taken a part-time job in addition to her practice as a clinical psychologist. Some of her motivation is financial, but a lot of it has to do with her divorce from another psychologist. Her side job is an advice column for an on-line magazine, Bloom! Her pseudonym is Dr Aster, something her editor Jillian thought was cute: they are both late bloomers. Rebecca has a condo in Guilford; the condo community is mostly elderly folks with the occasional younger single. There is the obligatory nosy, bossy woman always happy to be instigating and/or making a mountain out of any available molehill. Mrs Dunbarton’s current mission is to improve security, no matter what the financial burden. And Rebecca’s next-door neighbor Madeline Stanton has been found dead, assumed to be a suicide. Madeline’s mother, Isabel, is (of course) convinced that her daughter would never kill herself. Rebecca somehow gets roped into checking out Madeline’s death and keeping her cat Spencer. In a bizarre twist of fate, Rebecca’s editor wants her to do an in-depth report on the singles dating scene – and Madeline was very involved in some of the areas that Rebecca is being urged by Jillian to try. There is also the obligatory policeman, Detective Jack Meigs, who is not in the least interested in alternate theories about Madeline’s death. He is also decidedly unhappy about having a civilian messing into his case. Can you say love interest? This obvious plot twist is complicated by the fact that Meigs is married, to a woman with Lou Gehrig’s disease. In spite of some of the more hackneyed plot devices utilized by Isleib in DEADLY ADVICE, I found this to be a pleasant book. The characters are believable much of the time. I though Rebecca was often more emotional than one might expect from a psychologist (weepy, mostly) and certainly needs some practice in establishing boundaries. The plot wasn’t the strongest one I’ve ever seen; I’m not sure that most readers could figure out who the bad guy is with the clues as given, unless one goes for the incredibly obvious non-clue. The advice columns are fun – the experiences Rebecca has with the dating scene resonate for someone who's been there. All in all, this isn’t a great mystery but it’s not a bad way to while away a wintery afternoon or a nice sunny morning on the beach.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, March 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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