This one took a bit of time to get into, but with about 100 pages to go, I was hooked and needed to know how it ended.
Penny was adopted when she was 4-years-old after Grace finds her abandoned in a playground. Now, twelve years later, she is found, clutching a knife and kneeling over her birth mother’s body, covered in her blood. She says she doesn’t remember anything, and is locked in a psychiatric hospital awaiting trial. Penny’s only hope of not spending the rest of her life in prison is to convince her new doctor that she has dissociative identity disorder and one of her alters is responsible.
There was a lot of time spent on explaining dissociative identity disorder (aka multiple personality disorder,) which slowed down the entire beginning (and some of the middle) of the book. I can’t speak to whether or not the description is accurate, but it’s always a little iffy when an author uses a psychological disorder as the premise of a murder mystery.
But, outside of that, I thought that Grace’s character was interesting. I don’t know if I can completely relate to her — especially as it seems like she pushed her older two children away in favor of Penny — because she was a girl and they weren’t, but I can understand wanting to do everything possible to save your child.
My biggest complaint about this book was the alternating chapters written by Penny’s brother’s perspective as someone making a film about the story. It was a different way to incorporate a narrator, but I thought it was unnecessary and slowed down the story.
On the other hand, I liked the big whodunnit reveal. I’m not going to go into it — no spoilers here! — but I did think it was a clever way to end the mystery.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.