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A review by weaselweader
Bloodprint by Kitty Sewell
4.0
A compelling blend of psychological and suspense thriller!
Madeleine Frank is a psychotherapist and we all know that a psychotherapist's role is to help clients deal with conflicts, inner issues, confusions, mental turmoil and personal inner demons and help them to chart a course to the comforting shores of mental stability. But when the psychotherapist's background is jammed to bursting with a chaotic, bewildering variety of personal psychological baggage, readers will justifiably wonder whether Madeleine Frank is capable of maintaining a solid Chinese wall between her personal and professional lives.
Life has not been easy for Madeleine Frank. She lost her loving husband to the anger of a savage hurricane in Key West Florida. Her mother, a former priestess of Santeria, a dark and mystic Afro-Cuban religion, hovers on the edge of madness in an asylum. Her father, living a Bohemian but wildly successful artist's life in Bath, England, with a younger woman, ignores both Madeleine and her mother. Madeleine's daughter, virtually hi-jacked away from her when Madeleine was only a teenager in a very questionable administrative procedure, was given up for adoption. The daughter has not been seen or heard from since.
As low and weak as it already is, that wall between Madeleine's personal and professional lives threatens to crumble to powder when Frank meets Rachel Locklear, a Russian immigrant telling a story of sexual slavery, prostitution, beatings, murder and threats on her life from her ruthless, controlling partner and his psychopathic brother. As Rachel's terrifying story unfolds in the course of therapy, Madeleine Frank recognizes some chilling coincidences and becomes convinced that Rachel is the long-lost daughter that she had never been able to reach.
Bloodprint is a wonderful blend of suspense thriller, psychological thriller and romance with more than a hint of the paranormal thrown in for good measure. The characters are flamboyant, powerful, complex and exceptionally well-crafted. Whether the story is unfolding in the quaint, Georgian countryside of Bath, England, or on the humid, sun-drenched, storm-tossed shores of Key West, Florida, locations are vividly brought to life with deliciously, descriptive prose.
Bloodprint is a chilling story with that proverbial ability to glue you to your seat and keep you turning pages until you reach the end. Other reviewers have suggested that Bloodprint is a weaker effort than Sewell's first novel, Ice Trap. If that's true, then I can hardly wait to get my hands on it!
Paul Weiss
Madeleine Frank is a psychotherapist and we all know that a psychotherapist's role is to help clients deal with conflicts, inner issues, confusions, mental turmoil and personal inner demons and help them to chart a course to the comforting shores of mental stability. But when the psychotherapist's background is jammed to bursting with a chaotic, bewildering variety of personal psychological baggage, readers will justifiably wonder whether Madeleine Frank is capable of maintaining a solid Chinese wall between her personal and professional lives.
Life has not been easy for Madeleine Frank. She lost her loving husband to the anger of a savage hurricane in Key West Florida. Her mother, a former priestess of Santeria, a dark and mystic Afro-Cuban religion, hovers on the edge of madness in an asylum. Her father, living a Bohemian but wildly successful artist's life in Bath, England, with a younger woman, ignores both Madeleine and her mother. Madeleine's daughter, virtually hi-jacked away from her when Madeleine was only a teenager in a very questionable administrative procedure, was given up for adoption. The daughter has not been seen or heard from since.
As low and weak as it already is, that wall between Madeleine's personal and professional lives threatens to crumble to powder when Frank meets Rachel Locklear, a Russian immigrant telling a story of sexual slavery, prostitution, beatings, murder and threats on her life from her ruthless, controlling partner and his psychopathic brother. As Rachel's terrifying story unfolds in the course of therapy, Madeleine Frank recognizes some chilling coincidences and becomes convinced that Rachel is the long-lost daughter that she had never been able to reach.
Bloodprint is a wonderful blend of suspense thriller, psychological thriller and romance with more than a hint of the paranormal thrown in for good measure. The characters are flamboyant, powerful, complex and exceptionally well-crafted. Whether the story is unfolding in the quaint, Georgian countryside of Bath, England, or on the humid, sun-drenched, storm-tossed shores of Key West, Florida, locations are vividly brought to life with deliciously, descriptive prose.
Bloodprint is a chilling story with that proverbial ability to glue you to your seat and keep you turning pages until you reach the end. Other reviewers have suggested that Bloodprint is a weaker effort than Sewell's first novel, Ice Trap. If that's true, then I can hardly wait to get my hands on it!
Paul Weiss