Joy Fielding still knows how to capture her readers interest. Book was a quick read, characters and plot line kept my interest and also kept me guessing. I didn’t see the end until the end!

Joy Fielding still has the knack for writing thrillers that keep me in suspense from beginning to end. I’ve been reading her books since 2003 and they just keep getting better and better.

In this one, Robin, a fledgling therapist, receives a text message from her sister, a sister that redefines the words mean and sarcastic. When she responds, Robin finds out her father (also someone she’s not fond of), his wife (who used to be Robin’s best friend), and her daughter had all been shot in what the police thought was a home invasion robbery. Robin flies to Red Bluff, California, to probably wait for all three of the victims to die. Add to that Robin’s nephew who is autistic, a cast of townspeople who mostly look guilty and the never-ending fun of dealing with the mean-spirited sister, Melanie.

Clear your calendars for this one as you won’t want to put it down.
How will Robin’s boyfriend handle this situation? What is wrong with the sheriff, anyway? The whip-smart plotting, deft character building and intrigue will keep you engaged from Page one to the end and with no slow periods.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, who I am always indebted to for so many wonderful books to read and review.

I’ve been a fan of Joy Fielding since the very first book I picked up on vacation many years ago. All of her books before this one I have read in paperback. This is a first ebook but it’s by far a good one.

What could have happened on the night that Robin’s dad, best friend and stepsister were brutally shot and left for dead. Was it a home invasion or did someone very close to her do this awful thing. Could their whole family’s lives be in jeopardy?

Would the son be so angry over his fiancé leaving him for his father. The father who was mentally cruel to him all of his life. So angry that he would shoot them. And a 12 year old child? Could he have done it?

Could it have been the autistic son of Melanie, the man’s oldest daughter. He never cared for any of his children so why would he care about her son? Could Landon have pulled the trigger?

Robin, Melanie’s yonger sister, returned home after getting word of the shooting. Her and Melanie had so many fences to mend. Could it be done?

This is a tough story but a good one. I figured out what happened partly before it came out, but was surprised in parts of it also. Joy Fielding always writes stories that keep me on the edge of my seat. Always have me trying to guess who did it. Who would shoot a family. Who would gain from this. Or did they honestly care if they gained anything but freedom to do what they wanted, when they wanted. Until something better came along anyway. I loved reading books by this author. They never let me down.

Edge of your seat suspense. Love. Hate. Death. Sadness and ultimately the ending. A very good 5 star book by a wonderful author. I loved it!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Bad Daughter. Joy Fielding is one of the best general fiction authors. Her story lines are complicated without being over complicating.....
A woman, Robin, who is not close to her family is drawn back due to a home invasion. Robin is immediaty concerned and tries to get along with her sister and her father's new family. But things are not what they seem and Robin and her family may be hiding things that may suddenly errupt.
Good Book, Solid. It's Joy Fielding.

With all the crap going on in the world, I have been ready for some good fun escapist entertainment. Hoping for something to take over my brain for a few hours, I began reading Joy Fielding’s The Bad Daughter (thanks to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley who provided a copy in return for my honest review).

Right off, I loved the vulnerability of the protagonist, Robin, who at the very beginning of the story starst to have a panic attack when she picks up a voice mail message from her sister Melanie. They haven’t spoken in two years, and have been estranged ever since their father married Tara, who was Robin’s best friend growing up. Oh, and by the way, Tara was engaged at the time to the Robin and Melanie’s brother when she ran off with their Dad. Got that? In any case, Melanie calls to tell Robin that their father, Tara, and Tara’s young daughter have been brutally attacked in their home in Red Bluff, CA. The kid was shot, the wife/mom is dead, and dad is in the hospital clinging to life.

When Tara married her father, Robin left Red Bluff and went to Berkeley where she got her master’s in psychology, became a therapist, and got on with her life. She’s now living in L.A., engaged to an apparently perfect guy – or is he??—and she feels like the “…panic attacks she used to experience on an almost daily basis were part of her past. “
So Robin heads back to Red Bluff.

As she looks into the situation, Robin begins to wonder if this might have been something more than a home invasion/botched burglary attempt. It seems that everyone—her sister Melanie, her autistic therefore less-than-communicative nephew, her absent brother, and even Tara, her father’s wife—had something to hide.


For those who don’t know, the setting is interesting: “Approximately 14,000 people lived in Red Bluff, most of them white and straining toward middle class. The town’s motto was “A Great Place to Live,” although Robin had always thought “A Great Place to Leave” would probably be a more suitable slogan.” Personally, I’ve always been a bit creeped out by Red Bluff ever since I read Perfect Victim, the book about the “girl in a box.” It’s the true story about a young woman (Colleen Stan) who was kidnapped and held by a mill worker named (I’m not kidding here) Cameron Hooker and kept in a box for SEVEN YEARS. Oh and the neighbors, who knew she was there, with Hooker AND HIS WIFE AND KIDS, never thought there was anything weird. It’s a long story, but it left a lasting impression on my view of Red Bluff. Plus, it’s hotter than hell and it seems people get weird in that kind of relentless heat…

Anyway, figuring out who exactly is The Bad Daughter totally entertained me for several hours. A tiny bit of willing suspension of disbelief required her and there, but nothing too blatant. Not great literature, but doesn’t pretend to be. For what it is, four stars.

Thrilling plot line, but the constant self-doubt of the main character drags on the action.

I am a long-time fan of the author no I always look forward to reading her books! This book had good characters. It is a quick read and has lots of twists and turns throughout. I did not see the end coming! I recommend this book!

Robin was a successful therapist is Los Angeles who was estranged from her older sister, Melanie and her father. She had no had much contact with them after she left for college and then her mother died. However when her father married Robin’s best friend Tara, who had been engaged to her brother Alec, a few months after her Mom’s funeral, Robin cut off contact with everyone in the family but her brother, Alec.

So when Robin got a voice mail from Melanie telling her of a home invasion at her father’s new house that resulted in the shooting of him, Tara and his stepdaughter, Cassidy, she felt she had to return to the small Northern California town she grew up. Robin made the long trip from Los Angeles and found her sister as ill tempered as she remembered. Melanie and her autistic adult son, Landon, were living in the home where Robin’s family grew up. After Tara died, the Dad remained in a coma but Cassidy recovered and was released from the hospital after a few days.

Now the police were looking for a murderer. There were several suspects but all claimed their innocence. Eventually all sorts of dark family secrets about each member of the family were revealed. As this fast moving mystery comes to an end, we learn that one of these dark secrets was the reason for the crime.

This book is fast paced and will keep the reader in suspense until the very end.

Joy Fielding has always been popular at our library. This book will not disappoint. I felt sympathy for the main character and appreciated the character development of the remaining family members.

I flew through this book and can't wait to recommend it. I feel sure our book group will want to read it.

Thank you for sharing an intriguing page turner!

Robin has stayed far away from her family for years. Her father’s remarriage and ensuing new family, along with her terrible relationship with her sister, have given her no reason to play the part of dutiful sister and daughter. That changes when a blitz attack leaves her father, his wife and their daughter clinging to life. Robin heads back to her father’s home, the scene of the attack, wanting to try to mend fences with the family she’s very nearly lost. But she has to wonder, why were they attacked so brutally? Police seem to believe it was a home invasion gone wrong, but the whole thing seems like…overkilll. In her attempts to find out what really happened, Robin will learn that her estranged family has some very ugly secrets and that this was no random attack. I have been reading Fielding for years and she never disappoints, from believable characters to stranger and twisted plots, she creates some of the best literate thrillers I have read