This was an interesting mystery read. However, I did find it to be a rather slow read with not a lot of suspense.

Good thriller!

This is the story of a very tangled web of three women and one therapist, one very attractive, respected therapist. The women: Greer,a career oriented woman now longing to have a child but with no strings attached. She is falling for Dr. Baylor and is envisioning a baby with him as the father. Lucinda is struggling with an abusive childhood and an addict mother and thinks she's falling in love with Dr. Baylor. Flora who is currently having a secret affair for the past two years with the good Doctor, but it has to be a secret and she has waited long enough. These women all are in love with Dr. Baylor. Now Dr. Baylor is dead.

The story switches back and forth from the present and the past when the three women give separate accounts of their interaction with the doctor. In the present chapters, the three woman are interrogated by a detective who is sure one of these woman is the murderer. Who is telling the truth and how far will they go to keep their secret hidden. All may not be as it seems and there are twists until the end!

light reading a mystery, about a therapist and his female clients, that he choses to have inappropriate relationships. We know early on, he is killed but who did it?

Wow! What a wild ride! This book really draws you in, page by page, until you are so immersed in the heroine's trials and tribulations that you have to keep reading way past your bedtime.

I really loved this book, so much so I read it in two nights! We have a psychologist with a great repuation, and three women. The psychologist ends up dead. Who done it indeed!
Lucinda with a tragic past of abuse from men and a mom who didn't really support her
Greer who wants a child at any cost, but not a relationship with anyone
Flora who is madly in love with the Doctor and will do anything she can to maintain their relationship
None of them knows about the others, at least at first! When suspicions creep in, so does their imminent meeting and his death.
I had NO clue about the ending of this one all the way until the very reveal. Very well written, edge of your seat and riveting with lots of female character development. Well done!
Thank you NetGalley for ARC.

Perfect psychological thriller! It moved at a fast pace with twists and turns throughout! I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend!

A gripping fast-paced murder mystery. I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and thought this was very well written. The pace was good as well and kept my interest. I would definitely recommend!

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Confidential written by Ellie Monago has an interesting concept, but it fell a little short for me. I would read another book from this author.

Confidential by Ellie Monago was just my kind of book. A murder and 3 promising suspects. It is a fast read, although at times it did get a bit caught up and I found it to be a bit too long. The characters are all those you would not want to be friends with, but in this book it worked not liking any of them!

Therapist Michael Baylor has been found dead in his office. Police have 3 main suspects:

- Lucinda - a patient who was seeing him to help deal with her childhood trauma.
- Greer - a career woman who has decided at a late time in her life that she wants a child and is seeing a therapist to help get through it.
Flora - a former patient and Michaels secret lover for the past 2 years.
All have motive and means - but who did it?

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

So

Early disclaimer that I REALLY like the book up too the (lame) ending. I was ready to give it 4 stars, but the (lame) twist made me drop it to 1. But, since I enjoyed 80% of Confidential, I picked the middle way that is 2 stars.

Confidential had such a nice build up of me wanting to smack all of these women, me sympathizing with them, and me guessing whodunit. And I was rightly so: he plot was engaging, the writing was good, and all the point of views worked (although I wouldn't miss the detective, just saying).

However, without being too spoilery, it has several bad sides:

1. lazy writing, when author described Dr Baylor just an like George Clooney and his colleague as an older Hillary Clinton

2. a lot of telling, it did not irk me completely, but I skipped some sections due to this

3. me disliking two of the characters with one being a major character
side note: the detective's personality was bad, judging all three major characters because he deemed them not 'sick' enough to need therapies, and him reminiscing his divorce? yeah, not interested
(however, I totally understand that characters' view is not, hopefully, representing the author's view; but I truly hate the guy)

4. spoiler time! avert your eyes!
using mental illness as the plot device? not only it was not original, but also rude.

2/5

<i>I received a digital ARC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)</i>

Dr. Michael Baylor is dead. He was a therapist, mostly dealing with female patients. Now three are suspects - Lucinda, Flora and Greer. They each have their own secrets and issues that they shared with Dr. Baylor. Would one of them want him dead?
This was a fairly good book, although at times I lost interest in the story. Parts were exciting and I did finish it to find out what happened to Dr. Baylor!
Thank you to Ellie Monago, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

An entertaining novel of psychological intrigue, “Confidential” (2019) is the second book written by Ellie Monago. Dr. Michael Baylor, a never-married highly respected behavioral therapist was found dead in his Oakland California office. When homicide detective Gregory Plath arrived to investigate, he quickly determined that perhaps Dr. Baylor’s “sterling reputation” may not have been the entire truth.

Detective Plath needed to investigate Dr. Baylor’s patients, particularly the three patients who seemed to have been in love with the good therapist. Flora, Lucinda and Greer had their own individual motives for murder and had met together in a local restaurant before Dr, Baylor’s death.
Flora: With her husband Young, the couple had sought Dr. Baylor to assist in getting their marriage back on track. Did Dr. Baylor manipulate this mildly troubled couple’s divorce so he could have Flora for himself? Flora had completely and totally fallen in love with “Michael” and would push him to go public with their secret relationship after the required two year waiting period for therapist client involvement had passed. Flora’s cousin Kate had uncovered some disturbing accusations against Dr, Baylor by former clients.
Lucinda: An only child, raised by a reformed addict and her step-father Adam, who had induced a serious mental illness in Lucinda relating to their guilt ridden sexual relationship. Although Lucinda struggled to come to terms “under the spell of an evil person,” she taught writing workshops and was bored with her job as a proof-reader. Lucinda began to unravel when Adam was placed in a Hospice care and her mother mysteriously disappeared.
Greer: A single feminist career business administrator determined she had missed out by avoiding motherhood. While in therapy with Dr. Baylor, as her biological clock was winding down, all the donor profiles she had studied for artificial insemination were not as “perfect” as Dr. Baylor. Indeed, Dr. Baylor would agree and meet with Greer’s legal team to sign paperwork, but at what cost?

With three of Dr. Baylor’s clients clearly enthralled with their love and desire for him, they discover they are not his “one and only”. Themes of obsession and delusion, stalking, transference take on new meanings. Furthermore, would Dr. Baylor risk his professional reputation to unethically seek and manipulate clients for his own needs and sexual gratification? Detective Plath believed without question he had figured out who had murdered Dr, Baylor, despite the fact he had been denied access by the court to clients medical records due to stringent privacy laws. This is a gripping fast-paced murder-mystery drama and there is never a dull moment in this reading experience. ~ 4* Excellent. **With thanks and appreciation to Lake Union Publishing via NetGalley for the DDC for the purpose of review.

# Confidential#Netgalley#

At first I wasn’t sure about the book, it didn’t grab me at all. I thought it was slow after chapter 3 I did consider putting the book down and not finishing it. However it’s something I very fairly do no matter how much I struggle. I am glad I continued the further I read the book got much better I am pleased to say once it did really kick off, I was struggling to put it down, that was more to do with the characters I literally had to see what happened at the end. It was a really intriguing book, however I am knocking stars of because it being such a slow burner. Storyline was really good if you can just get past the slow chapters then on it’s definitely worth reading

An intricate tale told from the view of three women and a detective. Each woman saw the therapist for different reasons which resulted in special relationships. The poor guy was being manipulated, stalked and controlled. This is a book that should be read in the least amount of sittings as possible, a couple hours at time, I found it difficult to keep track of each person's storyline until I really got into it. Her previous book, Neighborly, is much preferred because I like the way the suspense was drawn out. While I was intrigued by this book, I felt it lacked that gripping my seat feeling. I received an early copy, review was,written voluntarily.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Pros: I liked the different perspectives of the three women--Flora, Lucinda, and Greer--even if they weren’t exactly likeable characters. It took me a few chapters to keep them straight and get used to their different voices, since everyone speaks in first-person point of view. There were several moments when I became frustrated with each character's thoughts or actions, but that only made me want to keep reading.

Cons: On the other hand, I didn’t care for the chapters in Detective Flath’s point of view, which is told in present day as he investigates Baylor’s death and interviews the three women. His voice didn’t seem genuine, as if he was pretending to be a stereotypically grumpy, hard-boiled cop.

While I thought Confidential could be shorter and more concise, it was still an engaging, slow burn of a story with a fun twist ending.

“Three very different women, with only Dr. Michael Baylor in common, meet in a dim sum restaurant....”

Because of this, they become Detective Gregory Plath’s main suspects in the murder case of this well respected Psychiatrist.

Three alternating narratives:

Flora, a former patient that the good Dr. claims to love...yet because the “code of ethics” won’t allow therapists to date their patients for two years, he keeps their relationship a secret...only meeting at her place, and never taking her out in public...at least that is the excuse he gives her....

Lucinda, a woman trying to process a childhood trauma with Dr. Baylor’s “help”.

Greer, a woman who has never needed more than her career to be happy, until her biological clock starts ticking..

When you make a decision to go to therapy, you assume that the Doctor you confide in is legitimate and trustworthy....

Will one of these women, or perhaps all in collaboration with each other, go as far as murder, if it is discovered that their Doctor isn’t worthy of their trust?

Round and Round and Round it goes....which woman it will end with...nobody knows...

Initially I was interested, with short chapters, moving things along, but the story was drawn out for far too long for me, and I found myself wanting to skim, to get to the end.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Ellie Monago for the digital ARC I was provided in exchange for a candid review! Available March 5, 2019 !

2 1/2 ⭐️‘s
While this book did have me flipping pages at first, I found the plot to be completely implausible and the detective to be a bumbling oaf. All of the characters were totally unlikable leaving no one to root for. There was a bit of language throughout, but at times its use was cringe worthy. The twist at the end was suppose to leave doubt, but, unfortunately, it just didn’t work the way it should have.

Someone murdered Michael Baylor so he wasn't as loved as "everyone" said he was. Gregory Flath, the detective assigned to the case, finds himself sorting through the patients Baylor treated to find a suspect. Was it Lucinda, Greer, or Flora- or someone else? Each woman has a story to tell. Monago has written a very good page turner, with appealing (well, not always) characters. Thanks to net galley for the ARC.

This is was a good read, but there was something about the story that didn't grip me as much as i thought it would. The plot was good, but there were parts whereby i felt i was losing interest. However, the story soon picked up again. I am not going to write what the story is about as i prefer one to read it for themselves.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy.

Michael Baylor is supposed to be an incredible therapist. But what is not widely known is his history of seducing his clients. Not all of them, just the really damaged ones that will have to really work to get. Then Michael is found dead in his office and the police have 3 main suspects: Flora, the former patient who he has been having a secret affair with for the past 2 years, Lucinda is a current patient being treated for sexual abuse when she was a child, and Greer who abruptly terminated her sessions and refuses to tell anyone why. Everyone has a motive, or it could even have been a group effort.....time will tell.
I really enjoyed this. At times the characters seemed a little too unstable/unbelievable, but they worked in the overall scheme of things. The mystery of who the killer was will allude you until the very end. I recommend this for anyone who loves a good mystery or thriller.