The Perfect Daughter by DJ Palmer

Brief Summary: Penny is found at the crime scene holding the murder weapon with her birth mother’s blood on her. However, her mother Grace Francone is not convinced of her daughter’s guilt. Told through the eyes of Grace, Jack, Penny’s brother, and Dr. Mitch, psychiatrist, we are left to try to make sense of what happened. Penny has dissociative identity disorder(DID) and we meet all her alters as the plot thickens. This is my third book by DJ Palmer and I am an active member of his Facebook author group.

Highlights: I’m a clinical psychologist and have worked with patients with DID. DID is incredibly challenging to work with and understand even among mental health professionals. While I am certainly not an expert, Palmer does an excellent job portraying this disorder and how it impacts not only the patient but also their loved ones. I especially appreciated the focus on treatment and trying to understand the trauma DID stemmed from. In addition to, an interesting portrayal of mental health, I was also totally caught off guard by his twist at the end, I was guessing the entire time.

Explanation of Rating: 4/5; interesting, engaging, and surprising

This made my list of top books in mental health fiction of 2021. I’m so glad Palmer brought attention to this often misunderstood diagnosis.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review

Note to Publisher: I’m sorry this review is late. I was recently hospitalized for a GI Bleed.

Ahhh this was a wild one!

Multiple Personality Disorder or DID is super fascinating to me. It was interesting to read a thriller that incorporated that and I think it was done respectfully, but of course I'm not a professional and it's totally fiction so who even knows how heightened or exaggerated it was .... but it was a FUN imagining of how it could translate to a wild story of secrets, twisted puzzle pieces, and lots of lies.

When Penny is found covered in blood holding a knife over a dead woman it's pretty obvious she killed her. Her mom thinks not. Not her sweet Penny. She would never. But here's the thing.. there are other little girls living inside Penny... who might have. Will the psychiatrists help her to convince the police her diagnosis is real or is Penny really, truly the murderer?

This was a slow burn for me - it captivated from the start, but there was definitely a lot of repetition that made it a bit sluggish to get through, and the ending wasn't exactly a shocker. But still a fast, easy read that kept me entertained and held my interest.

I loved this story! Kept my guessing til the end.
Love all of D.J. Palmer's books. ❤📖 Thank you Net Galley for my honest review.

The blurb was superb and the concept was amazing. I love stories with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and that's what drew me in.
The book started well and I liked the multiple perspectives which kept me engaged.
I liked Penny and I think the author did a good job with the research and giving us an insight into the mind and psyche of Penny however it was the mother, Grace who I wasn't a fan of. I just could not connect with her.

This however did not take away from the story. The psychological thriller has its twists and jaw-dropping moments which leave you enthralled.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A thrilling novel full of mystery, murder, and a great twist. A little predictable, but not in a way that detracts from the overall reading experience.

The Perfect Daughter, D.J. Palmer's latest release, is a fast-paced, unable-to-put-down psychological mystery! When Grace's teenage daughter Penny is charged with murder-covered in blood while holding the murder weapon-she is determined to understand why this happened. Grace's attorney and doctor are holding out hope they can plead insanity and the jury will have her server her sentence in the mental hospital where she's currently being held.

Having suffered from forms of mental illness over the years, Penny's family and her previous doctor believes she suffers from dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities) as there are numerous alters: Chloe, Ruby and Eve-the strongest of the personalities. Penny doesn't remember anything that happened that night but someone does. As Grace and Dr. McHugh race against time to prove Penny is innocent shocking secrets are revealed that put everyone in danger. But is Penny really the perfect daughter or the perfect fraud? These questions and more are answered in The Perfect Daughter.

Told with Palmer's trademark slow burn to startling revelations and unexpected twists, readers will enjoy his latest hit. I finished this story in less than 3 days-because I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. The writer clearly did a lot of in depth research and it pays off in dividends. I can't wait to read his next novel-pick this one up today!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

The Perfect Daughter
by D.J. Palmer
Published April 20, 2021
The Perfect Daughter is a thriller that explores the truth or lies behind a teenage girl's multiple personality disorder, from D.J. Palmer, the author of The New Husband.
This was an interesting book! I enjoyed it. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

4star

Wow The Perfect Daughter was twisty thriller! I thought I had it figured out a couple times and never did. I love a good thriller that keeps you guessing because you can't put it down!

The Perfect Daughter
DJ Palmer

The Perfect Daughter by DJ Palmer was an entertaining, unputdownable, thrilling read that involved murder, the perfect daughter with a dark and mysterious troubling past, and a mother whose unconditional love for a child pushes the lengths of saving Penny at the risk of uncovering even deeper and darker secrets.

I really enjoyed this thrilling book and loved Palmer's writing since reading The New Husband last year. This book had great twists that are not revealed until the very end so it was very exciting to see how the story revealed itself, which I did not see coming. Perfect read for Mental Health month and highlighting identity disorders but more than that this was a great entertaining book I really enjoyed.

I loved this book! Not my typical genre, but the description grabbed my attention. This was a quick read because I couldn't put it down. A yo9ung girl is accused of murder and her mother fights tooth and nail for her innocence. The girl has multiple personalities and the book revolves around talking to the personality who witnessed the murder. She has been place in a ststr mental institution, and her psychologist has demons of his own. together with her mother, through many trials, the murderer is uncovered. The characters are all flawed and makes the plot tense and fraught with sessions that test everyone's mental health. When the murderer is uncovered, it is a race to the finish to bring the book to it conclusion. I enjoyed the book immensely and recommend it highly.

In this psychological thriller, adopted sixteen year old Penny Francone is arrested for killing her biological mother. Covered in blood she is apprehended at the scene of the crime in possession of the murder weapon which contains her fingerprints.

Penny insists that she did not commit the crime. Her adoptive mother, Grace, knows that Penny suffers from DID – dissociative identity disorder – which involves a person’s identity fragmenting into two or more distinct personality states. Could one of Penny’s alter personalities have committed the crime?

Grace hires a lawyer as Penny is committed to a deteriorating state mental hospital for confirmation of her illness.
What ensues is a narrative that is the very definition of riveting. This is a fresh story with innovative, intelligent pacing and intriguing characters. I literally couldn’t turn the pages fast enough…..fact is, if I had been reading a hard copy of this unsettling read rather than the Kindle edition I would have gotten paper cuts.

Penny is just sixteen and has been charged with murdering her birth mom Rachel. Grace is the mom that has raised Penny since she found her abandoned at a park. Grace will do anything to prove Penny is innocent including talking about the other identities that live inside Penny. This entire mystery fell short for me. I didn't love the brother's pov while he's trying to make his movie about his sister's mental disability. The other brother was so stupidly angry all the time. The reveal of the murderer was just dumb. Switching between the different identities of Penny was probably the most interesting part of the story but most of the plot was just lacking. Almost like there wasn't enough motivation for everything that happened.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for an advance e-copy of The Perfect Daughter.
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I was very excited on reading a thriller book of a teenager with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) that I can only imagine how difficult it is to write about. However so many things didn’t work for me.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭: It was so convoluted with too many cliché characters. Lot of eye-roll moments surrounding the many alters of Penny and how to pick them apart. The plot of this book also reminded me a bit of 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝙿𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝 but in a less good way.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬: Every single of them was unlikeable. Now I am one who likes unlikeable but not when they do unbelievable things or things that only unintentionally jeopardize other characters. I would have been okay with Penney but she was much less involved in the story than her alters, and when she was presented, she was always the meek one.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠: The ending killed it for me. Very unrealistic. Enough said.
𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐭𝐲: Chapter 18 had a very unnecessary scene of cat cruelty that did nothing to drive the plot forward other than to cause some shock value. Can authors please stop writing as if anyone with a mental illness harms animals? It’s very stereotypical and only gives a potential heartless reader examples to cause animal cruelty. Major point deductions on this one.

D.J. Palmer, author of <b>The Perfect Daughter</b> wrote in his Acknowledgements that readers expect him to <i>take them on a journey that will be thrilling, surprising, and a blast to read.</i>   He totally nailed it on all counts for me, despite the fact I had no such expectations given this was the first book of his I'd read.

Penny is the 16 year old adoptive daughter of Grace and sister of Ryan and Jack.  Years ago she was diagnosed was Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID), a condition characterised by the presence of two or more distinct personality states.   Penny has three alternate personalites (alters) who go by the names of Eve, Chloe and Ruby.   As the story opens police are advising Grace her daughter Penny is being held in custody for the gruesome and bloody murder of Rachel, Penny's birth mother. 

Penny is placed into a secure hospital awaiting trial while Grace engages an attorney to take the case.    Throughout the story, which has a large focus on DID, readers get to know Penny's backstory, including insights into her alters, largely through the recollections of Grace and her brother Jack.    Eve is the mean alter, the protector who emerges to care for the others.  The family believe Eve was likely in control at the time of the murder.   

Mitch is the doctor assigned to care for Penny and though he is not entirely convinced of her earlier DID diagnosis he desperately wants to help not only Penny but Grace and the family.    Mitch has issues of his own.   His marriage has imploded, he has a son with a heroin addiction and he has been self medicating his own depression.   He believes he's failed his son and does not want to fail Penny too.

Throughout the book doubt was cast about whether Penny had indeed commit the murder she was accused of.  She'd been found covered in blood with a knife in her hand.    Only her DNA was found at the crime scene so all the evidence pointed in that direction.   Had Penny had a pyschotic episode and forgotten the entire thing?  Were others involved but if so, who and why?   Or were these other theories simply wishful thinking because Grace didn't want her precious daughter locked up for the term of her natural life.

The story held me in its grips from start to finish and I was throwing out random theories of my own as to how or why the crime had taken place.   I enjoyed the characters, the story and the writing.    I'll look forward to reading more titles from this author.

My thanks to D.J Palmer, to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.

D.J. Palmer's books consistently blow me away. I'm always amazed to find another psychological thriller can take me to a place that I have not gone before. The Perfect Daughter did just that. The author takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, drama, and suspense all while tackling the topic of mental illness in the form of severe multiple personality disorder.

This story was absolutely amazing and I completely devoured it. The subject of multiple personalities has always fascinated me and this book was satisfying with the breadth and knowledge that the author has of this particular disorder.

The Perfect Daughter is the perfect psychological thriller that will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat to the very end. I highly recommend it, as I have all of D.J. Palmer's other books!

Wonderful mystery about a young woman accused of a murder she has no memory of and she is put a hospital for the criminally insane. Characters were amazing and the writing was excellent. I was invested in the story from the beginning.
4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the Author and publisher for a copy of this book. The Opinions expressed are my own.

Once again D.J. Palmer does not disappoint in his newest psychological mystery/thriller. I'm a fan of the way the chapters are written by interspersing past, present and character. By doing this we see the back story and we see the characters for what and who they are as it all comes together to make one mesmerizing story. From the first page the drama starts....what recently windowed mother wants to know her teenaged daughter just got arrested? and for murder no less? And so the story begins..... Grace Francone needs to find out the truth...but the difficulty lies in her daughter's mental illness. Who really is Penny? Adopted at a young age by Grace & let husband Arthur after Grace found her abandoned in a park....there have always been different sides to Penny. Can the new psychiatrist at the State Mental Hospital where Penny has been placed figure all that out in time to save her from a life in prison? Grace continues to grasp at straws and Dr. McHugh tries desperately to help while dealing with his own personal issues. The story has moments when the reader thinks they know the answer to it all....but just wait. There are two endings to this story...and each is satisfactorily written. D.J.Palmer addresses mental illness appropriately through his storyline and characters..Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy. #NetGalley #ThePerfectDaughter

Wow! When I say my jaw dropped there in the final act of the book, I mean it! I’m a sucker for twists but I admit, I didn’t see this one coming! Mr. Palmer you got me! The book begins with Penny being arrested for the murder of her birth mother. Her adoptive mother Grace, doesn’t believe she is capable of such an act. Penny suffers from an identity disorder but no doctors believe her. She has several alternate personalities: Ruby, Chloe and the meanest one, Eve. Did Penny kill her birth mother in a rage for things done in the past? Or is Penny lying and using a personality disorder as an excuse to get away with murder? I admit I thought this was a cut and dry case but it actually had so many twists and secrets that made you want to keep reading to figure out just what does this all mean? I kept saying “one more chapter” over and over! Go get this book, it’s one of my favorites this year so far. Definitely recommend it! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley & D.J Palmer for my copy of The Perfect Daughter, for an honest review. I love a good mystery book and D.J. Palmer is a favorite author.. so I was excited to start this one. A thriller, about a girl with DID dissociative identity disorder, and the secrets she being to her adoptive family. These secrets will haunt them for years. Grace Francone, finds her daughter, in a park one day. She calls the police and their life together starts. Grace brings Penny home, her husband is hesitant and her young sons are confused and even a little bit jealous. Penny, is a mystery to them and the diagnosis of DID puts everybody is on edge. When someone from her past comes back you can only imagine how things go.. All he’ll breaks loose and it is up to Grace to find the truth, no matter the cost. Right from the beginning of this book, I was hooked. I love the way Palmer writes and his character development is always spot on. I really enjoyed this one and have shared my Instagram page and shared my review on Barnes & Noble.
If you like a good thriller, this is the book for you. It was a 4 star read for me and I can’t wait to read D.J Palmer’s next book. Enjoy!!!

Lots of twists and turns in this psychological thriller taking place in a mental hospital with a patient with Dissociative Identity Disorder.