The Perfect Daughter is a fascinating mystery/thriller that dives into the world of mental illness, specifically dissociative identity disorder. Penny is the adoptive daughter of Grace, and has been accused of killing her birth mother Rachel. Penny has exhibited multiple personalities for several years - Evil Eve, Sweet Little Chloe, and British Ruby. Grace, her sons Jack and Ryan, Attorney Navarro, and Dr. Mitch all wonder if Penny is acting or if there is something in her past that her personalities may be protecting her from. Since I have read multiple novels with unreliable narrators, you have to wonder if what you're reading is the truth.

Although this is a slow burn, and things in the book happen rather slowly, it is still a very addicting read. I didn't expect the ending!

The one thing that distracted from the story, was the side plot with Dr. Mitch and his son Adam. I thought this was just added in to give some additional insight into addiction and depression, and how it is often difficult for us to put ourselves in someone else's shoes. (This is what dropped my rating from 5 stars to 4.)

I struggled to complete this book, which felt more like a Psychology University lesson on Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) than a thriller.

There are so many things that just didn't work for me,
- Unlikable characters whom I didn't care about at all and who were just not interesting.
- In depth analysis of things, which didn't need 10 paras dedicated to them.
- Side plots that were unnecessary.
- Too much repetition.

I kept Reading in hopes of it getting better, but alas. Even the final plot twist didn't manage to surprise me.

I love a great thriller and this was just that! I am so exhausted right now because I couldn't put this book down last night. I was up till 2 am reading. I was hooked from the beginning and it kept me entertained with all of the twists. I highly recommend to anyone who loves thrillers.

I likened the authors last book to a Lifetime movie and I still kinda feel the same way about this one, although this one was a little meatier and I did like it a bit more. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a dramatic made for TV movie though and that’s exactly the kind of mood I was in when I started this one.

I thought the mental illness portrayed here was done in a really interesting and mindful way. The whole first half I was super into this aspect and loved learning about the psychological side of this. Care and research must have been used because I found it to be very detailed, so if you’re at all interested in DID then this may be for you. The pacing was pretty solid as well, I was definitely invested enough that I read it quickly and wanted to know how it would all come together. Did it end how I wanted it to? Mostly, it was a tiny bit ridiculous but there were so many strong aspects that I’ll let it slide. An enjoyable read for me and one I predict will be a fan favorite because I think it’s definitely a step up from the authors last book.

Wow!!! Super impressive, this superbly written thriller was compelling reading, edgy and gripping.

The Perfect Daughter by D.J. Palmer is a psychological thriller that explores the truth behind a horrific murder.

Thirteen years ago Grace Francone promised her son Jack a quick stop at the playground as it was beginning to rain. To her shock she came across a wailing child who was standing alone, rain-soaked and shivering. The child was around four, there were no parents in sight and after scanning the area it appeared deserted. Who would desert a child? Grace called the police, an ambulance soon arrived and Grace accompanied them to the hospital. Fast forward a few months later and the child was to be adopted by Grace and her family, a miracle daughter they called Penny!

As Penny grew older, some of her actions became disturbing as she developed different personalities known as dissociative identity disorder (DID).

Penny now a sixteen-year-old has been arrested for murder, she’s bathed in blood and holding the bloodstained murder weapon. Penny looks guilty beyond doubt but can’t remember a thing. Is she playing them along or is she innocent?

Grace believes her teenage daughter is innocent and is determined to prove it. Dr Mitchell McHugh a doctor at the state mental hospital where she is being held awaiting trial, helps Grace as they set out to find the truth.

The characters were lifelike and relatable. I found this story fascinating, it was an intriguing insight into a complex medical condition.

This book won’t disappoint, highly recommended read for thriller fans!

DJ Palmer does not disappoint! I have enjoyed all of his books so far, but this one is my favorite!

The Perfect Daughter is about Penny, an adopted teen that is suspected to have dissociative identity disorder and is suspected to have murdered her birth mother. Penny’s adoptive mother works with both Penny’s psychologist and lawyer to build a case for their plea of not guilty, due to her mental illness. Things are complicated even more as Penny has no memory of what happened that night- it’s suspected that another one of her alters took over, which explains why Penny cannot access the memory. Does Penny really have dissociative identity disorder? Or is Penny a brilliant psychopath?

As I said, this is my favorite of DJ Palmer’s books thus far. I couldn’t put it down! I was fascinated by Penny’s various alters and the triggers that caused her to switch between them. The pacing of this kept me on the edge of my seat, and little clues were given throughout that kept me trying to put together the pieces, but I was still surprised by the final verdict! A must read for thriller fans!! The Perfect Daughter will be published on April 20 - preorder now!!

My mind is still reeling after reading this one! I knew as soon as I read the blurb that this was going to be a good one, but I had no idea just how good. So many questions with very few answers throughout the entire book, kept me needing to turn the page. The twists and turns made sure that there was never a dull moment. And I definitely didn't see that ending coming....had my jaw on the floor.

This book is dark. I'm just throwing out this warning. It took me awhile to get through, mostly because of how many different aspects there are to this novel. 

But the fact that I can't say that this book was unputdownable does NOT mean that it wasn't good. In fact, that book was really fantastic.

All the evidence points to Penny having murdered her birth mother, Rachel. She was found in Rachel's apartment with a knife in her hand and Rachel blood all over her. It should be an open and shut case, right?

Except Penny has DID, a disorder that causes her personality to be splintered. Could it have been one of Penny's alters that murdered Rachel? Or was there someone else in the apartment with Penny?

Or is Penny just really good at faking her disorder?

Penny's mother Grace is out to prove that Penny didn't do it. And she believes that none of her alters did either.

So who killed Rachel? Grace will stop at nothing to find out.

Thank you D.J. Palmer for another wonderful read.
Full of twists and turns, page turner at its best.
Story of a daughter mental illness and a mother who will go to no end to protect her daughter.
Love the characters.
Jaw dropping ending which I did not see coming.
Highly recommend
Thank you netgalley, the publisher and D.J. Palmer
4 stars

The Perfect Daughter by D.J. Palmer is a dramatic thriller with a complex storyline that keeps you guessing from page one. The book opens with a dramatic scene of a woman, Grace, opening the door to police officers and being notified her 16 year old daughter, Penny, was arrested for murder. She is told to bring a change of clothes as her daughter is covered in blood. This scene is interspersed with the knowledge that Penny murdered her birth mother and soon scandals are revealed that have you questioning if the faith Grace has in the innocence of her daughter is rational. You quickly are brought into the various identities that Penny has and found out more about Dissociative Identity Disorder.

The book is told from four points of view, Grace (the mother), Jack (the brother), Penny (the daughter) and Dr. Mitch (the doctor at the institution). You are given glimpses of flashbacks of their childhood and history via memories they share. You will also learn more about Penny’s alters (Eve, Chloe, and Ruby) and how how different identities help her cope with the trauma. All of the characters at times are painted as a sympathetic and you will wonder what is real and what has been manipulated.

The characters have flaws but are all seem to have redeeming characteristics.. You can not help but try to figure out who is the victim and who is at fault. Trust me though, you will be shocked when it is not at all what it seems. The excellent plotting and twists are masterful. The superb handling of mental illness and respect for those with differing abilities is handled with grace by Palmer. This is a book you will want to finish in a single day, so carve out some time. For those readers who loved Saving Meghan and The New Husband, you will be equally thrilled with this gripping and fully engrossing psychological thriller.

I was provided a complimentary advance reader copy from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest review on Net Galley. The opinions shared in this review are my own.

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The Perfect Daughter by @djpalmerauthor
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Thank you @netgalley for this ARC copy! Once I read the synopsis I wanted to read this.
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From the start this was an intense psychological thriller. I was so intrigued by the daughter Penny who has DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder. It is difficult confirm due to lack of evidence to support the disease. Many know it as multiple personality disorder. Throughout the story we are introduced to her alters; Ruby, Chloe and Eve. It seems like Penny really has DID or just a psychopath.
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Penny is charged with murder and cannot remember doing it. She has no memory and now is in Elmhurst Hospital being treated. Throughout the story both her mother Grace and Dr. Mitch are trying to prove her innocence. The story is told in mutuel POV from her mother Grace, Dr. Mitch and brother Jack.
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I am fascinated by this topic and could tell the story was researched and showing how this condition truly is. There were many things that happened which made me question if Penny does have DID and was she the murderer. This is one of those books where I couldn’t stop reading.
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I highly recommend this for a psychological thriller and insight to neurological disorders.
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#books #bookpost #bookreview #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookbooksbooks #bookblogger #book #bookstagrammer #bookcommunity #bibliophile #bookreview #bookreviews #review #arc #netgally #perfectdaughter #igbook #igbookstagram #read #reading #readingcommunity #readmorebooks #reviewer

A young teenage girl named Penny is found with a dead body covered in blood and holding the murder weapon. She, however insists that she is innocent. Oh, the victim just happens to be her biological mother who abandoned her when she was 4 years old! She also suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder believed to be a result of her traumatic childhood. The tension and pace start to mount. I love unreliable narrators that keep you guessing and Penny and her alter ego did just that.

A psychiatrist will have to get to the bottom of it all and find out exactly what is going on with Penny and determine if she is in fact innocent. I enjoyed the psychological aspects of this book and reading about Dissociative Identity Disorder stemming from trauma and how it manifested over the years. I look forward to this author's next book!

A big thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

The Perfect Daughter by DJ Palmer is a gripping family suspense novel. This one did not disappoint!

Grace has two sons. When she finds a young girl in the park alone she takes her home and ends up adopting her. She names the girl Penny and she and her husband feel as if their family is complete. But as Penny gets older, the family finds that she she suffers from Dissociative Identify Disorder and has four different identities. As a teenager, Penny is in contact with her biological mother. She is arrested for the murder of her mother and this isn't the first time that Penny has been in trouble with the law. Grace is convinced that Penny did not commit this crime. As her daughter spends time in a psychiatric ward and with the help of Dr. Mitch, will Penny disclose which of her identities may have committed the crime? Or, was it someone else entirely? If so, who?

This one keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. I actually thought I had this one figured out but oh how wrong I was! DJ Palmer has written a fantastic suspense novel! This one releases on April 20, 2021!

I was unable to download this book after numerous attempts and was disappointed I couldn’t read it. I had reached out to NetGalley support and still unable too.

4.5/5 stars!

To say that I didn’t see that coming would be an understatement.

Recommend for: lovers of psychological thrillers, suspense, mystery, fiction, books with mental health aspects.

<b>The Perfect Daughter</b> had me hooked from the beginning. It’s truly a page turner. It centers on the gruesome murder of
Rachel Boyd, by Penny, her biological daughter who has mental health issues, specifically Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). I don’t know much about DID, but the author seems to have done a significant amount of research to make this novel, and specifically this character, to be as authentic as possible.

We see the story told from Grace’s (Penny’s adoptive mother) viewpoint, with some select chapters in Jack’s (Grace’s son) and Dr McHugh’s viewpoint. We watch as Grace tries to prove her daughter’s innocence by uncovering all that she can surrounding the murder and potential people involved, with Dr Mitch McHugh as a helping hand. However, the more secrets they uncover, both from Penny and from the case, leaves them with more questions than answers.

The writing of this novel is captivating from the get go. The big reveal was SPECTACULAR! I can’t say any different, my mind was going in one direction and the author brought me to another place, one I would never, EVER have guessed. That makes for a great book in my opinion.

The characters were all really well done. I thought the story told from Grace’s perspective was interesting and a good way to get to know Penny and her different alters, without the story becoming too unreliable. I found Penny to be fascinating and enjoyed finding the cues that indicated she was switching to a different alter. I find mental health to be a very interesting domain, and a topic I wish to know more about.

The only thing that was a slight let-down for me, was the wrap-up. Putting all the pieces together and understanding how they all fit and the why for things was good. I didn’t really vibe with the epilogue that was focused on Dr Mitch and his son, Adam. Yes we discussed their relationship from time to time, and how it was impacting Dr Mitch...but I never felt close to Adam, so I’m not sure where this was all coming from I guess.

Anywho, all in all, I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of this book! I’ll definitely be on the look-out for more of Palmer’s work!

<i>I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher of this advanced digital copy for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review! All opinions expressed are my own. Upon publishing of this novel, I will also be posting my review to Amazon Canada.</i>

D.J. Palmer has done it again! This is the third time that I have been lucky enough to be able to read an ARC of one of his books, and the third time that I absolutely loved it. The style in which he writes these masterfully suspenseful thrillers is brilliant! The Perfect Daughter, like his other novels, are told from multiple character POV, which I love. As soon as I started reading I was hooked and couldn’t wait to see how it all played out. Who killed Rachel? Will Mitch be able to reach the truth with Penny? And then there are the twists and reveal!! And they are good!! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!!

Talk about a edge of your seat, nail biting thriller. This book captivated me from the start and I couldn’t rest until I knew the truth. The main storyline kept me engaged, while some of the supporting characters and their storyline were a bit disconnected and didn’t fully develop for me. In the end I wasn’t left loving any of the characters or necessarily shocked at the end. It ended up being vanilla for me. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book and give my honest review in return.

This novel worked in that I wanted to read to the end and find out how it was resolved.

Grace is trying to figure out what to do to help her teenage daughter who is waiting to go on trial for murder. Penny, who has a darker alter named Eve, a British alter named Ruby, and a perfectionist alter Chloe, was found covered in blood, holding the knife above her deceased birth mother’s body. Grace discovered Penny when she was abandoned in a park at the age of four. The birth mother readily gave up custody, enabling Penny to raise her. When the alters show up, the family wonders what darkness and trauma she experienced before they found her that would cause her to need to compartmentalize personalities.

Grace wants to her lawyer to plea that Penny is mentally ill and thus not responsible for murder. With the help of a new doctor, will Penny get expert testimony to confirm that she has Dissociative Identity Disorder, what most of us think of as multiple personality disorder? Many doctors and members of Penny’s family think she’s just a great actress—who is a psychopath who deserves punishment, not treatment.

While the pacing is good, there was just something missing for me—it falls flat—but as a mystery it works.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel, which RELEASES APRIL 20TH, 2021.

OMG! “The Perfect Daughter”, by D.J. Palmer, is a fast paced, cerebral, mind-bending, unique suspense thriller, that completely blew me away!!

Author’s note: “Dissociative identify disorder, which features prominently in this novel, is a very complex and multifaceted condition that is often incorrectly dramatized in books, TV, and the movies. I did a substantial amount of research on the disorder and prioritized portraying the character with DID as true to life as possible.“

Yes, he did! In my line of work, I’ve had the privilege to be personally acquainted with 3 different individuals who all have the official diagnosis of DID. I found this book fascinatingly real and accurate to what I have personally witnessed in observation about alters and know to be true about the disorder, and how this mental disorder manifests itself.

The story is well paced - there is not a lot of filler and drag down material. The characters (all of them) are solid and well developed for what is needed to give the story life, mystery, and suspense. Although a murder has taken place (the fiction part of the book), the characters portrayed did NOT Reek of FICTION; I could find these characters totally believable as a real event in life. And so starts the story.... a young teenage girl named Penny with known mental problems (in addition to an arrest in the past, an unsavory friend, not to mention all kinds of other damning evidence), who is found all alone with blood all over her, knife in hand, with a victim who is brutally murdered in the most savage of ways. Said victim just happens to be her biological mother who abandoned her when she was 4 yrs old.

I found myself verbally saying holy ****, and OMG several times while reading this!

And then..... THE ENDING TOTALLY BLEW ME AWAY! I DID NOT EVEN SEE THAT COMING! 5 Stars in my book when that happens (it seldom does), and a well deserved 5 stars for the superb writing and plot.

My only criticism, was a very small and brief unnecessary reference to Jehovah’s Witnesses about 83% into the book. It was offensive on 2 levels, and could have been easily left out entirely, or at least substituted with some kind of generic salesman.

This book would appeal to those interested in the field of mental disorders, and to those who enjoy good psychological mystery thrillers.
Does not contain sex scenes.
Very rare profanity.

My thanks to NetGalley, and the publisher, for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I LOVED this book. I couldn't put it down. Read it in a day. Thank god there was a snowstorm! I read DJ Palmers Saving Meghan. Loved it too,. He is such a good writer. His attention to detail is amazing. I loved the character development of all the characters. I found myself liking them and then not liking them. It was constantly evolving. I even wondered if Penny was faking her personality disorder. Ending shocked me. Did not see that coming. Totally thought it was Vince till the bitter end. I can not wait for your next book. Read this book. You will not be disappointed!