DJ Palmer has done it again. Just when I think I can figure out the ending of a book there comes the twist completely out of nowhere. The story follows the event of the murder of Rachel who happens to be the birth mother of the accused, Penny. Penny does not recall murdering Rachel or any of the events of that evening. Penny also has DID which is a metal illness where she has multiple personalities or alters as they are called. Did one of the alters kill Rachel? If so, why? What does Penny recall from her early days with Rachel? What is in store for this family?

If you get lucky enough to get your hands on this book - make sure you have nothing going on in your life as this is one book you will not want to put down for anything else.

Holly hell! My jaw dropped, my nose hit the floor! Before losing other parts of my face: I’m screaming: this is freaking fascinating!

This is like eating Wagyu steak accompanied with one bottle of St. Emilion Grand Cru and a thick slice of Sweet Lady Jane’s chocolate cake! This is quite thriller feast for me:

I found all my dreamy thrilling elements such as brutal murder, unreliable narrators, dissociative identity disorder, mental hospital theme, intense slow burn pace. And of course mind shattering writing style which deceives you with new theories and sudden changing directions make you question your own reality!

And that pulling the rug up it from under you kind of extra WTH final: that revelation earned extra star from me! For million years I could never see it coming! The author punched me so fast and I barely gathered myself!

Quick summary of the story :( I’ll do everything not to give spoilers and ruin your reading adventure. Actually I’m really wondering how your face expression will change as you reach the last blowing chapters!!!)

When Grace returns back to her home after busy working day at family Italian restaurant, she realizes something must be wrong because her deceased husband’s car is not parked in front of the house and her daughter Penny is not at home. Penny already deals with psychological issues and she was so close to get arrested after her murder bucket list she has written was gone viral. So she has no permission to leave her without informing her mom and drive her father’s car. But she did them both!

Somebody knocks the door. Grace thinks her daughter came back but no: there is a police officer waiting outside to inform her they arrested her daughter for murder charge. She is found standing in front of her death birth mother, covered in blood. The murder weapon is covered with her fingerprints!

Grace doesn’t want to believe her daughter can commit such a brutal crime and actually her daughter Penny is long gone, her body is invaded by her alter persona Eve who has no idea why she’s at the police station.

Penny/ Eve gets locked at the state hospital till her court date for more detailed observation of her mental situation. Her new doctor Mitch McHugh is expert about DID cases. As other personas like Chloe, Ruby starts to appear, Mitch gets more confused to give a diagnosis. Penny’s one of the personas insist she wasn’t alone during the crime scene. Could she tell the truth? Could somebody who knows her mental state to put the blame on her? Or could she be a psychopath who plays game with them by acting like she’s suffering from DID?

Time to shut my big mouth! This is good! This is smart! This is so far my favorite book of the author! I highly recommend it to the author’s fans and psychological thriller/ crime thriller lovers!
By the way: I mostly enjoyed Jack’s POV ( Penny’s brother who is Emerson College student, plans to make a movie about his sister’s case!) His narration was dark, smart, sarcastic, entertaining! I loved his relationship dynamics with his sister.

Overall: It deserved my five gazillion stars with its ultra smart writing style.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

The Perfect Daughter is a fascinating look at a baffling psychiatric condition...dissociative identity disorder. Patients with DID have a "primary" self and at least two "alters" (alternative personalities). The Perfect Daughter makes clear that DID differs from schizophrenia, although multiple personalities are often seen in both. It is obvious D.J. Palmer did extensive research on DID, and the passages where alters appear and disappear seemingly out of thin air are mezmerizing. The problem with The Perfect Daughter is you have to chew on quite a bit of fat to get to the "meat" of the story-did Penny (or one of her alters) commit a brutal murder, or is she faking symptoms to avoid spending the rest of her life in prison? Author Palmer builds the plot slowly with the back story of how Penny was found abandoned in a park at age four, then the appearance of the first alter. You can't help but feel for Penny even if she is guilty of murder-her early life with a drug addict mother is a horror story on its own. The Perfect Daughter has two major twists-one is pure genius but the other feels contrived simply as a way to wrap up the story. This comes as a let down after pages of heightened tension. But The Perfect Daughter has much going for it-J.D. Palmer answers the "why" a murder happens as suspensefully as any "who dunnit" you'll find.

Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Private investigator Jessica Shaw, who specializes in missing persons cases, takes a job working for an investigator named Connor. They quickly find themselves hired by a woman to investigate her daughter who went missing in the desert east of LA. Two other missing women were last seen in the same area.

This is the third novel in this series and all can be read as stand alones. I really enjoy this series. I find them to be really engaging procedurals and I like the character of Jessica Shaw a lot. I can't wait for the next one.

Grace is a mother willing to do anything for her child. Penny, her adopted daughter found abandoned in a park, is diagnosed in adolescence with multiple personality disorder. There’s sweet, studious, funny, and...possibly psychopathic. When Grace answers the door to police saying they’d arrested her daughter “Eve” covered in blood and next to her murdered birth mother, Grace gives up everything to try to prove Penny’s innocence while she is awaiting trial at a prison mental hospital. Did Penny/Eve commit murder or was a troubled girl framed?

This book was part domestic thriller, part legal procedural, and part medical/psychological discourse. Definitely not like anything else on the market! I enjoyed the legal and medical aspects so much that I gave it a 5 stars. The eventual twist was a bit out of nowhere and felt a bit far fetched, but I definitely was surprised!

Highly recommend - I very much enjoyed and was disappointed when it was over!

I would give this book a 5 star rating. This is the 3rd medical mystery book by DJ Palmer that I have read. I have loved each one but this was truly my favorite. It kept me reading well into the night to find out what would happen next. I was not able to figure out the ending until the author was ready for me to find out. A real page turner. It is a must read for anyone who enjoys medical mystery and even for those that don't.

This book is a solid 5-star read. It is not only enjoyable, but also worthwhile as a learning activity because of its topic.

DJ Palmer has been one of my favorite writers for the last several years. His previous books Saving Megan and The New Husband are two of the best thrillers I’ve ever read. Palmer has previously previously written under the name Daniel Palmer; he is the son of the late Michael Palmer.

One of the things I like most about DJ Palmer’s writing is the structure of his novels. He has somehow latched onto the perfect technique for advancing a plot at just the right pace and in an easily-followed sequence of events. In this book, The Perfect Daughter, he has used two different point-of-view approaches. Most chapters are presented in the usual third person omniscient point of view; but some chapters are written using first and second person narration of a brother speaking to his troubled sister, the perfect daughter. It is a highly effective way to present the action of the plot along with emphasizing the emotional impact of mental illness on an entire family.

The topic of dissociative identity disorder (DID) is of almost universal fascination, and there has been much distortion of the condition presented through the years in books and movies on the topic. Palmer’s treatment of the topic seems realistic and grips the reader’s emotions and imagination.

I read at least 200 books per year, and I am inclined to skip portions of descriptive narration and lengthy dialogue as I read. I was aware that I did very little of that while reading this novel. I wanted to read every word. The story is engrossing; I highly recommend this book to fellow readers who enjoy psychological thrillers and mystery novels as well as those who love to read about relationship development.

The Perfect Daughter is an engaging mystery, with a teenager, Penny who is accused of murdering her biological mother, Rachel. It is hard to be sure, but the killer might be Penny or Eve or Chloe or Ruby since Grace Francone's adopted daughter has dissociative identity disorder. A condition many people fail to believe is real. Grace has to trust Penny's psychiatrist, Dr. McHugh to help her daughter and save her from a life behind bars.
Grace knows that her sweet Penny could not have killed Rachel, and if an alter is responsible, Penny needs help, not to spend her life in jail. Grace starts to question if her daughter is even the killer, as more than one person had a motive to kill Rachel. With the truth locked somewhere inside Penny, Grace will do whatever it takes to uncover the truth.
A ton of revelations kept me furiously flipping pages. By about the 60% mark, I was sure I had figured out whodunnit and why. Yep, my smug self was so sure of the outcome, and I was 100% wrong. The reveal was a shocker, and I never looked twice at this character.
DJ Palmer, if I ever get the chance to interact with you, I would like to share my truly flawed theory. You would probably laugh, but who knows, perhaps I would find out that it was a scenario you considered. Anyhow, a well-played hand by the author. Great characters, a twisty plot, an illness that may or may not be real, and an OMG ending. I loved it!

Wow! Amazing read! What can I say about this book? I don’t want to give away any spoilers so...... You never really know what is going on in someone’s life/family and then when you go to someone for help, you don’t know who you are really getting. You may receive something that you never imagined. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I did receive an advance reader copy of this book but that had no effect whatsoever on my opinion of this book.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a different story than the same old themes that you see over and over again. It kept me turning the pages and really drew me in. I didn’t guess the villain of the story, and was quite surprised at who it ended up being. It just didn’t seem to make sense, and I was a little disappointed, but it didn’t spoil the book. All in all, a really good read.

D.J. Palmer has written another masterpiece! The book was unique in its premise, and there was a lot of suspense throughout. I didn't see the ending coming, which is always a good thing. I rate the book 4.5 to 5 stars.
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This thriller kept me turning the pages because I wanted to find out the truth behind the murder, the main character’s possible Dissociative Identity Disorder, and so many plot twists and character motives. Personally, this one didn’t thrill me as much as The New Husband, but I liked this take on a mental illness and I think many readers are going to enjoy this book.

Started and finished The Perfect Daughter in one day as it’s a page turning suspenseful read. A police detective comes to Grace’s house one evening to let her know her daughter, 17 yr old Penny, is in custody for the brutal murder of her birth mother. Adopted by Grace, her husband, and two boys when Penny was abandoned in a playground at 5 years old this is not the first time Penny’s been in trouble with the law. At 10 she developed multiple personality disorder and this has led to many problems. Months earlier Navarro, a man, accidentally ran into the back of Grace’s car, became a friend and is an excellent attorney. He helps, agreeing to take the case, as does Dr. Mitch Penny’s doctor at Edgewater hospital.
The ending is, of course, a huge twist that you don’t see coming, although in hindsight I felt I should have because of what the author doesn’t write. I know that’s cryptic but to say anymore is giving the plot away.
A fast paced great suspense read.

I really, really liked this! I have read all 3 D.J. Palmer books and I think this one is my favorite. Things I liked best- storyline, obviously. I have no way to verify, but I felt like the author did a lot of research on DID and that the aspect of how all involved dealt with the fallout felt real. Characterization. I felt all the main characters had enough background information that you could sympathize with them and understand motivations. Plot twist!! GREAT one!! Did not see that one coming, and I read a LOT of these sort of books. THANK YOU! Thing I liked least, and it's a VERY small one- I felt the word "seethed" was overused. Sorry, I'm weird like that! Overall, time well spent with this one! Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, D.J. Palmer and St. Martins Press for this much appreciated ARC!

Wow just wow. This was a story I could not put down! Loved how the story was told from different points of view. I loved how Grace advocated for her daughter Penny. The mystery of trying to find out what really happened had me thinking overtime. Well written story and several unexpected twists and turns.
Thank you to Net galley for complimentary copy. The thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you like psychological thrillers and untangling of stories you will enjoy this one.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review - -
I swear Palmers books get better and better! What a read and who would have thought the ending!!!
Penny is found abandon. Grace and Arthur adopt her not knowing what her previous life was. And when Penny is accused of murdering her real mother - life becomes a whirlwind of unknown characters. Who is the real Penny?
You definitely don't want to miss this book!!

HOLY CRAP! While I have read and loved his previous books, the Author has really outdid himself with this one. The subject matter (DID) fascinated me. The story starts with a little girl (4 years old) found alone in a park. She is fostered and then adopted by Grace and her husband. There is also 2 sons in the family. Penny is 12 when her first alter appears. At 16 she is a resident of a psychiatric hospital awaiting trial for murder. That is all I will say. Read the book. You will not be disappointed. Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the Author for allowing me to read and review this fabulous book.

What a thrilling read from start to finish. The several different personalities of Grace’s daughter were magnificently written and believable. Grace’s family has been through a lot and continues to be challenged throughout the book. You won’t be disappointed with this thriller.

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this ARC. I loved D.J. Palmer's other books and this was no exception! It pulled me in from the beginning and never let up! I lingered in bed finishing it up this morning and the ending, OMG the ending.! The characters were well-written, even though I did get them confused a couple of times. The story was inventive and I feel like i learned a lot about DID. Mr. Palmer's writing was wonderful, as usual! If you like a fast-paced book that keeps you guessing, this is the book for you!

The Perfect Daughter starts off with a bang! Murder, psychiatric hospital/prison, multiple personalities, a family in turmoil, an exhausted psychiatrist searching for the truth .....OH MY!! The descriptions are vivid and the emotions were palpable as Grace learns her teenage daughter Penny has been arrested for murder. This was a highly addictive story. I had a hard time putting it down because each chapter left me with anticipation for the next one. It’s a story with multiple narrators who complement and share differing perspectives of the story. I LOVED it! The suspense, twists, and descriptive scenes had me right there with them. The ending was awesome and full of excitement! Touching epilogue too with real life issues being addressed, which I remember follows suit with the epilogue from The New Husband as well. I can’t wait to for more from D.J. Palmer!