The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle
Alma H. Bond, PhD
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2003 ASJA Press
ISBN: 0595280757

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A psychoanalyst assists the NYPD to find the killer of one of her patients.

With The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle, Dr. Bond expands her opus to present an old-fashioned mystery which explores the process of therapy, the investigation of a crime scene & the behavior patterns of the people involved.

Dr. Mary Wells receives a call from Lieutenant John Franklin of the 19th Precinct to tell her that Veronica Vail, a patient for eight years, has been found murdered in her apartment. When Dr. Wells questions the lieutenant as to why he had called her, he responds: “Sometimes we need to understand the thought patterns of both murderers and victims before we can make sense of crime scene evidence.” (Page 2) Grief-&-guilt-stricken Dr. Wells is drawn into a puzzle that will change her life forever.

Mary Wells remembers the first time she met the dynamic, troubled, six foot tall, red-haired Veronica Vail. Remembers how constrained this patient was feeling about her perfect marriage to Raymond, complete with a young child & a jealous teenage step-daughter; her perfect job in an up-&-coming interior decorating agency where Carlos de la Cuesta is both their boss; about her jealousy that Carlos, a female impersonator by night, has the hots for her husband. Only recently had Veronica felt safe enough in her therapy to face her complex relationship with her father, although its impact in her current life neither therapist nor patient had fully realized.

Soon Lt. Franklin & Dr. Wells are meeting to explore the clues, both finding enjoyment in each other's company. For Mary Wells, a longtime divorcee quite content wherein she finds herself, John Franklin is arousing long-forgotten feelings. As she sorts through the tapes of her sessions with Veronica, she accompanies the Lt, Franklin to interview Carlos de la Cuesta & see him perform. She listens to the couple's daughters, & discovers what the family's maid saw, moments after she came in the front door & found Veronica's body.

The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle is a mystery with many layers: how to interpret memories & behaviors; how to put the clues together. It is also a love story of two mature people.

All in all, Dr. Bond has written an elegant & satisfying story that will linger on long after the last page is turned. I definitely see a series with these two gentle, heroic citizens -- Dr. Mary Wells & Lt. John Franklin.

More from Dr. Alma Bond:
The Tree That Could Fly
On Becoming A Grandparent: A Diary of Family Discovery
Tales Of Psychology
I Married Dr. Jekyll And Woke Up Mrs. Hyde
The Autobiography Of Maria Callas, A Novel
Who Killed Virginia Woolf? A Psychobiography
Profiles of Key West
Dream Portrait: A Study of Nineteen Sequential Dreams As Indicators of Pretermination
America's First Woman Warrior: The Courage of Deborah Sampson
Is There Life After Analysis?
She recently recorded her new manuscript, Old Age Is A Terminal Illness, as an audio book.

Dr. Alma Bond is featured in our Authors & Books. To view all this Senior Associate Reviewer's reviews enter her name in the Search This Site box on our Home Page.
(01/11/04)

Rebecca