Series: Doctors of Darkness #3
My review:
What an intense book! We experience this story through the eyes of Ava, a psychologist and ex-wife of Ian Culpepper, famed TV relationship doctor along with his new wife, Kate. However, we are not sure we can trust Ava’s perspective. Especially since all evidence points to her being the murderer of Ian and Kate.
Complicating matters is the fact that her boyfriend of a year, Luke, is a cop, along with his brother and father, who is the lead detective on the case. The book goes back and forth between the present, and various Valentine’s Days over the previous eight years of Ava and Ian’s meeting, relationship, marriage, and divorce. Many characters are not who they seem to be, and we never know who to believe. This is a page turning thriller that keeps us guessing until the end.
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
But Ian is far from perfect, and Ava owes a debt too. For the unforgivable thing they’d done together. The dark deed that severed their marriage in two. When Ava’s name is found inked in blood at the crime scene, a reckoning seems inevitable. Someone knows what she’s hiding. Someone sees what she’s done. And karma is ready to collect its pound of flesh.
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me. Please.” “Is Madison alright?” I ask, my own voice high and breathy as a child’s. Ian’s daughter is quite possibly the only good thing he ever did. And I swear I’m not a heartless bitch. Though Ian had branded me one more than once. Back in the days of old when I’d called him a poor excuse for a husband and an even poorer excuse for a man.
to his cell on the nightstand. The one that had buzzed us awake five minutes ago and exploded the world as I’d known it. “I’ll know more when I get there.”
on himself. He’d all but asked for it coming back here to my hometown. Invading
my turf. With her. Besides, guilt is a useless emotion. Ian had said it himself years ago, after I’d told him I didn’t want any special treatment in his class. The back-row girls will talk, I’d said. And he’d pushed me up against his desk and kissed me like a pathetic cliché. Dr. Culpepper always had his favorites. Easy come, easy go.
pocket. I can’t look away from the lean muscle of him. Ian never had abs like
that. Though to be fair, he’d been pushing forty when I met him.
writing–professionally and creatively–for as long as she can remember. Just
like many of her main characters, Ellery loves to ask why, which is the reason
she became a psychologist in the first place. Real life really is stranger than
fiction, and Ellery’s writing is often inspired by her day job. Evaluating
violent criminals and treating trauma victims, she has gained a unique
perspective on the past and its indelible influence on the individual. And
she’s heard her fair share of real life thrillers. An avid short story writer
as a teenager, Ellery recently began writing for enjoyment again, and she
hasn’t stopped since.
Ellery’s debut novel, Legacy, has received several awards, including winning the Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, young adult, e-book category, and the Gold Medal in the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards, teenage category. In 2016, Ellery was selected as one of ten semifinalists in the
MasterClass James Patterson Co-Author Competition.