cover image Final Session: A Mystery

Final Session: A Mystery

Mary Morell. Spinsters Ink Books, $9.95 (203pp) ISBN 978-0-933216-78-5

Morell's first novel, a police procedural, gets off to a splendid start with a deliciously suspicious death and an engaging detective to sort things out. But eventually it demonstrates why fictional cops and PIs tend to travel light--meaningful relationships can bog things down, as happens here when Officer Lucia Ramos becomes involved with therapist Amy Traegerp. 17 , who is helping her with her investigation. Ramos is called in when Elizabeth Freeman, a psychotherapist, is found dead in her office. The cop soon learns that professional ethics wasn't or weren't?pk wasn't Freeman's strong point. One former client, Marita Peterson, complained to the professional examining board that Freeman had slept with her--but was Peterson angry enough to commit murder? Other clients include Nyla Kyle, a tai chi instructor with enough strength and training to be capable of killing; Rebecca Field, a child abuse survivor with multiple personalities--one of them violent; and Derrick Milton, a reclusive young man grieving for his dead mother. Ramos tries to track the murderer without compounding the psychological damage Freeman has already done--and paid for. (June)