Sunday, January 06, 2008

Deadly Advice, Speed Dating and Murder

Yesterday afternoon, I got a chance to read a mystery, Deadly Advice, sent to me by author Roberta Isleib. Surprisingly, Isleib is a clinical psychologist and the main character of the book is Dr. Rebbecca Butterman, a psychologist who also writes an online advice column. It sounded rather familiar so I figured it was worth a read. It was.

The storyline starts out with Butterman's neighbor dying from what looks like a suicide intiitally but turns into a murder investigation. Dr. Butterman gets involved with trying to find the killer and finds out that her neighbor was involved in a seedy underworld of speed dating and erotic parties. Okay, I added the seedy part about the speed dating--some of you out there might have tried it and found it okay. The neighbor apparently was screwing at various parties and then putting the information along with pictures up on a website for the world to see.

Anyway, the descriptions of this uptight psychologist trying to delve into this underworld and her lack of confidence in herself are pretty interesting. Dr. Butterman spends much of the book second-guessing her looks and determining that she is some type of old maid at the age of 38. The online advice column she writes is not bad, but leaves her feeling rather unfullfilled since she gives silly flippant advice to women about the most intricate aspects of their lives. She seems for the most part, to be one of those types who think that "psychological complexity" is the mark of a higher status of being, when in reality, it is often a sign of a royal pain in the ass.

I won't ruin the plot line for you should you ever read the book, but it makes for a fun afternoon of reading if you like this genre.

Labels:

4 Comments:

Blogger Cham said...

Helen, aren't you a little concerned about the fewer hours you spent reading this drivel that you won't be able to reclaim?

9:33 AM, January 06, 2008  
Blogger Helen said...

Cham,

Well, actually no. I had fun reading it. I don't read much fiction nor do I usually read mysteries because they bore me. However, this book was fun! It had a lot of psychological issues in it that I could relate to, and the main character reminded me of some of the prissy supervisors I had in graduate school who took themselves a bit too seriously. It was kind of interesting. I spend so much of my time on serious issues that I like the idea of mindless drivel, which this book, was not.

9:39 AM, January 06, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mindless drivel good. Look in book, make pictures in head, see whodunnit.

11:09 AM, January 07, 2008  
Blogger Rich said...

"The online advice column she writes is not bad, but leaves her feeling rather unfullfilled since she gives silly flippant advice to women about the most intricate aspects of their lives. She seems for the most part, to be one of those types who think that "psychological complexity" is the mark of a higher status of being, when in reality, it is often a sign of a royal pain in the ass."

Gee, shave her head and give her a mustache and she could be Dr. Phil...

1:06 PM, January 07, 2008  

Post a Comment

<< Home