Mystery & Crime, Fiction Subjects

Blood Trance

Name: Blood Trance
Author: R. D. Zimmerman
ISBN: 9780688121396

by R. D. Zimmerman

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Overview

Once again, Maddy Phillips, the world's foremost forensic hypnotherapist, must bring her unique mental powers to bear on another grisly murder. Sightless since youth, paraplegic since a recent accident, Maddy relies on hypnosis to slip her brother, Alex, into a trance, where he retells in detail what he witnessed, and thus enables Maddy to hunt out the clues and visualize the horrible truth. Blood Trance is a rousing reintroduction to this critically acclaimed team as they struggle to solve the mystery of the murder of Helen Long, the enigmatic evil step-mother. Although daughter Loretta appears quickly at the scene of the crime, a bloody knife in her hand and a ready confession on her lips, Maddy isn't convinced. Pushing deeper, Alex relates his violent encounter with Loretta's sister, who has dark secrets to protect. And then there is the alcoholic brother, who disappears once Helen is found dead. The closer Maddy and Alex get to the truth, the more sinister the twists and turns become. Finally with both their lives in increasing danger, Maddy must gather all the suspects to her remote Lake Michigan island home, where the events draw to an inexorable, horrifying conclusion.

About the Author, R. D. Zimmerman

Robert Alexander

While he's already made a name for himself with his series of bestselling mysteries (written as R. D. Zimmerman), Robert Alexander has also written a trilogy of Russian historical novels (The Kitchen Boy, Rasputin's Daughter, The Romanov Bride) about the last days of Empire.

Biography

A devoted Russophile, Robert Alexander has studied at Leningrad State University, worked for the U.S. government, and traveled extensively throughout Russia. While he's already made a name for himself with his series of bestselling mysteries (written as R. D. Zimmerman), he has also written a well-received trilogy of Russian historical novels (The Kitchen Boy, Rasputin's Daughter, The Romanov Bride) about the last days of Empire.

Good To Know

In our interview, Alexander shared some fun and fascinating facts about himself with us:

"Most of my friends know: I'm much too outgoing to be living in quarantine, as I do (as any writer does). Most of my friends don't know: I can ride a unicycle, I can't balance my checkbook, I broke my back going over a ski jump, and I was once enrolled in Meats 104 and Beverage 111 at a prominent School of Hotel and Restaurants, which prompted me to drop out and start my first novel."

"What I would like to know about me from someone is, why do I keep going to Russia? I've been going there for 28 years, and it's definitely not a place to unwind. But it certainly is always interesting. And that's where I met my domestic partner, Lars, and we've now been together 25 years. And it's also where I met my business partner, Meri, and we've been in business now almost 14 years -- we have a customs clearance business and Barabu, a small chain of espresso/wine bars. And I always come up with some weird story idea over there. So maybe I just answered my own question.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Amateur sleuth Alex Phillips and his sister Maddy, a blind, crippled hypnotist/psychologist living as a wealthy recluse on an island in Michigan, make a riveting return from their debut in Death Trance . Here they investigate a murder involving one of Maddy's former patients in Chicago. In a series of hypnosis-induced flashbacks--following a bloody opening scene in medias res --Alex tells Maddy about what happened when he went to Chicago to see her ex-patient Loretta, who had recently written to Maddy for help. After several meetings with Loretta and her family, Alex is shocked to find Loretta's hated stepmother dead and Loretta holding what may be the murder knife and eager to confess to the killing. Listening to Alex's hypnosis-induced accounts of harrowing events before the murder, Maddy halts the action like a film director, probing his memory for clues. A further complication surfaces: an unidentified member of Loretta's family was driving the car that killed a little girl, whose father had been another patient of Maddy's. Zimmerman's risks largely pay off: that most of this tale has a distant, deja-vu quality doesn't detract at all from the narrative momentum, which is further accelerated by accruing family secrets that finally trigger the story's startling resolution on Maddy's island. Mystery Guild selection; pa per back rights to Dell. (June)

Wes Lukowsky

Zimmerman is an Edgar-award nominee. With his Maddy and Alex Phillips series (this is number two, following "Death Trance", published in 1992), he has taken the Nero Wolfe-Archie Goodwin concept to its extreme--and it works very well. Maddy is a psychologist and "forensic hypnotist" left blind and paraplegic by a hit-and-run driver. With her settlement and subsequent stock-market earnings she's hidden herself away on a Lake Michigan island. Brother Alex is her conduit to the tensile world; when a murder arises, he investigates. Actually, he just absorbs. Maddy, through hypnosis, plays him like a VCR. He reports back each nuance of every crime scene and every interview while under Maddy's "influence." Usually he doesn't comprehend the significance of what he's gathered until Maddy is able to interpret it. When Alex responds to the call for help from one of Maddy's ex-patients, he finds her wielding a knife over her stepmother's dead body. The usual multiple family motives arise, but it takes Maddy's cerebral insight to solve the mystery. An implausible premise realistically executed. This quirky series bears watching.