From the massive archive and the first book of the
series. Next Tuesday Barry reviews the brand new book in the series, Panic Attack.
A clinical psychologist who specializes in treating those who have experienced severe traumas, Dr. Daniel Rinaldi has been working with Kevin Merrick for six months, during which the troubled and previously hospitalized young man has gradually identified with Rinaldi such that he’s trying to become his therapist by stealing small items from the office and “(H)esitantly at first, and then quite blatantly, he’d begun dressing like me…His beard, without my telltale sprigs of gray, was coming in nicely….Then today, when I opened the connecting door to the waiting room for our regularly scheduled appointment, I found Kevin hanging up a dripping jacket next to mine on the standing coat rack.” The jacket is very similar to one of Rinaldi’s own.
His session with Kevin at the novel’s opening includes a
significant revelation about the latter’s past, a revelation that amounts to
something of a breakthrough that has been a long time coming. When the session
ends, Rinaldi says, “I meant what I said in there. It took guts to reveal such
an old, painful secret…” Kevin replies, “Hell, man, I got lots of secrets…”
Rinaldi never learns directly from his patient what they
are because, upon departing from the office, Kevin is murdered in the parking
garage beneath the building. As a sometime consultant to the Pittsburgh police
department, and as a man with the kind of conscience that demands being in on
the capture of the murderer, Rinaldi is not about to let up even when it’s
suggested that Kevin’s resemblance to him might have made him the actual but mistaken target.
I’m loath to reveal any other details because the
impeccably paced and plotted Mirror Image
is fraught with multiple twists and surprises I don’t want to spoil. (I advise
readers to be wary of comments at sites like Amazon, Goodreads and others of
that sort because they’ll learn of some major plot points before they discover
them in the novel itself, and thus ruin the surprises.)
Consequently, I’ll only point out that several other
murders occur, including one for which Rinaldi is a prime suspect; that an
influential, amoral billionaire who might have political ambitions plays a
significant role; that Rinaldi develops an intimate but complex relationship
with the very attractive Casey Walters, an assistant district attorney; that he
has conflicting issues with a district attorney who aspires to a state governorship;
and that some questionable business dealings might factor in to some of the
aforementioned events.
Author Dennis Palumbo started out as a screenwriter, and is
responsible for the wonderful film My
Favorite Year, episodes of Welcome
Back, Kotter and other television series. He went on to become a
psychotherapist himself, so his fictional protagonist, a man who has known
severe trauma himself, speaks plausibly about the patients he deals with as
well as dealing with some of his own issues.
An impeccably paced and plotted whodunit/thriller with a strong sense of place, the dialogue in Mirror Image is skillfully rendered in the manner I’ve come to associate with the likes of Evan Hunter/Ed McBain and Jeremiah Healey: dialogue that individuates characters and makes them come alive and practically walk off the page. Easily one of the best mystery novels I’ve read in quite a while, and the first in the Daniel Rinaldi series I look forward to reading more of, I strongly recommend it to all but those readers who find moderately graphic (but not protracted) violent and sexual moments, as well as some street language, offensive.
Barry Ergang © 2017, 2021
Some of Derringer Award-winner Barry Ergang’s work,
including his mystery novelette “The Play of Light and Shadow,” can be found at
Smashwords.com
and Amazon.com.
His website is http://www.writetrack.yolasite.com/
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