Ellen Kirschman

When two-year-old Chrissy disappears from her bed overnight, the Kenilworth Police Department mobilized all its resources to catch her kidnapper, including a newly implemented Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. And the police have a lot to consider, especially after Chrissy's own mother featured her in an art exhibited that was criticized as bordering on pornographic days before her disappearance. The Department and the Task Force, particularly Officer Manny Ochoa, have a lot to show more consider in the case. In addition to the art show, there is a nanny who flees the country, a commune home where dozens of unknowns have access to the child, and a father angry and jealous not to have the child as his own.

"I am the owner of my actions, heir of my actions. Whatever actions I do, good or evil, of these I shall become heir"--Buddha's Fifth Reflection

The Fifth Reflection is the third novel by Ellen Kirschman featuring police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff, a middle-aged divorcee who works hard to deal with the emotions of her own failed marriage and the baggage it has brought to her new relationship while she tries to help the men and women of the Kenilworth Police Department, a group who, by their nature, are averse to taking help for anything, let alone from a shrink.
But Dr. Meyerhoff isn't your ordinary shrink. She has a knack for getting herself into situations that could get her into trouble, both with her job and real danger. While the police chief calls it meddling or butting into official police business, she prefers to think of it as doing The Right Wrong Thing. However, Dr. Meyerhoff finds herself caught in the middle of a police investigation, her motives are always to help; a grieving family, a cop in trouble, or a crime that needs solving.

Dr. Kirschman writes what she knows. She has a successful career as a police psychologist and wrote the book I Love a Cop to help families get through the unique challenges that accompany loving and living with a police officer, and Counseling Cops, to offer advice to therapists with police clients. (She also wrote I Love a Firefighter, which I just don't understand...) Her experience in psychology and police work is evident in her Dot Meyerhoff series. As Dr. Meyerhoff feels some stress in her relationship with her fiancé Frank, she thinks,

"He doesn't have trouble sharing his opinion about what he calls the important things of life, religion and politics, but the closer we get, the harder it is to talk about our differences because we have so much more to lose."

And as she is talking with one of the police officers she serves, she proves she knows the business, writing something similar to what I've found myself saying and thinking over my career,

"This is the typical progression. In the beginning of their careers cops are so overwhelmed with novelty and new found power they would work for free. Give them a few years and boredom sets in. They start looking around for ways to re-stimulate the feeling of excitement and passion."

I had the pleasure of meeting and spending some time with Dr. Kirschman at Bouchercon last year when she was on a panel I moderated. She is an expert in her field and it is quickly apparent to anyone who meets her how dedicated she is to her career, the law enforcement community, and the myriad issues facing them now. The Dot Meyerhoff books are fun and entertaining crime fiction novels, each one better than the last. Perhaps they can also bring attention to some of those important issues in a way and to an audience that nonfiction can’t.

"Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth."
Albert Camus show less

The Right Wrong Thing is a great title and once you read the book, you will see how appropriate it is. Ellen Kirschman does a great job with this police procedural novel that tells Randy Spelling’s story, when she does The Right Wrong Thing.

The Kenilworth Police Department needed women officers and Randy Spelling fit the bill. She gets in deep from the getgo and I can see only bad things happening for her. The game of second guessing an officers actions and reactions has begun. Does it show more play a part in their future actions, causing them to hesitate or jump the gun?

Dr Dot Meyerhoff is a police psychologist for the department and must get involved whenever there has been an incident.

The childish and, what I consider to be, stupid pranks by the male officers towards the new police chief, Jacqueline Reagan only show their immaturity and chauvinism. I do believe a lot of this still goes on, in light of all the “rogue” incidents we have seen since cell phones and police car cameras.

My emotions let me know they were aIive and well. I was pissed at the disrespect the officers showed to the chief. It doesn’t matter if they are male or female, black or white…it is showing respect for the position and keeping a united front for the public. How confident will we be in their actions, if they play like children in a sandbox?

When the second incident with Randy Spelling happens, all hell breaks loose. It’s really bad and reads as if it really could have happened. The biggest question for Randy, can she live with it?

This review is hard to write because of my cynicism. I am hesitant to believe the victim’s family in a situation like this because I don’t trust their motives and the victim’s innocence. The family is looking for someone to blame.,

In this case…when the cop says STOP…STOP! Why don’t people listen? How many times do we see them run, stick their hands in their pockets, start walking toward the officer…Why do people do that?

As the circus begins, it’s hard to tell who is the slimiest, the media, the lawyers…It reads as if it is nonfiction. Ellen Kirschman’s descriptions of the people, the things they said, the progression of events makes me think I have seen it all before. If the book was longer and more in depth, I think my head would have spun like the girl in The Exorcist. lol

It is awful and tragic but Randy Spelling did nothing wrong. She may not have done everything exactly right, but that is what training, rules and experience are all about. It really surprises me that it doesn’t happen more often.

The Right Wrong Thing takes a twist that adds to the tale. It is a small book, but it contains a wealth of issues, information, and characters covering what happens when…

The Right Wrong Thing by Ellen Kirschman is a thought provoking novel that stayed with me long after the reading was done.

I received The Right Wrong Thing by Ellen Kirschman in return for an honest review. show less

The odd thing about The Right Wrong Thing by Eileen Kirschman is that I was more fascinated by Officer Randy Spelling than the main character, Dr. Dot Meyerhoff. I expected Dr. Dot Meyerhoff, the police psychologist to put herself into risky situations. Without doing that, how was there going to be a story? To round her character out she had a love interest, was well educated and had her own emotional problems from her past.

Randy Spelling, the new officer, fresh out of training is very show more petite. She always wanted to be in the police force to be like her dad and her brothers. She was so excited to begin her new job and then she makes a big mistake and no one will speak to her. Randy wants to please and to do good, and do the right thing. It is very clear that she needed expert psychological counseling but that was sideswiped. When she gets back on duty, she makes an even worse mistake and blames herself

She never did recover psychologically from her first mistake she was not prepared to return to duty. Randy's yearning for clouds her reason in puts her in danger. She can’t sleep, she can eat, and all she wants is to apologize to the family of the teenage pregnant girl that she shot by mistake. This was the worst thing that she could do.

From the first page, this book hooked into the story. The author, Ellen Kirschman explains PTSD and the chemical part of psychology. The story is narrated by the psychologist and the author was a police and public safety psychologist for a long time. That makes this story seem more real which I enjoyed.

I also enjoyed the entrance of another psychologist, Marvel Johnson. Marvel had a religious based training and too naïve and not really fit to be a psychologist. I liked this aspect of this book and enjoyed reading about the mess that she got herself in. Since I have degrees in psychology and counseling myself, I met people like her and it was poetic justice for me to see one get herself in a lot of trouble.

I would love to read the first book in this series and all the following ones.

I received the finished copy of The Right Wrong Thing from Partners in Crime but that in no way influenced the thoughts or feelings in my review. show less

The Right Wrong Thing was a fascinating and very topical novel dealing with issues such as sexism, racism, police brutality and PTSD.
Psychologist Dr. Dot Meyerhoff has been counseling one of the few female police officers on her force and cleared her fit for duty. Shortly after, this officer is involved in the fatal shooting of a pregnant teenager. The officer insists on apologizing to the girl's family, which ends in disaster and pulls Meyerhoff into an unconventional murder show more investigation.
The writing and the depth of the story reflected the author's long-term experience as a police and public safety psychologist. I found it extremely interesting and really engaging. It was also a nice change for the main character to be a female with life experience and a career. However, because of who and what she was, I found some of her decisions and actions difficult to believe and accept.
This was the second book featuring Dr Meyerhoff. It is not necessary to read them in order though. Having really enjoyed this one, I am keen to catch up and read the first one now.
Thank you to the author and the publisher for providing me with a complimentary copy via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. show less