Dennis Palumbo

Palumbo infuses Mirror Image with a strong sense of place, and I certainly enjoyed his descriptions of Pittsburgh. Another strength is his pithy one-line descriptions of characters that often made me laugh.

Daniel Rinaldi is a strong character whose major "fault" seems to be caring too much for the welfare of others. He thinks nothing of putting himself in danger to protect someone else. As he says, "Justice and compassion. Everything else is just...talk." Throughout the book, Rinaldi show more provides excellent insight into both himself and the behavior of others.

Mirror Image is a strong mystery that deals with mental illness and how to make the real bad guy pay for his crimes. If there was any weakness to the story, it was Rinaldi's love interest and the-- to me-- unnecessary love scenes. It was also rather easy to identify one character's true identity. However, with those complaints out of the way, Dennis Palumbo has created a strong, sympathetic character that I enjoyed getting to know. I'm looking forward to another visit to Pittsburgh. show less

I'm often inspired to write by the bad writing of others. I no longer feel outclassed by "real" writers once I see they can often write things that I would be embarrassed to release to the world. Dennis Palumbo thus inspired me in two different ways.

I only became aware of him recently when a well known psychoanalyst whose work I'd admired posted on F******k, the social media site I refuse to explicitly name, that he had mentored him in his training as a therapist. Mr. Palumbo, who was a show more professional screenwriter now treats writers with problems. Or, for short, he now treats writers for Mr. Palumbo believes that all writers have problems. What's more, the problems are an important part of the writing "calling," a term more often used to describe the vocation of a minister. Someone without problems wouldn't be called to become a writer and would have nothing to write about. Felling inadequate is thus an important qualification for the job. Feeling outclassed, as I mentioned in the first graf (using jargon now--inspired!) is a good sign, not a bad one. Few self-help books about creativity (and I've read many) seem to get this other than superficially, Finishing School: Overcoming work blocks to get your projects done and into the world, also by a psychotherapist being the only exception. As both these books seem to understand, it is your uniqueness, not your similarity to "real" writers (didn't I just use this "real" bit earlier? never mind, I'm on a roll. Hey, isn't "on a roll" a cliche?) wherein your value lies.

Also, I just read the first book of Palumbo's detective series (a therapist who solves murders) and it was cliche-ridden. Even this book contains sentences like "Avoid such people like the plague." I thought we should be avoiding that turn of phrase like the plague. And yet I recommend this book as inspirational. show less

Mirror Image, by Dennis Palumbo

Well I have to say, this has been by far the best book I have read this summer! It is full of plot twists and turns, mystery and suspense, and enough of a great story to keep you guessing how the story really comes togeather until the very end. It is very well written and entertaining, mixing psychology and mystery. I like the fact that the only predictable part of the story was who the main character was going to sleep with. I liked the fact that the story show more elluded to “good' characters in the story as possibly being “bad” making me second guess. I rarely get to read a book that sucks me in and gets me to think beyond just reading words on a page. show less

I received an advance copy (ARC) of this book for review. This does not change how I reviewed this book. Phantom Limb is the fourth Daniel Rinaldi mystery book, but is the first one I have read. Mystery books are some of my favorite go to books. I started reading mystery books as a young teen because my mom, grandma and aunt all read them. Growing up my grandma, mom, aunt and I would talk mystery books and trade our favorite books back and forth over the years. The description on the back of show more the book: “Psychologist and Pittsburgh Police Department consultant Daniel Rinaldi has a new patient. Lisa Harland, a local girl, once made a splash in Playboy and the dubious side of Hollywood before bottoming out. Back home, down and out again, she married one of the city’s richest and most ruthless tycoons. Lisa’s challenge to Danny is that she intends to commit suicide by 7:00 PM. His therapist skills may buy some time—but, exiting, she’s kidnapped right outside his office. Summoned to the Harland estate, Danny is forced, through a bizarre sequence of events, to be the bag man on the ransom delivery. This draws him into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a brilliant, lethal adversary. Complicating things is the unhappy Harland family, whose members have dark secrets of their own along with suspect loyalties, as well as one of Danny’s other patients, a volatile vet whose life may, like Lisa’s, be at risk. What is really at stake here?” I was instantly engrossed and hooked, and the book is action packed the whole way through.
I do not want to give more of the plot away. It is a mystery so of course there are numerous characters introduced and many suspects. The main character, Daniel Rinaldi, acknowledges the fact that he is someone who seems to find himself in the middle of “crazy” mysteries and cases. I love that the author did this. Some mystery series thrust the main character into one “crazy” situation after another like it is commonplace. I think it is apparent, in a good way, that the author has a psychotherapist background (it is mentioned in the beginning of the ARC that Palumbo currently practices psychotherapy). It adds levity to the character of Daniel.
Since this was not the first book in the series I was worried I may be confused. However, that was not the case. This book stands alone, while also clearly complimenting the other books in the series in that it makes references to other cases that I assume were discussed in the previous books. It helps give background to the character of Daniel, but does not spoil too much of what happened previously so that it will be easy for me to go back and read the previous books.
One of the things I kept thinking about while reading this book is how I could envision this as a TV show or movie. It struck me as a Bones type of book. I have not read the books that Bones is based on, but I have watched the show. The way the characters lives are interspersed into the cases in an organic way is what made me think of Bones while reading Phantom Limb.
If you enjoy mysteries and do not mind gritty then this is a great book for you. I loved it. I cannot wait to read the rest of the books in the series. Plus, I will definitely be recommending this book to my mom and aunt. (Sadly, I cannot recommend it to my grandma, though she probably has access to all the books she wants in Heaven.)
Here are some nuggets (quotes) that I loved. All are non-spoilers:
“Yet, like with my father, a felt sense of her lingers. Perhaps this is true for everyone. That those with whom we’re most intimately connected persist, not only in memory, but almost like missing parts of ourselves. Like phantom limbs, we feel their presence, even though they’re gone forever…” (Page 138)
“ ‘Whenever I feel a strong wind, I think of Elvira.’ He glanced over at me. ‘Our old nanny when I was a child. She used to say the sound of the wind was the wail of lost souls, the dead flying around the world looking for a way into heaven.’” (Page 150)
[Note about the quotes: This is in ARC so page numbers may be changed and it is also possible the text or quotes themselves could be edited before being published.]
It is quotes like these that make this book stand out as different from other mysteries. It has so many other elements than just the mystery and delves deeper into characters than many mysteries do. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Phantom Limb will be released in September by Poisoned Pen Press.
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