The Bad Daughter

Joy Fielding, the author of almost thirty novels, is sure to please her fans with her latest effort, The Bad Daughter. The story features a horrible crime, a dysfunctional family and a wide assortment of believable lies. A real page turner, pure entertainment. It makes good use of the setting, incorporating many details without coming off like a Wikipedia selection.
The main character is LA Therapist Robin Davis. Her inner dialogue is repetitive enough to be annoying as a plot device, but totally missing when it comes to the grand revealing. My overall conclusion is the author loves the drama of soap operas and doesn't really care for women.
I received an early reviewer copy of the novel courtesy of Library Thing.

Robin hasn’t heard from her sister, Melanie, in years so when she received a phone message from her, she knew it couldn’t be good. Robin gets panic attacks fairly often and the news that her estranged best friend, Tara, had been shot and killed and that Tara’s 12-year-old daughter, Cassidy, and Robin’s father had also been shot and were in the hospital in critical condition sends Robin into a tail spin. Though Robin has no love for her father, she returns home. There she tries to piece together what actually had happened. Was this a home invasion or was this personal? Was her brother Alec involved somehow? After all, Alec and Tara had been engaged at one time and Alec and Robin’s father had stolen her affections away from his show more son and married Tara himself. Quite a good motive, wouldn’t you say? But that had happened years ago so why would Alec suddenly seek revenge?

Joy Fielding has been writing psychological suspense since the early ‘70s. I was quite a big fan of hers back then but somehow I got away from her work. When I saw this book being offered to book reviewers, I thought it was about time I tried one of her books again. And I’m glad I did!

Ms. Fielding knows how to weave together a good story and how to keep those pages turning for her readers. The main character, Robin, is down to earth and likeable. I also really liked Melanie, as obnoxious as she was. Her witty barbs were entertaining, though not to those they were directed to. And the ending was quite a surprise to me though I should have seen it coming. I remember thinking at several points, hmm, that’s odd, but I never took the thought any further. Even after I learned the big reveal, I didn’t quite believe it. Very surprising ending indeed! I think this may be more of a mystery rather than suspense book as I didn’t personally find it suspenseful. And it's not the kind of book that I'll long remember. But I definitely had to keep reading to find out what had really happened and found it enjoyable. I think I’m going to have to go back and read those books of this author’s that I’ve missed.

Recommended. show less

I've read all of Joy Fielding's books, and this was one of the worst. It's filled with supremely irritating characters and dialogue that is simplistic at best (how many times did Robin say "Oh, God"?). Speaking of Robin, she must be the worst therapist ever, suffering from panic attacks and filled with self-doubt. I was able to determine who the killer was well before the end, and there are much better books dealing with virtually the same plot line. It's amazing to me how many stellar reviews this book has gotten, as I found it to be far below the quality of Fielding's earlier books. Very disappointing.

The Bad Daughter: A Novel by Joy Fielding has compelling characters, including a very dysfunctional family. Two sisters and a brother whose relationship has been strained and mostly broken by surviving a philandering father and a mother who was a victim in many ways.

A tragedy calls them all home, and it's what happens then that keeps you riveted to the story. There are so many possibilities in this story, it keeps you guessing. The ending will be a surprise to most readers, this is a book I would recommend

Many years ago, Robin has left her hometown of Red Bluff and cut all connections with her family. It was when her father married her then best friend and her brother’s fiancée soon after their mother had died of cancer. She simply couldn’t forgive him. In L.A. she started a new life as a therapist and was about to marry Blake. Now, she needs to go back because her father has been fatally wounded, his wife shot dead and the twelve-year-old daughter seriously injured by some gunmen who entered the house at night. Her sister Melanie isn’t very keen on welcoming her back, Robin had always been their mother’s favourite. But now the two have to get along somehow and help the police find the murderer. But they soon figure out that show more things aren’t that easy and when Melanie’s son and their brother Alec come under suspicion, things are complicated while the real criminal is running free...

Joy Fielding is one of the best-known contemporary thriller writers and “The Bad Daughter” can hold up to the expectations. A cleverly constructed plot, multifaceted characters who do not show their real face immediately and several leads that only lead you to dead ends make a round and sound story.

Setting the story in a dysfunctional family where there are many unsaid things buried under the surface and which can surprise you again and again with the characters’ unexpected yet credible behaviour was definitely a clever step. The fact that you do not really like all the characters just makes them more authentic and the story a lot livelier.

Even though I am not sure if I really find the solution 100 percent convincing, I liked the novel. It is not an absolutely fast-paced and nerve-wrecking thriller, but the looming danger of the perpetrator still being around surely was responsible some goose bumps. show less

“The Bad Daughter” by Joy Fielding follows Robin, a therapist in her early thirties, as she finds out from her estranged sister Melanie that there’s been a home invasion and her family was shot, causing her to race back to her hometown to figure out what happened and why. Granted, Robin’s family isn’t an ordinary one. Her sister Melanie is a bitter single mother of an autistic teenage son, Landon. The two sisters also have a brother, Alec, who seems to be in hiding from them all. Then there’s Robin’s father, Greg, a millionaire developer who is a womanizer, and her stepmother, Tara, Robin’s best friend from high school who was originally engaged to her brother Alec before breaking it off and marrying Robin’s father show more instead. Tara also has a twelve-year old daughter Cassidy from a previous relationship who lives with them.

While the victims of the home invasion were Robin’s father, stepmom Tara, and her daughter Cassidy, there’s an increasing list of suspects throughout the story that ultimately includes both family members and those who are close to the family. Each time I thought I knew where the story was going to go, the author proved me wrong which was good. The identity of the culprit was someone complete unexpected. There was a big cast of characters but each one had a unique personality or background (e.g. the mean sister, womanizer father, sketchy brother, aggressive nephew, etc.), so it worked well. The story was twisty with new developments every couple of chapters. I also thought the subject matter, which is what pulled me to the story initially, was enticing. Each family is often different from whatever façade they display in public, and the family at the center of this book is no exception, full of betrayal and secrets. Overall, an interesting thriller. show less

The Bad Daughter is my first book by Joy Fielding and I enjoyed it so much that I plan to order some of her earlier books. It was a real page turner with great characters and a suspenseful story line.

The main character is Robin, a psychologist who has been estranged from her family for many years since the death of her mother. She left home when her father, a real womanizer during his marriage, marries her best friend. So her estranged family consists of her dad, his wife and her 12 year old daughter from a previous marriage, her sister Melanie who lives next door with her grown autistic son. She is also engaged but feeling very unsure of her finance's love and commitment. When she gets a phone call from her sister that their father, show more his wife and daughter have all been shot, she races home to try to figure out what happened. As she tries to put together what happened, she uncovers lots of family secrets while she tries to get to the truth.

I thought that Robin was a very likeable character and I actually enjoyed her interactions with her sister despite the fact that Melanie always had a quick put down for her sister. I definitely enjoyed this book and thought it was a great suspense novel.

Thanks to librarything for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own. show less