Rose
Marie Wolf, Author
GUEST
BLOGGER: Alma Bond
Please
warmly welcome my guest blogger today, Alma Bond!
The first mystery of the Dr. Mary Wells Mystery
Series was The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle. I wrote it because the patient of an
analyst friend of mine was murdered, and it disturbed me that the killer was
never found. The book is my (ficticious) idea of
who the killer was. The book received so many complements that I decided to
write another with the same sleuths. My late husband, Rudy Bond, was an actor
who appeared in both the original stage show and the movie of A Streetcar
Named Desire. I saw the play 78 times, and decided to write Murder on the
Streetcar, sparked by the characters I knew so well. The third and last
mystery, Who Killed Marcia Maynard? was inspired by
a teacher I and everyone else disliked. I wondered what would happen if a
psychoanalyst was as hated by her colleagues. Many of them might want to kill
her, but would any of them actually do it? The book investigates this
question.
Dr. Marcia Maynard, famous psychoanalyst and researcher, has been murdered in
her bed at the El Dorado
Apartment House by an unknown killer. Psychoanalyst Mary Wells helps solve
the mystery with her acute analytical and psychological skills. Finding
someone angry enough to kill Maynard was not difficult, as many people had
histories of being mistreated by the doctor, including:.
*Her beautiful Indian housekeeper, Asha Rupashi, whom Maynard continually abused and who was a
beneficiary in Maynard’s will,
*Her chief associate and co-author, Dr. James Whirter,
a man her colleagues said she treated “like a lapdog,”
*Rogerio Chavez, a Chinese restaurant delivery man,
whom Maynard had insulted and infuriated, and several suitors whom she had
rejected.
*The stunning psychoanalyst, Ruby Malone, who had given a paper in Maynard’s
area of expertise. An observer said, ‘Maynard wiped up the floor with her in
front of the entire membership. Could Ruby have killed Maynard, to get even
with her for the public attack?
*A young boy, Buster Baines, who saw the delivery man sneaking out of Maynard’s
back door, is kidnapped before he can testify. Dr. Wells’s
car is set on fire. Chavez is suspected as the arsonist, in an attempt to get
rid of the sleuth on his trail.
Through Dr. Well’s expert interrogation of all suspects, the killer finally
breaks down and confesses the murder.
I believe the series is the first to cover the apprehension of killers from
the perspective of a psychoanalyst and is ideal for anyone who wishes to
learn the secrets of psychoanalysis, as they are used to understand the
criminal mind.
I received my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Columbia University,
and subsequently became a psychoanalyst. Since my “retirement”in
1991, I have had 13 books published, including The Autobiography of Maria
Callas, Camille Claudel, a Novel, Old Age is a
Terminal Illness, Tales of Psychology, Who Killed Virginia Woolf?, Is There Life After Analysis?, Dream Portrait,
Deborah Sampson: America’s First Woman Warrior, and On Becoming a
Grandparent. My latest book, Margaret Mahler, the Biography of a
Psychoanalyst, is presently in publication with McFarland Press.
Anne K. Edwards
A tale for the readers of psychological
mysteries and suspense where a psychologist helps the police solve a
particularly vicious murder. In this case, the analyst and the
policeman are lovers and both could become suspects in the murder. The victim
was an old friend to both of them.
There are lots of twists and
turns to this tale, lots of clues, red herrings and suspects with
motives. How the killer gained access to the victim's apartment is
just one part of the puzzle since there is a caretaker living with the
victim.
Talented author Alma H. Bond
has crafted a tale with interesting characters and genuine knowledge of the
field of psychoanalysis due to her own practice in the field. It gives a realism to the tale without the exaggeration of some
tales or TV shows.
More than one murder, plenty of
mystery, a story that will have you wondering if the victim's profession
offers a motive or clue to her death. This is a story that might also please
anyone looking for a different kind of read, one that shows how analysis helps
in the solving of a case and understanding the workings of the criminal mind.
A
chance to learn from an expert as you enjoy the
story as I did.
XantheLatest Review by
Alma
Bond's Psychological Mystery Novel Reveals an Exquisite Tight Mystery Fiction
Series Highly Recommended to Reviewers and Avid Fans of Mystery Fiction
ASJA
Press novels are one of the best sources for fiction. I just happened to come
across an exquisitely written novel of mystery by Alma Bond, an excellent
novelist and psychoanalyst highly qualified to understand the criminal mind.
She's
the author of 13 published books, including Camille Claudel:
A Novel. Old age is a Terminal Illness, The Autobiography of Maria Callas,
and Tales of Psychology. I highly recommend this novel titled: The Psychoanalyst is Dead- Who Killed
Marcia Maynard? By Alma H. Bond, PhD. The novel is paperback, published in 2007
by ASJA Press. ISBN 978-0-595-45896-7.
What
I love about this mystery novel and the way the tome is written is the
page-turning intrigue. The author reveals Dr. Marcia Maynard, the main
character in the novel, as a famous child psychoanalyst and infant
researcher. And the protagonist wonderfully stays in character as each person
in the novel drives the action forward powerfully and with charisma in this
page-turner. As the novel opens, the victim in this mystery novel, Dr.
Maynard is found murdered in her bed at an apartment in Manhattan.
The
killer is unknown. And the psychoanalyst Mary Wells, the protagonist and
heroine of this mystery novel helps to solve the mystery with her lover,
Detective John Franklin. The team emotionally supports each other which make
them unstoppable in solving problems and getting measurable results as they
use their wits to solve this mystery. Dr. Wells and Lt. Franklin work
together because it takes a detective and a psychoanalyst to join forces
nowadays to solve a murder mystery.
The
murder victim turns out to be Well's colleague and former analyst. The
colleagues, staff, and friends are questioned with a goal of finding someone
angry enough to kill a psychoanalyst. What they do find is that numerous
individuals had been mistreated by the murdered doctor.
Those
questioned include the long-time employed housekeeper, a beneficiary in the
murdered psychoanalyst's will, but whom the murdered doctor abused. Then
there are other suspects that are questioned, including the man in the
murdered doctor's life, also mistreated by the doctor, the delivery man, whom
the doctor insulted, and numerous rejected suitors.
They
all had motives to do away with Dr. Marcia Maynard, famous child
psychoanalyst. I highly recommend this psychological mystery novel. Find out
what questions made the killer speak up and reveal the story. This
character-driven story is of the highest quality mystery writing. The author
is highly qualified to understand the behavioral aspects of the criminal mind
as the author of 13 published books. Read this sleuth novel. It's a page
turner and the third in Bond's psychological sleuth series of high-quality
mystery novels from ASJA Press.
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