After a traumatizing experience with one of her previous clients Psychologist Allison Campbell has taken her career in a new direction. She has become an image consultant helping adults with everything from self esteem to current fashion. She works with those at crossroads in their lives. She moves in a world of powerful executives, wealthy, and eccentric ex-wives. Women heading back into the workforce after a divorce or the children are off to school, anxiety of public speaking, and general confidence boosting. Creating a better public image for her clientele. She works with adults 13 no children 13 until now.

Congressman and White House hopeful Hank McBride and his wife Sunny have convinced her she is their 15 year old daughter 19s only hope. Maggie doesn 19t fit the cookie cutter image of a politician 19s daughter and her behavior and Goth sense of style needs to be rectified immediately and they will pay a large sum of money to Allison if she can make it happen. After meeting Maggie, Allison breaks her own rule, hoping she can help Maggie because she realizes there is much more to her story than poor fashion sense and teenage angst. But she never expected the girl would be accused of the ritualistic murder of a local divorce attorney.

While Allison tries to prove Maggie 19s innocence it reignites a lot of memories of another young girl she tried to help and failed. As much as she wants to let go of the past and not get any further involved in the murder investigation she can 19t help herself from landing right in the middle of it all.

Dollycas 19s Thoughts
This was so not what I expected this story to be. It is edgy and dark and absolutely fantastic. What a debut for this new series!!

The plot has many layers. The characters so well created. There are so many twists and turns, it is an emotional roller coaster ride. I am really impressed Allison Campbell. A very smart protagonist with the ability to really think on her feet. I am anxious to see her continue to evolve in future stories.

This subject matter could be a bit heavy but the author tempers that with a touch of romance and a bit of humor. When I was first approached about this book I was expecting a cozy mystery. This is definitely not a cozy mystery. I would call it the 1Cedge of your seat 1D kind of book and a book you should plan to read all at one time because it is extremely hard to put down.

After a traumatizing experience with one of her previous clients Psychologist Allison Campbell has taken her career in a new direction. She has become an image consultant helping adults with everything from self esteem to current fashion. She works with those at crossroads in their lives. She moves in a world of powerful executives, wealthy, and eccentric ex-wives. Women heading back into the workforce after a divorce or the children are off to school, anxiety of public speaking, and general confidence boosting. Creating a better public image for her clientele. She works with adults 13 no children 13 until now.

Congressman and White House hopeful Hank McBride and his wife Sunny have convinced her she is their 15 year old daughter 19s only hope. Maggie doesn 19t fit the cookie cutter image of a politician 19s daughter and her behavior and Goth sense of style needs to be rectified immediately and they will pay a large sum of money to Allison if she can make it happen. After meeting Maggie, Allison breaks her own rule, hoping she can help Maggie because she realizes there is much more to her story than poor fashion sense and teenage angst. But she never expected the girl would be accused of the ritualistic murder of a local divorce attorney.

While Allison tries to prove Maggie 19s innocence it reignites a lot of memories of another young girl she tried to help and failed. As much as she wants to let go of the past and not get any further involved in the murder investigation she can 19t help herself from landing right in the middle of it all.

Dollycas 19s Thoughts
This was so not what I expected this story to be. It is edgy and dark and absolutely fantastic. What a debut for this new series!!

The plot has many layers. The characters so well created. There are so many twists and turns, it is an emotional roller coaster ride. I am really impressed Allison Campbell. A very smart protagonist with the ability to really think on her feet. I am anxious to see her continue to evolve in future stories.

This subject matter could be a bit heavy but the author tempers that with a touch of romance and a bit of humor. When I was first approached about this book I was expecting a cozy mystery. This is definitely not a cozy mystery. I would call it the 1Cedge of your seat 1D kind of book and a book you should plan to read all at one time because it is extremely hard to put down.

Killer Image is about Allison Campbell, an image consultant.  I find that to be a fascinating profession.  I think I could use one. 

This is not a cozy mystery.  It's grittier than that. Allison Campbell gets involved with a murder investigation when her former mother-in-law's divorce attorney is killed.  That seems a long way around to get involved but the divorce attorney has also represented a number of Allison's clients and she had worked with his ex-wife.  There are a lot of overlapping relationships.  I'm finding it hard to describe the plot for some reason but it wasn't because I didn't enjoy the book.  I really did.  I will put out the warning that there is quite a lot of discussion of Wicca.  I know there are people that will want to know that before reading.

I liked the secondary characters as much as I liked Allison.  Her employee, Vaughn, and his brother were two of my favorite.  All of what will probably make up the regular cast of characters in this series were likeable.  The bad guys were definitely dislikeable.  There was a too much amateur investigating without bringing the police in on their suspicions which is why it is 4 stars instead of 5.  It had good atmosphere and I'll be anxious to see where these characters go next.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Wake up, Al. People don't come all neatly packaged. You've spent your whole adult life trying to force people into these tidy little boxes. Things don't work that way. People mess up. They get scared. They change their minds. What's under the surface comes out, and you know what? It's not always pretty. That's okay. It's called life."

I bought this book because I was approved for the second book in the series on NetGalley and wanted to catch up before I started the second book. I was really looking forward to reading this book, I mean who wouldn't with an attorney dying from what looks like a ritualistic satanic murder. Sadly when I started this book I realized that this book concentrated a whole lot more on the characters' pasts than the investigation into the murder.

 

I started off reading this book and actually liking the main character, Allison Campbell. However the more that I read this book the more I began to dislike her. Allison is haunted by things that have happened in her past, with both her family life and her professional career. Allison is constantly thinking about what happened with a former patient, Violet. I understand that it needed to be revealed what happened with Violet but by god it just dragged and dragged on throughout the book. I came in to reading this book interested about the present day events and the book was swamped with the past that haunts Allison.

 

Allison is not the only character with a past whose past somehow ends up taking over and breaking up the plot. Readers get to find out about everyone's past in this book. There are point-of-view changes and during those pov changes it seems like we get to find out about traumatic events that the characters have gone through. Everyone in this book is messed up in their own way and has issues that they are struggling through. I understand these people have issues but did those issues really need to take over the book and break up the plot?

 

Probably my favorite character in those book (except for Brutus the dog) was Allison's ex-husband Jason. Jason was trying to get Allison to stop letting her past control her and wasn't having any of her excuses. I really like how he got her to open up and I like where their relationship has gone.

 

The thing that really saved this book for me was the ending. The ending was filled with some great action and readers finally get to know what really happened. While the investigation may have not been great for me, the final reveal at the end was really good. I am planning on reading the second book in the series as I have already been approved for it. I am hoping now that Allison has worked past some of her issues that the second book won't be as focused on them.

Everyone in this book either has major problems, a past that haunts them, both, or is screwed up in some other way (even the dog that just showed up, Brutus, has problems). I don't want a book where everything goes right for all the characters all the time but geez you would think someone in this book would have their shit together. To everyone around her Allison seems to have everything together but she is still haunted by her past and it affects the decisions she makes right now.

 

I feel like this is still going a bit slow as their is a lot of time spent on discussing the characters' pasts. It is interesting getting to see what has happened to the characters before and why it has motivated them right now but I was really hoping the investigation into the murder of Arnie Feldman would have picked up a bit more by now. I am not really a fan of the change of point-of-view in this book. While it is interesting getting to know backstory on each character from the point-of-view changes I don't think it is helping the plot move on.