Death Trance

Alex & Maddy Phillips #1

by R.D. Zimmerman

Alex. He witnessed the murder of a woman he loved, and somewhere in the events leading up to her death is the key to identifying her killer. But to find it, Alex needs to relive those terrifying months via hypnosis. Now, with the help of his sister, a forensic psychiatrist, he's journeying back into the dark recesses of his mind to experience the horror and pain again.

Maddy. Her investigative prowess isn't dimmed by the special challenges or her blindness — or by the accident that has left her a paraplegic. Now she is guiding her brother into the past, listening as his subconscious memories create a montage of a killer, and coming up with a plan for justice that will endanger her own fragile life...

The stunning debut of a unique brother-sister detective team, Death Trance sheds fascinating new light on forensic hypnosis, a doorway into the mind's locked chambers of memory and terror.

"Hair-raising... Introducing a unique and charming heroine with an equally compelling supporting cast." — Mostly Murder

"Finely crafted, elegantly written... A novel of sheer suspense — it tales off at a run and never lets up." — Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

254 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

A pseudonym used by Robert Alexander

Award-winning author R.D. Zimmerman has been nominated for two Edgars, two Lambda Literary Awards, and an Anthony. He has written ten previous novels, including Tribe and Closet (1996 Lambda Literary Award winner) in the Todd Mills series, six children's books, and created six bestselling mystery jigsaw puzzles. Raised in Chicago, he now lives in Minneapolis.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting concept, that sets the stage for a series in which mysteries are solved through regression hypnosis. Not too bad, but I thought the characters were hopelessly stupid about the situations they found themselves in.

[John Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I was reading “Death Trance” I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t seem to be as bad as some of the reviewers made it out to be-until I got to the end when things simply disintegrated totally. It wasn’t that the writing was all that bad (although it was nothing special) the characters were simply, well, stupid. Stupid about the situations they found themselves in, stupid about what they then did about it. While this was the first of the Alex and Maddy Phillips series it was by no means Zimmerman’s first attempt at writing something. Still, I’m puzzled how an author who has been up for a number of awards (Edgar, Anthony, Lambda) could write something this bad (although I felt much the same way about the William F. Buckley Jr.’s Blackford Oakes series.) However, Zimmerman’s award nominated books came later so his writing must have improved.
He also wrote three historical novels set in Russia, “The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar,” “Rasputin’s Daughter,” and “The Romanov Bride” under the name Robert Alexander. I think I bought the first two of those books because I had read good reviews and later found out that he also wrote as R. D. Zimmerman and bought several of these earlier books when I came across them. I don’t know about any of the others, but I’d certainly skip this series.
Of well, I had three R. D. Zimmerman books on the shelf. Now I have room for three of someone else’s.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

#1 in the Alex & Maddy Phillips series. I have very mixed feelings about this 1992 series debut. On the one hand, a technical writer teamed with his a blind, paraplegic psychologist sister, is an unusual and intriguing series detection team. On the other hand, the book is written in the first person from Alex's point of view and is overwhelmed with his thoughts and feelings, in addition to the expected observations and conversations. With his ex-lover Toni (she left him for another woman), he is investigating the suspicious death of Toni's sister Liz. During the investigation, Toni is murdered. With no remaining stake in the issue, he should leave it to the cops to solve the murders; instead, he has his sister put him into a hypnotic trance to relive the past and try to uncover additional clues. I find the siblings relationship uncomfortable; when she puts him in a trance, she also goes into a trance and they seem to have telepathic communication. Worth a try, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it.

Alex & Maddy Phillips series - Technical writer Alex Phillips agrees to be hypnotized by his sister Maddy, a blind paraplegic clinical psychologist, to see if his subconscious holds any clues to the murder of his former lover Toni, a still-unsolved crime that he witnessed. Enigmatic Maddy takes Alex back a few months to the moment when Toni asks for his help, appearing in Minneapolis following the drowning of her sister Liz. Although the police label it suicide, Toni believes Liz was killed and convinces Alex to help her delve into her sister's affairs, which turn out to include a former boyfriend involved in a weird cult that may be responsible for the ritual killings of four young women. Slowly Alex's retelling arrives at Toni's murder, and although he didn't see the killer's face, his account provides Maddy with an invaluable clue.

[Matthew]

Read this in twenty minutes waiting on my laundry. It's an exciting and creative plot, I'd read it again.