A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

September 7, 2015     erinbook     Book review

A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis


Release Date: October 6th, 2015
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books
384 Pages
Received: From pub for review
Format: ARC


Rating: 

5 NUTS!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Description: Grace Mae knows madness.
She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum.
When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past.
In this beautifully twisted historical thriller, Mindy McGinnis, acclaimed author of Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust, explores the fine line between sanity and insanity, good and evil—and the madness that exists in all of us
Review: I have been ravenously anticipating this book since Mindy showed me the cover back in the early spring. All I had to hear was “dark” and “asylum” and I was ready to read. Unfortunately I couldn’t get my hands on an ARC until last week. But finally I had it in my hands and I was not going to wait any longer.Usually in these cases I’m disappointed, but not this time. If you guys need a Halloween read (that’s not too scary) this year, pick this one up. A Madness So Discreet is a dark historical mystery set in brutal Boston asylum and then a moral Ohio one. It follows a high society girl who has gotten pregnant and her family has shuffled her away until the child is born.

The parts in the Boston asylum were ten kinds of fucked up, Mindy has done incredible research about the techniques asylums applied during this time period. Many of the methods were akin to torture, and that’s exactly how it’s shown. The Ohio asylum I’m more familiar with, and she takes advantage of some of it’s quirkier element (like the alligator in the fountain, yes that’s real). If you wanted to know more, Mindy has a pinterest board with all the things she found during her research.

Now, for the actual story. Grace Mae as a character is very sympathetic and you can’t really help but feel for her. She’s also incredibly intelligent and doesn’t make all the dumb decisions that I usually despise in female characters. Her relationship with the doctor is very Sherlock and Watson. He is so analytical that he forgets that people are people. Like Watson, Grace sometimes has to be the emotional side. Together they solve crimes, the doctor and his patient. Fans of those kind of stories will adore this, if you’re tired of the Sherlock and Watson thing you might not care for it.

I adore the turns these characters take, the emotional moments are absolutely spot on. You fall in love with people only to have the plot turn on its head for a moment. So basically, my kind of book.

You guys know that I don’t give out 5 nuts easily but this one earned it. If there was any book I’d recommend for the fall, so far it has to be this one. And it looks like it’s gonna be in good company.

What do you think of this one? Share in the comments.

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