Book Club Recommendations Lois Duncan -

Who Killed My Daughter?

Book Club Recommendations Lois Duncan - Who Killed My Daughter? Review by Queenie D

Who Killed My Daughter? is the heartbreaking story of Kaitlyn Arquette's brutal murder. The 18 year old daughter of sensational teen novelist, Lois Duncan, Kaitlyn found herself mixed up with the wrong sort of people who viewed her as a threat.

Lois, her husband, 2 daughters, and 2 sons are ripped apart in 1989 when they are called to the hospital because Kaitlyn has been shot in the head and may not survive. When they lose her only a few hours later, the tragedy is only just beginning.

Kaitlyn seemed to have been involved, perhaps more unknowingly than not, in a huge tri-state drug trafficking operation which cost her her life. The Albuquerque Police Department is adamant that Kaitlyn was the victim of a random shooting but Duncan knows better. Through years of searching, psychic visits, interviews with Kait's friends, and following any other lead they could possibly find, the truth behind who killed my daughter has never been answered for Lois Duncan.

QUEENIE D SAYS

Of all the books written by Lois Duncan, this is the worst but the best. Duncan has a knack for storytelling which is always evident in her popular titles such as Summer of Fear and Don't Look Behind You. In Who Killed My Daughter? she uses that same ability to tell the sad and horrific tale of her daughter Kaitlyn's death. For me this book was a situation where I wanted to love it because it was so well-written and poignant but can't say that I do because the motivation for the story is awful.

I think the most interesting part of Duncan's search for her daughter's killer(s) is the information she received from the various psychics she sought out during her investigation. I'm a believer in many things, psychic abilities being one of them, so I wasn't shocked or surprised when Betty Muench was able to channel Kaitlyn's wishes to her family. I did find it extremely interesting that her medium was a typewriter and the manner in which the dialogue happened was very strange. None-the-less, I felt this story really shows that perhaps the law enforcement agencies should take the opinions of a credible pyschic into account as they work a murder case.

The angle that Kait's boyfriend Dung was instrumental in her death is disturbing to say the least. However I'm not sure that his Vietnamese gang was the sole reason Kait was executed. The vague but compelling twist that crops up towards the end of the book about the tri-state drug ring with an influential man as the ringleader is definitely linked to Kait's murder in my mind. I would like to know if any further information has been uncovered about this connection and if anybody has been officially named in conjunction with the murder.

If you are a fan of the true crime genre, Who Killed My Daughter is a must read.

Book Club Recommendations Lois Duncan DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Was Betty Muench Helsinki helpful to the investigation or did she put ideas into the family's head that shouldn't have been there otherwise?
2. How responsible do you think Dung was for Kait's murder?
3. Do you believe that Duncan "foresaw" some of the events of Kait's murder during the writing of her teen novels?

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