Deranged (Jessie Cole)

“A gripping novel of discovery and moral choices, forcing a woman to weigh friendship against justice as she holds a man’s life and wellbeing in her hands.”

Jessie Cole has known Ben Morrison since he helped her discover what happened to her missing sister, someone he believed he’d once met. Now Ben’s asking for her help in finding another missing person: himself.

Ben Morrison’s present life began on the day he regained consciousness after an automobile accident. He remembers nothing before then. He’s gone on to marry, make a career, and become a good husband and father but he still wants to know about the person he was before.

With Jessie’s help, Ben discovers he has a sister who initially refuses to talk to him. She finally agrees to tell him about their family, the Wheelers, on the condition that Ben never contact her again. Ben learns his mother died under suspicious circumstances, his father in prison for killing Aly Scheer, the girl Ben was dating, but did he do it? A confrontation between father and son ends with Lou Wheeler accusing Ben of the murder.

“You were born this way—deranged. What many would call a natural-born killer. We both know Aly Scheer wasn’t your first kill.”

Ben’s hands were shaking. It took every bit of self-control he possessed not to jump up and leave.

His father was wrong.”

If Ben’s father hates him so, why did he confess to the murder?

“What if he’s telling the truth?” Ben asked, his tone earnest. “What if I’m responsible and that’s the real reason my sister won’t have anything to do with me?”
“Ridiculous.” Jessie shook her head. “You didn’t do it. Between the amnesia, the sudden onslaught of flashbacks and everything going on at home, you’re feeling vulnerable.”

“I have too many questions to let this go.”

Juggling training an assistant, caring for her niece Olivia, and having an on-again/off-again romance with homicide detective Colin Grayson, Jessie manages an interview with the family who lived across the street from the Wheelers. The daughter had a crush on Ben and tells her about him and Ally. The mother tells Jessie not to believe her daughter, that the entire family, including Ben, was pure evil.

“Most people choose to forget the Wheelers were ever a part of this community.”

Only one person gives a positive picture of the teenaged Ben—a former teacher says he was quiet but intelligent, someone who opened up only to people very close to him.

Jessie refuses to believe the man she knows would deliberately harm anyone. An anonymous caller says otherwise.

“He said you killed Aly Scheer and she wasn’t the first. I asked if he had proof and he said I was the detective. I took that to mean it was my job to follow the evidence and find the truth.”

When she’s exposed to a side of her friend she’s never seen before, Jessie believes she’s found that truth, and that leads her to a frightening conclusion.

Paralleling her search for Ben’s missing life is Jessie’s investigation of the murder of a client’s wife. Two cases, seemingly with nothing in common, but in the end, an ironic convolution of events discovered by Colin’s new partner reveals this killer and Ben are more closely linked than either he or Jessie know.

Soon Jessie will have to make a choice. Does she tell what she’s learned or will she let secrets stay in the grave with Aly Scheer and let Ben continue the life of he’s made for himself?

In this story, Jessie Cole is faced with a moral dilemma: to divulge information that could accuse a man who’s become a good friend of being a murderer, or remain silent and let him be ignorant of his past life.

Ben’s turmoil over the blanks in his memory is a constant in his current life and Jessie’s discoveries, plus his own mental chaos, beg the question, Is it better to know the truth and have a life ruined or remain in ignorance and be happy?

The case Jessie is working on, one the reader may consider a subplot because Ben’s soon becomes the most important to the storyline, is cleverly kept secondhand until it abruptly bursts into importance through some of the novel’s most surprising twists.

This reviewer was fortunate enough to also critique the Jessie Cole’s debut novel Her Last Day, which introduced Ben and Jessie, and summarized it as “a fast-moving thriller about a woman seeking answers and the man determined to help her find them.” This new novel is an even more tense suspense tale, striking closer to home, as this time the woman believes she has found the answers and must decide what to do with them.

Deranged is a gripping novel of discovery and moral choices, forcing a woman to weigh friendship against justice as she holds a man’s life and wellbeing in her hands.