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This I would kill for / Anne Buist.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Natalie King, forensic psychiatrist ; 3Publisher: Melbourne, Victoria : The Text Publishing Company, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Description: 355 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781925603231
  • 1925603237
Subject(s): Genre/Form: LOC classification:
  • PR8285.U48 T45 2018
Summary: Natalie King has been hired to do a psychiatric evaluation for the children's court. A custody dispute. Not her usual territory, but now that she's pregnant she's happy to do a simple consult. Turns out Jenna and Malik's break-up is anything but simple. He claims she's crazy and compulsive; she claims he's been abusing their daughter Chelsea. But what if all the claims are true? Or none? How can Natalie protect the child? And how does she work out where her concerns for Chelsea slide into her growing obsession with her own lost father? More urgently: with both parents saying they're desperate to keep their daughter safe-what if one of them is desperate enough to kill?
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Fiction Davis (Central) Library Fiction Collection (New) Fiction Collection (New) BUIS Available T00813167
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Psychiatrist Natalie King is the expert witness in a vicious child custody battle, and the stakes are high. Getting it wrong means handing a child over to an abuser - or depriving that child of the only father she knows.

Is Jenna gaming the system, or is her ex-husband Malik as dangerous as she suggests? How can Natalie best protect the child? And now that Natalie's pregnant - and still unsure of the child's paternity - how is a growing preoccupation with her own lost father affecting her judgment?

Court dramas, cultural clashes and media backlash create an explosive mixture that forces Natalie to make life and death choices.

How far will a parent go to keep - or save - their child?

Natalie King has been hired to do a psychiatric evaluation for the children's court. A custody dispute. Not her usual territory, but now that she's pregnant she's happy to do a simple consult. Turns out Jenna and Malik's break-up is anything but simple. He claims she's crazy and compulsive; she claims he's been abusing their daughter Chelsea. But what if all the claims are true? Or none? How can Natalie protect the child? And how does she work out where her concerns for Chelsea slide into her growing obsession with her own lost father? More urgently: with both parents saying they're desperate to keep their daughter safe-what if one of them is desperate enough to kill?

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

'He wants to take my kids off me.'

Jenna hadn't even sat down. The urgency of the statement, the hint of fear, were at odds with the cool, firm handshake. When she did sit down, she ignored the chair opposite Natalie's desk in favour of the armchair by the coffee table. The request for a psychiatric evaluation had come from Jenna's lawyer. Merely pre-emptive. A legal report, and an attractive fee; Natalie did not expect she would have to appear in court. A welcome supplement to her pay cheque from the forensic psychiatry ward at Yarra Bend, particularly as she'd been ill and hadn't worked for much of the last few months.

'Why?' Natalie asked.

'He blames me,' said Jenna. 'For the breakup.'

She looked briefly unsettled; Natalie watched her regain control. There was a sense of strength, the lioness-protecting-her-young kind, but the lines around her mouth were deeper than they should have been at thirty-four; the puffy grey under her green eyes and the unkempt mousey hair suggested she wasn't getting enough sleep. Young kids.

Her style was inner-city greenie: bright coloured top, vaguely Peruvian looking, and baggy red corduroy jeans
tucked into heavy boots undone at the top. She probably volunteered to help slow learners at the local primary
school. Her marriage might once have looked magazine10 perfect. Walks along the beach hand in hand, Sunday sleepins interrupted only by a boisterous rescue dog, helping the kids decorate cupcakes with Disney characters.

Except somewhere between packing the lunch box and Saturday morning sex she had ended up with two children, a mortgage she couldn't pay and an ex-husband who thought she was nuts.

Natalie waited--but Jenna had pursed her lips. She was not about to make things easy.
Excerpted from This I Would Kill For by Anne Buist All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

A psychiatrist working a child custody case hears increasingly alarming accusations from both parents' sides as a court battle ramps up.Hired to support the custody case for anxious mother Jenna Radford, Dr. Natalie King (Dangerous to Know, 2016, etc.) has a hard time understanding Jenna's reasons for trying to separate her kids from the man she's divorced. Jenna's ex, Malik Essa, is the birth father of her son, Chris, and the adoptive father of her daughter, Chelsea. Even so, he's the only father either has ever known, and Natalie wonders why Jenna is so adamant about restricting his access to them. Natalie can't help but think of what's going on in her own life now that she knows she's pregnant but isn't sure whether the father is Liam, her supportive boyfriend, or Damian, who appeals more to her rocker side. After an initial court hearing that seems to favor Malik, Jenna spirals increasingly out of control, accusing him of everything from spousal abuse to molesting Chelsea. Her behavior puts Natalie in a tricky position when the judge requires her to evaluate both parents and both kids in spite of Natalie's limited experience with children. Though Jenna's claims seem to come out of nowhere, and Natalie's beginning to doubt Jenna's ability to parent, it's her duty to do her best for Chris and Chelsea. It won't be easy, though, given two parents both apparently willing to go to any lengths to win custody, and Natalie's so fearful that whatever's fueling the increasingly volatile battle will result in danger for the children that she forgets to consider her own safety.The heroine, who's smart and driven to do what's best, still can't help but have an emotional reaction to the case and the possible consequences of making the wrong recommendation in this latest installment of Buist's well-informed, fast-paced look at the dangers in the child welfare system. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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