The Doctor’s daughter by Vanessa Matthews Published by Completely Novel June 2015

After several weeks of picking up little but disappointing, dispiriting or downright dreadful books, it was a relief to read The Doctor’s daughter which, although dark and sometimes depressing, was gripping from the start.

Set in Vienna in the late 1920s, the story focusses on the life of Marta, the youngest daughter of a prominent psychiatrist specialising in gender identity and hysteria in women.

Keen to assert her independence and find out more about her birth and her Mother’s consequent insanity, Marta becomes first the protégée and then more intimately involved with a friend of her father’s, a man with his own secrets.

Enter Elise, the first real friend Marta has had. Freedom beckons. Or does it?

Intriguing, absorbing and very very interesting.

[Adult themes and language.]