Review of “Dream Me Home” by Laurie Elizabeth Murphy

95+/100 (9.5+ out of 10)

Dream Me Home by Laurie Elizabeth had us on the edge of our seats, gritting our teeth, and clenching our fists throughout the entire reading! What an intense, mesmerizing experience!

Margaret Elizabeth (better known as “Peggy”) is found DEAD by her husband, Dr. Robert Prescott, a respected plastic surgeon and esteemed member of the community. Peggy is found cold as a block of ice as if she's been in a freezer all night and, perhaps eeriest of all, her face appears to be frozen in a smile! The cause of death is left mysterious even to the the examiner. Is it a murder? A suicide? An accidental death? Or is it... something else?

While this might seem like a rather standard setup for a murder mystery, it is far from it, especially when you realize that the person presenting this information is the slain woman herself!

How is that possible? And who is responsible for the body lying cold and lifeless on the floor?

Well, those are some loaded questions without a simple answer. The list of suspects is long!

But the primary suspect is Dr. Robert Prescott (often just called “Rob”) himself. It is said that their relationship had been on the rocks and that they recently had an intense argument concerning an apparent affair. This was compounded on top of a violent criminal incident: a home invasion! Prescott was a suspect in both incidents.

The book takes us back to the home invasion in which Peggy was restrained, threatened with death and violence, and eventually punched to knock her out. It's actually a very tense scene with a lot of mystery behind it. Who are these men? Who hired them? What do they really want? Why do some of the men want to assault or kill Peggy while the shorter one wants to spare her?

It kinda reminded us of the kidnapping and murder of Kimberly Antonakos, a New York woman who was abducted and held for ransom by incompetent kidnappers including a former “friend.” She was left in a cold basement for three days without food or water. Her body went into a death-like state that the lead kidnapper supposedly mistook for her dying, after which he set her on fire, leading to her gruesome and tragic death. There's actually a part of the scene in the book that reminded us of this such as when one of the kidnappers kissed Peggy on the head as the murderer in the Antonakos case claimed to have done.

Anyway, it has to be said that, for better or for worse, this book is full of @$$holes! Seriously! Some of these characters had us wanting to reach into the pages and strangle them. And you know what? That's actually a good thing. These character evoked such strong passions and emotions in us!

We're first introduced to Rob, who immediately rubbed us the wrong way. However, little did we know that there were going to be even more unscrupulous, immoral, and even evil characters in this book!

Perhaps the three biggest @$$holes in this book are Dr. Sherman, Arnie Stimmel, and Detective Harvey. All three of these guys are bound to get under your skin!

Detective Harvey is immediately suspicious of Rob being responsible for the home invasion and the death of Peggy. He is relentless and always jumps to conclusions. He never gives anyone, much less Rob, the benefit of the doubt. Furthermore, he proves to be quite manipulative as he takes advantage of his sergeant, Barney Bristol, who is mentally weak and desperate to prove himself. There are other frustrating things about Detective Harvey such as him being an example of the ineptitude, laziness, and incompetence of some members of law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Anyone who has reported a serious crime to law enforcement only to have it be ignored or dismissed can empathize with our anger at Harvey, who often ignores any other possibilities other than the quickest and easiest way to close the case in front of him. He'd rather stuff his face with food than uncover the truth of a crime, always wanting to close calls because he claims he is hungry. There's one time when he buys a puzzle book, can't solve it, then immediately discards it. This perfectly personifies his character and everything he represents.

Next, there's Arnie Stimmel—Rob's supposed “best friend” since medical school. Arnie is a jealous, unscrupulous, perverted, sniveling weasel who has long desired Peggy while wanting to one-up Rob someday. Beside Rob, he is the primary suspect in the crimes for much of the book. There aren't enough bad things we can say about Arnie. He is an awful, terrible person. Furthermore, he's an awful, terrible friend. He takes advantage of his friendship with Rob to get closer and closer to Peggy. He then uses lies to manipulate both of them into thinking that Rob wants to divorce Peggy and that Peggy had an affair with him, despite neither being true (as far as the audience knows). He even tries to blackmail them both with telling the supposed “truth,” playing both of them against each other to destroy their relationship and presumably get Peggy to himself as a trophy. What a crappy human being!

The third huge @$$hole in this book is Dr. Sherman, the highly-touted psychiatrist who is hired to “care” for Peggy as she recovers from the trauma of the home invasion. Dr. Sherman is a cold-blooded, selfish, gaslighting misogynist who really has no business being in his position. He's the literal opposite of what a psychiatrist should be. Rather than being a voice of reason, he's a ruthless gaslighter who tries to get a jump in his clients, inciting them to anger and frustration. Rather than being an empathetic and understanding ear, he's rude, coarse, and disruptive. He frequently belittles and insults Peggy in their sessions, exacerbated by a sarcastic, dismissive, and victim-blaming disposition.

Dr. Sherman is clearly a quack who is after one thing: money. He wants to make sure that he can keep Peggy in need of his psychiatric “services” for as long as possible to milk as much money out of her as possible. The only times he does things that are somewhat noble, it's usually for selfish reasons like for self-preservation or to appease whatever is left of his conscience. For example, he often says that he's not willing to risk his license to break laws or rules. When Peggy becomes addicted to her sleep medication, he is gravely concerned, not so much for Peggy's health or well-being, but because if something happens to Peggy (like, if she overdoses) he might be implicated for prescribing the meds and allowing her doses to rise.

Dr. Sherman is clearly a misogynist, which he makes obvious with his thought process, often comparing Peggy to his ex-wife who left him and nearly ruined his career. He also verbally and mentally abuses his secretary, Valerie, at least once after she refuses to follow one of his orders. He displaces his own personal dislikes for women on Peggy and Valerie.

It is arguable who is the bigger @$$hole between these three, but it's nonetheless fun and interesting to argue.

Going back to the main characters though... Peggy is arguably an @$$hole in her own right. Peggy can be extremely frustrating sometimes, but not in a bad way, at least not in literary terms. She's a frustrating person, but it's somewhat understandable. She is the the victim of a traumatic crime and seems to be like a soccer ball in a soccer match played by much bigger forces than herself, being kicked from goal-post to goal-post. Peggy has a suspicion that something is up with her husband and that there's something that he's hiding, and until that is finally revealed, Peggy comes across as a needy, whiny woman. But perhaps the worst thing about Peggy is that she is so... stupid. Is that the right word for it? Maybe gullible would be a better word. But Peggy comes across as such an airheaded dummy a lot of the time, falling right into the hands of Dr. Sherman and Arnie in particular.

How can she trust these guys?! Seriously!

There's a scene in which she exclaims something like “Oh, Arnie!” like she's relieved to see this career-@$$hole and hugs him. She hugs this lecherous creep who calls her “babe” and lies to her constantly, including about the convention he was supposedly going to. We get that she might be relieved he's not there to kidnap or kill her, but this guy has CREEP written all over him! Girl, are you blind?!

But perhaps worst of all is how she allows Dr. Sherman to just bully her over and over and over again. Why? Well, maybe it's because she's addicted to the pills he prescribes her. Most sane people with some dignity and a sense of self-worth would leave that office immediately. The disrespect and vitriolic attitude that Sherman shows her is reprehensible.

Going back to those sleeping pills, though... they actually are a MAJOR plot point/plot device. These pills send her to a dreamland in which Peggy encounters a man we'll just call “Dream Lover”--partly because that's literally what he is. Dream Lover is Peggy's perfect vision of a man: someone who will take her to new places and do exciting new things with her including teaching her how to ski. Dream Lover promises to take Peggy to a place or town called “Hope.” Peggy is so desperate to see Dream Lover that she nags and begs Dr. Sherman to prescribe her more sleeping pills.

Now, there's a paranormal/metaphysical aspect to this story. In a sense, Peggy is somewhat able to astral-project when she dreams and meets Dream Lover. Either her soul/spirit is able to detach from her body and enter another plane of existence/realm or she was actually able to form another physical body or existence in another realm, which might help to explain the ending. Honest to goodness, it's convoluted and muddy enough to let the reader draw their own conclusion.

One more thing we'll talk about is Rob. Rob is a good man with a secret, a secret that he carries throughout most of the book. Is he responsible for the home invasion? Is he having an affair? Does he want to kill his best friend or wife? We love how the surprise wasn't out of left field and how it was actually teased in scenes that related to his work.

Rob is actually a deeper character than you might expect. His father was a plumber and expected Rob to take up the family plumbing business. However, Rob defied his father to attend Harvard and pursue his medical career. He has a lot to prove to his dad, who is now dead, which Peggy picks up on and gaslights him about.

Wow, what a bunch of @$$holes and gaslighters!

The one huge complaint we have is about the ending. It was so sudden and abrupt. After all that build and all that mystery, THAT's how the author decided to end the book? After all those fireworks, you end it with a soft little whimper? And not even a clear or definitive one. We still have so many questions! Is there supposed to be a sequel or something?

Check it out on Amazon!