Matchmaking for Psychopaths
Tasha Coryell
Deliciously weird
There is something very strange about virtually the entire murder mystery genre. The typical murder mystery is presented as an intellectual puzzle. The murderers, likewise, are more often than not dispassionate rational killers who kill in order to improve their lives. They carefully plan their murders to produce optimal consequences. It goes without saying, I hope, that in real life the act of murder usually occasions powerful emotions.
What if we take the "dispassionate rational killer" idea seriously? What if all the major characters in our mystery novel are psychopaths? (Strictly, that should be "antisocial personality disorder.”) That is, no one involved has any moral or emotional problem with murder or, for that matter, with harming other humans? What would that mystery novel look like?
Well, it would look like Tasha Coryell's Matchmaking for Psychopaths. And it would be very, very weird.
Alexandra (Lexie) Smith studied psychology in college, with the goal of becoming a therapist. She chickened out when she realized the extensive regulatory hoops she would have to jump through to practice as a therapist. Instead, she ended up in a high-end personalized matchmaking business. This business has an unacknowledged profitable line of business in psychopathic clients. Lexie is the agent who helps the psychopaths out. Lexie has a mysterious past that we eventually learn all about. When the story begins, Lexie is happily engaged to a medical doctor.
The story is slow to get moving. After the first few chapters, I asked myself if a plot would ever put in an appearance. This does eventually happen. Once things gets moving, they really move -- towards the end, very quickly indeed. You will easily figure out who the murderer is.
The main impression Matchmaking for Psychopaths made on me was the feeling of strangeness that comes from hearing about and from people who experience no questions of right or wrong about murder (or anything, really). I like books that weird me out, so I enjoyed this.