The Right Wrong Thing

August 17, 2015
In Kirschman’s highly satisfying second novel featuring Dr. Dot Meyerhoff (after 2013’s Burying Ben), the consulting psychologist endorses young Randy Spelling’s emotional stability for service as a Kenilworth, Calif., police officer. Dot later attempts to help Randy through the guilt-ridden aftermath of a panic episode that indirectly injured Randy’s partner, who blames Randy for cowardice. Intense professional and personal problems ensue for the divorced 50ish Dot after Randy, back on duty, fatally shoots Lakeisha Gibbs, a pregnant teenager who Randy mistakenly thinks is drawing a weapon. Kirschman, herself a psychologist who has served as a police department consultant, perceptively treats complex racial, feminist, personal, and political issues while providing intimate knowledge of cops’ shop procedure. She also skewers self-serving superficial “Christian-based psychology” and neatly balances Dot’s psychological expertise with her warmhearted humanity, though a facile windup disappoints.