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The Healer by Dee Henderson follows the joys and trials of Rachel O’Malley as she goes about her job as a trauma psychologist. As with the other O’Malley family members, Rachel is a realistic hero with some flaws and imperfections that we get to see as she struggles with trusting others with her life and emotions. She must deal with consoling flood victims who have lost most of their belongings and some their homes. She faces the trauma of a school shooting in which she seeks to help not only those students who were witnesses of the horrific crime, but also family members of victims, and then deal with her own emotions of having been caught in the midst of the gunfire. Along with all the stress and trauma associated with her job, she struggles to face Jennifer O’Malley’s battle with cancer. As with most of the O’Malley novels, we are introduced and meet briefly with the other O’Malley family members off and on throughout the course of the storyline. This novel depicts Rachels joys and sorrows within a brief several month span of her life.

I am disappointed to say that I found The Healer had way more sorrows than joys in this fifth book in the series. The author deals with some pretty heavy issues such as bullying, school shootings, domestic violence, and the trauma of living through a destructive flood. In most of the earlier books, I felt Dee Henderson did a really thorough and sensitive job of depicting the characters on both sides of the trauma, but I felt this novel was rushed and never really stopped long enough to develop the reasons some of the crimes were committed. Perhaps, as in real life, we often don’t fully understand the rationalizations a person goes through before committing some horrendous crime such as murdering an ex-wife, or bringing a gun to school to kill classmates. Perhaps that was what Dee Henderson meant to portray in this novel. However, I’m not sure I wish to give her the benefit of the doubt in this case. I think that some of these character motivations were barely touched upon for the sake of brevity. I feel the novel lacked the 360 view of the situation that other novels portrayed. For example, why did Carol’s ex-husband want her dead? How exactly did this send the son over the edge as well? The author hints that Carol’s ex-husband’s actions were the ones that started the whole series of events, but fails to tell how.


Besides the sorrow in all of the above scenarios, the sorrow in facing the decline of Jennifer O’Malley was a huge emotional drain. I was angry with how the novel ended although it was really beautiful. I guess that could be a point for Dee Henderson for drawing me into the bonds of this family so well that I felt their agony over Jen’s cancer as well.


I also felt this novel was missing a bit of the “heart stopping” suspense that most of the others contain. The mystery of the murders certainly had you guessing, but the outcome wasn’t extrodinary in any way. I was kind of left saying, “Yeah. No surprises there. But why???” I’m also beginning to get a little impatient with the “too perfect” O’Malley family. The way that the heroines are so beautiful, accomplished, and intelligent and the heroes are so handsome, strong, and sensitive is beginning to seem contrived to me. I am hoping that we see a bit more rebeliousness or failure in the next novel about Stephen O’Malley who has decided to take off on a journey of his own to find answers to his questions on life. This one seems to offer some promise of something a little different.


So, would I recommend this book to others? That is the question. As I reread what I have written above, I realize I may have been a little dark in my critique of this book. I was a little disapointed in some “perceived” failures in the story line and in the too perfect characters, but again I must say that Dee Henderson is still leading the pack in suspenceful contemporary Christian fiction and this series continues to be a must read. YES – go out and read this book! You may even disagree with me on some of my critiques!


~ Tracy