Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Reviews of Who Killed My Daughter?

Who Killed My Daughter?
Who Killed My Daughter
Author: Lois Duncan
PBS Market Price: $8.09 or $4.19+1 credit
ISBN-13: 9780440213420
ISBN-10: 0440213428
Publication Date: 2/1/1994
Pages: 368
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 34

3.6 stars, based on 34 ratings
Publisher: Laurel
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

18 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

bookcrazychick avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 76 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Good book, the psychic stuff got a little tiring after awhile though. Will make you lose faith in your local PD.
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 64 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Excellent story of a mom searching for her daughter's killer.
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 9 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Interesting look at the author's way of dealing with her daughter's murder and the eerie parallels in her books.
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 95 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book gives meaning to the quote "Truth is stranger then Fiction". Ms. Duncan did an excellent job sharing her feelings with her fans about what happened to her daughter.
murder101 avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on
Helpful Score: 2
Very Sad story well written.
sarah5775 avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 386 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Famous young adult novelist Lois Duncan talks about the murder of her daughter and her subsequent quest to find her daughter's killer. This book is often sad but is a portrait of one mother's grief and how she copes with it.
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 10 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
The true story of the suspicious death of mystery writer Lois Duncan's daughter, Kaitlyn Arquette. Kaitlyn was gunned down in 1989, and this book is Lois's attempt to piece together the evidence and find her daughter's killer.
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 35 more book reviews
Lois Duncan's search for answers would take her into the underworld of Vietnamese gangs that stretched across three states. It would lead her to an extraordinary psychic and to courageous journalist determined to expose the devastating truth.
superdupar avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 115 more book reviews
This is the story of mother's journey grieving her daughter's death. I was never sure if it was supposed to be a story about what happened, an investigation into what happened, a case against the police who followed up on the case or thoughts on spirituality. It did some of all of these, but none really well. And when it was done I wanted more closure.
superdupar avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 115 more book reviews
This is the story of mother's journey grieving her daughter's death. I was never sure if it was supposed to be a story about what happened, an investigation into what happened, a case against the police who followed up on the case or thoughts on spirituality. It did some of all of these, but none really well. And when it was done I wanted more closure.
emeraldfire avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on
With a promise to see her family later, eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Arquette rushed out the door into the balmy midsummer evening. Little did Kaitlyn's mother, Lois Duncan realize that those were the last words she would ever hear her daughter speak. On July 16, 1989, Kaitlyn was shot to death as she drove home from a friend's house along a deserted strip of New Mexico highway. The police concluded that it was a random shooting - even though it showed all the earmarks of a professional hit...

Kaitlyn's brutal murder left her family broken-hearted and grieving, and her mother pondering a thousand unanswered questions. Who would put out a contract on a beautiful young honor student? Was it grief that made Kaitlyn's Vietnamese lover try to take his own life? - Or was it not an attempted suicide at all?

Lois Duncan's search for answers would eventually lead her into the seamy underworld of Vietnamese gangs that stretched across three states. It would lead her to an extraordinary psychic and to a courageous journalist determined to expose the devastating truth. And it would send her on a soul-numbing odyssey into Kaitlyn's shocking double life as she desperately sought justice for the daughter she would always love...even in the face of shattering betrayal and threats to her own life.

Today, Lois Duncan's search for her daughter's killer continues. She will never give up. The best-selling young adult novelist has made finding her daughter's killer her life's mission. After all, a mother's blood vow to her deceased daughter is paramount.

I thought this was a truly heartrending book. I completely sympathized with Ms. Duncan's burning desire to discover the entire devastating truth behind her daughter's still unsolved murder. As an author of young adult suspense novels, Ms. Duncan proves that sometimes the most terrifying and suspenseful events are the ones that actually happen.

Understandably, this was perhaps the most difficult book for Lois Duncan to write, because this is a story that involves herself and her family. Her relentless search for justice for Kaitlyn is a quality for which I admire her greatly. I was certainly aware that Ms. Duncan was an author of young adult novels (Mareena read quite a lot of her novels while she was in high school), but I never realized that her youngest daughter was actually murdered, and that Kaitlyn Arquette's murder was still unsolved to this day.

Despite feeling tremendous sympathy for Lois Duncan and her family for their daughter's murder, I must also admit to feeling slightly angry at Kaitlyn herself. She was eighteen-years-old and got involved in an impossibly dangerous situation - one that ultimately cost her her life. While it is certainly true that young people will do anything for love - and teenagers can and do make mistakes - what Kaitlyn did subsequently endangered her entire family.

This book was certainly well-wriitten, but it was so convoluted that I had trouble sorting out the plot of the murder. I give Who Killed my Daughter? by Lois Duncan an A!
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on
Poignant true story of a mother whose daughter is murdered. Mother is trying to make sense of it and find the killer.
superdupar avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 115 more book reviews
This is the story of mother's journey grieving her daughter's death. I was never sure if it was supposed to be a story about what happened, an investigation into what happened, a case against the police who followed up on the case or thoughts on spirituality. It did some of all of these, but none really well. And when it was done I wanted more closure.
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 37 more book reviews
On a balmy midsummer's night in 1989, eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Arquette was shot to death as she drove home along a deserted strip of New Mexico highway. The police called it a random shooting - even though it had all the earmarks of a professional hit...
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 18 more book reviews
Loved this book
reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 12 more book reviews
Excellent!
superdupar avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 115 more book reviews
This is the story of mother's journey grieving her daughter's death. I was never sure if it was supposed to be a story about what happened, an investigation into what happened, a case against the police who followed up on the case or thoughts on spirituality. It did some of all of these, but none really well. And when it was done I wanted more closure.
superdupar avatar reviewed Who Killed My Daughter? on + 115 more book reviews
This is the story of mother's journey grieving her daughter's death. I was never sure if it was supposed to be a story about what happened, an investigation into what happened, a case against the police who followed up on the case or thoughts on spirituality. It did some of all of these, but none really well. And when it was done I wanted more closure.