Some readers of the Zachary Goldman Mysteries series have expressed that they find Kenzie to be too perfect and saintly, always caring and understanding at every turn.
But if you read carefully, you’ll find that Kenzie is not without human flaws. She has faults and emotions just like any other (fictional) human being. Reading the Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thrillers series, you get to see her flaws and emotions more clearly. There are a considerable number of times in both the Zachary Goldman Mysteries and Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thriller series when she struggles with restraining her anger and impatience with Zachary, keeps secrets from him, and has other difficulties navigating their complex relationship dynamics. Sometimes she snaps or gives Zachary the silent treatment, shuts herself away in her bedroom or works late at the office to avoid dealing with him. She struggles to find the balance between accommodating Zachary’s disabilities and enabling dysfunctional behavior.
Supporting vs Enabling Kids With Challenges (This article is more about the parent/child relationship, but much of it is applicable to adult relationships as well.)
Living with someone with depression, PTSD, ADHD, or learning disabilities can be exhausting, never mind someone with all of them. It can be isolating and thankless. There are a few pieces of advice on this page that might be helpful if you are in this situation:
Living with a person suffering from mental illness
Kenzie’s background plays a significant role in her character development. Growing up, she fell into the roll of caregiver/nurse to her sister, Amanda. Because of Amanda’s illness, Kenzie’s wants and needs had to be suppressed and everyone’s focus was on taking care of Amanda and seeing to her needs. Kenzie’s learned behavior, to put others’ needs before her own, has carried through to adulthood. Since Kenzie had a gift for understanding medicine, her mother relied on her to help take care of Amanda and act as a translator between her parents and the doctors. It is difficult for Kenzie to pull back from the role of mother or doctor to Zachary and treat him as an equal partner. She often steps over the line or pushes her opinion too far about how he should be taking care of himself or behaving.
It irritates Zachary to be told how to take care of himself or have someone else act as if they know better than he does what his own needs are, but he also craves having someone take care of him. Kenzie stepped way over the line in He Was Not There when she went to both Lorne and Bridget about Zachary’s dissociation and possible sexual abuse in the past, rather than waiting until he was ready to talk about it, and they broke up because of this for a time. They also broke up in She Wore Mourning when she realized that he had been tracking her movements. It has not been a smooth road.
In Rushin’ Death, you’ll find that throughout the Zachary Goldman books 11-13, Kenzie is keeping some pretty big secrets from Zachary. Just as they only had clues of what was going on with Tyrrell’s mental health/alcoholism during their stay at the Lodge in Dosed to Death, there are things going on in Kenzie’s life during this time period that Zachary can only catch glimpses of, if he’s really paying attention.
But it is all about to come out.
