A nasty little "psychological thriller" that made it onto the WSJ's best mysteries of 2024 list. (WSJ gifted link) It's a little gimmicky, but I found myself turning pages.
The narration is first-person, mostly from Dr. Caroline Strange. (She insists her patients call her "Dr. Caroline", so as not to be confused with the Marvel character played by Benedict Cumberbatch.) I admit that at first she comes off as honest and unsentimental about her patients. But slowly a couple of warning signs emerge: she lies to the cops on page 28; and then (worse!) lies to her husband on page 56.
Wait a minute! The cops? Yes, they have sought her out to ask about a missing journalist, Ellen Garcia. Which just might have something to do with a recent first-time patient, who mentioned that he might be killing someone, and that Dr. Caroline might know of that someone.
But we also get narration from Ellen, who has (indeed) been kidnapped, held in a storage facility. And also a guy named Gordon Strong, who's just been fired as a beer distributor. ("Without sales, we don't need distribution," he's told.) Gordon turns out to have a pivotal role in Dr. Caroline's story, but we don't find out what it is for a while.
As we go along all three narrators' flaws and foibles are revealed, leading up to (pardon the cliché) a pulse-pounding (and somewhat blood-soaked) climax. Well done.
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