Thanks to Robbie Cheadle for this wonderful review of the first book in my series Escaping Psychiatry. Don’t forget to explore her blog if you enjoy books and cakes! And to check her own books!
Hi all:
I was very intrigued by this book and well… Here is the review, finally.
JO NESBO: #1 Sunday Times bestseller, #1 New York Times bestseller, 40 million books sold worldwide
He’s the best cop they’ve got.
When a drug bust turns into a bloodbath it’s up to Inspector Macbeth and his team to clean up the mess.
He’s also an ex-drug addict with a troubled past.
He’s rewarded for his success. Power. Money. Respect. They’re all within reach.
But a man like him won’t get to the top.
Plagued by hallucinations and paranoia, Macbeth starts to unravel. He’s convinced he won’t get what is rightfully his.
Unless he kills for it.
Links:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Macbeth-Jo-Nesbo-ebook/dp/B01N6STDIS/
https://www.amazon.com/Macbeth-Jo-Nesbo-ebook/dp/B01N6STDIS/
“Majestically satisfying…a deliciously oppressive page-turner” (Steven Poole Guardian)
“Immensely enjoyable and gloriously dark… He has accomplished that toughest of literary feats: putting his own unmistakable mark on one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays” (Matt Gibson Daily Express)
“Inventive and deeply satisfying… a dark but ultimately hopeful Macbeth, one suited to our own troubled times” (James Shapiro New York Times Book Review)
“Nesbo makes excellent use of all the atmosphere of his genre, and the stakes at play are every bit as convincing as those in the original… This is Nesbo doing what he’s good at” (Lucy Scholes Independent)
“Macbeth as a SWAT team leader. His wife as a former prostitute. The three witches as drug dealers. It’s Shakespeare’s darkest tale — reimagined by the king of Nordic noir” (Graeme Thomson Mail on Sunday)
“Majestically satisfying…a deliciously oppressive page-turner”
“Immensely enjoyable and gloriously dark… He has accomplished that toughest of literary feats: putting his own unmistakable mark on one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays”
“Inventive and deeply satisfying… a dark but ultimately hopeful Macbeth, one suited to our own troubled times”
“Nesbo makes excellent use of all the atmosphere of his genre, and the stakes at play are every bit as convincing as those in the original… This is Nesbo doing what he’s good at”
“Macbeth as a SWAT team leader. His wife as a former prostitute. The three witches as drug dealers. It’s Shakespeare’s darkest tale — reimagined by the king of Nordic noir”
The gripping new thriller from the author of The Snowman
Jo Nesbo is one of the world’s bestselling crime writers, with The Leopard, Phantom, Police, The Son and his latest Harry Hole novel, The Thirst, all topping the Sunday Times bestseller charts. He’s an international number one bestseller and his books are published in 50 languages, selling over 33 million copies around the world.
Before becoming a crime writer, Nesbo played football for Norway’s premier league team Molde, but his dream of playing professionally for Spurs was dashed when he tore ligaments in his knee at the age of eighteen. After three years of military service, he attended business school and formed the band Di derre (‘Them There’). They topped the charts in Norway, but Nesbo continued working as a financial analyst, crunching numbers during the day and gigging at night. When commissioned by a publisher to write a memoir about life on the road with his band, he instead came up with the plot for his first Harry Hole crime novel, The Bat.
Sign up to the Jo Nesbo newsletter for all the latest news: jonesbo.com/newsletter
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jo-Nesbo/e/B004MSFDCG/
My review:
Thanks to NetGalley and to Vintage Digital for providing me an ARC copy of this book that I freely chose to review.
This book is part of the Hogarth’s Shakespeare project, a project designed to create novels based on some of Shakespeare’s original plays and bring them up-to-date thanks to best-selling novelists. Although I have been intrigued since I’d heard about the project (because I am a fan of some of the authors, like Margaret Atwood and Anne Tyler), this is the first of the novels to come out of the project that I’ve read. Evidently, the idea behind the series was to try and bring new readers to Shakespeare and perhaps combine people interested in the plays with followers of the novelists. My case is a bit peculiar. I love Shakespeare (I prefer his tragedies and his comedies to the rest of his work) but I can’t say I’m an authority on him, and although I’ve read some of his plays, I prefer to attend live performances or watch adaptations (I’ve watched quite a few versions of Hamlet, but not so many of the rest of his plays, by poor chance). I’ve only watched Macbeth a couple of times, so I’m not the best person to comment on how closely Nesbo’s book follows the original. On the other hand, I have not read any of the author’s novels. I’ve watched a recent movie adaptation of one of them (mea culpa, I had not checked the reviews beforehand) but, although I know of him, I cannot compare this novel to the rest of his oeuvre. So I’m poorly qualified to write this review from the perspective of the most likely audience. But, that’s never stopped me before, and this review might perhaps be more relevant to people who are not terribly familiar with either, Macbeth or Nesbo’s books.
From my vague memory of the play, the novel follows the plot fairly closely, although it is set in the 1970s, in a nightmarish and corrupt city (some of the reviewers say it’s a Northern city somewhere not specified. That is true, and although some of the names and settings seem to suggest Scotland, not all details match, for sure), where unemployment is a huge problem, as are drugs, where biker gangs murder at leisure and control the drug market (together with a mysterious and shady character called Hecate, that seems to pull the strings in the background. He’s not a witch here but there’s something otherworldly about him), where the train station has lost its original purpose and has become a den where homeless and people addicted to drugs hung together and try to survive. The police force takes the place of the royalty and the nobles in the original play, with murders, betrayals and everything in between going on in an attempt at climbing up the ladder and taking control of law-enforcement (with the interesting side-effect of blurring any distinction between law and crime), with the city a stand-in for the kingdom of Scotland in the original.
The story is told from many of the characters’ points of view (most of them) and there is a fair amount of head-hopping. Although as the novel advances we become familiar with the characters and their motivations, and it is not so difficult to work out who is thinking what, this is not so easy to begin with as there are many characters with very similar jobs and, at least in appearance, close motivations, so it’s necessary to pay close attention. The technique is useful to get readers inside the heads of the characters and to get insights into their motivations, even if in most cases it is not a comfortable or uplifting experience. The book is truly dark and it seems particularly apt to a moment in history when corruption, morality, and the evil use of power are as relevant as ever. (Of course, the fact that this is an adaptation of a play written centuries before our era brings home that although things might change in the surface, human nature does not change so much). The writing is at times lyrical and at others more down to earth, but it is a long book, so I’d advise readers to check a sample to see if it is something they’d enjoy for the long-haul. I’ll confess that when I started the book I wondered if it was for me, but once I got into the story and became immersed in the characters’ world, I was hooked.
The beauty of having access to the material in a novelised form is that we can get to explore the characters’ subjectivity and motivations, their psychology, in more detail than in a play. Shakespeare was great at creating characters that have had theatregoers thinking and guessing for hundreds of years, but much of it is down to the actors’ interpretation, and two or three hours are not space enough to explore the ins-and-outs and the complex relationships between the characters fully. I was particularly intrigued by Duff, who is not a particularly likeable character, to begin with, but comes into his own later. I liked Banquo, who is, with Duncan, one of the few characters readers will feel comfortable rooting for (Banquo’s son and Angus would fall into the same category, but play smaller parts), and I must warn you that there is no such as thing as feeling comfortable reading this book. I thought what Nesbo does with Lady is interesting and provides her with an easier to understand motivation and makes her more sympathetic than in the play (it is not all down to greed or ambition, although it remains a big part of it). No characters are whiter-than-white (some might be but we don’t get to know them well enough to make that call), and although the baddies might be truly bad, some remain mysterious and unknown, and they are portrayed as extreme examples of the corruption that runs rampant everywhere. Most of the rest of the characters are human, good and bad, and many come to question their lives and what moves them and take a stand that makes them more interesting than people who never deviate from the path of rightness. Macbeth is depicted as a man of contrasts, charitable and cruel, a survivor with a difficult past, perhaps easy to manipulate but driven, full of doubts but determined, addicted to drugs and ‘power’, charismatic and dependent, full of contradictions and memorable.
The ending of the novel is bittersweet. It is more hopeful than the rest of the novel would make us expect, but… (I am not sure I could talk about spoilers in this novel, but still, I’ll keep my peace). Let’s just say this couldn’t have a happy ending and be truthful to the original material.
Although I have highlighted several paragraphs, I don’t think they would provide a fair idea of the novel in isolation, and, as I said before, I recommend downloading or checking a sample to anybody considering the purchase of this novel.
Not knowing Nesbo’s other novels, I cannot address directly his fans. I’ve noticed that quite a number of reviewers who read his novels regularly were not too fond of this one. Personally, I think it works as an adaptation of the Shakespeare play and it is very dark, as dark as the plot of the original requires (and perhaps even more). It is long and it is not an easy-going read. There are no light moments, and it is demanding of the reader’s attention, challenging us to go beyond a few quotations, famous phrases, and set scenes, to the moral heart of the play. If you are looking for an interesting, although perhaps a not fully successful version of Macbeth, that will make you think about power, corruption, good and evil, family, friendship, and politics, give it a try. I am curious to read more Nesbo’s novels and some of the other novels in the project.
On a personal note, as I was reading this novel, the relationship between Macbeth and Banquo brought to my mind one of the novellas included in Escaping Psychiatry, Teamwork. Readers have described it as noir, and it is fairly twisted. Here is a sample:
“Who is this Justin, then?” Mary asked.
“Oh…Poor guy. He’s going through a really hard time. He comes from a very traumatic background. One of Tom’s men, Sgt. David Leaman…did you meet him?…took him under his wing and…treated him like a son. A truly good job he did with him. Recently…about two months ago, they were working together in a case and…Sgt. Leaman was killed. Tom is quite concerned about Justin, who seems to have reacted very weirdly to the whole thing. He just wants to go back to work, won’t talk to anybody, won’t have counselling…”
So that was it. An informal consultation. That’s what Tom wanted. Fair enough, but at least he could have told her. However hard she tried to leave psychiatry behind and get on with her other career, it didn’t seem to work. She was always pulled back.
“Is it nearly ready?” Tom asked from the dining-room.
“Yes. Ready!”
Dinner was somewhat weird. It was evident that Justin wasn’t a regular visitor to the house and didn’t quite know what to say. And he didn’t seem the talkative type either. He was sitting opposite Mary, and asked her:
“Doctor in what?”
“Literature and film, aren’t you?” Tom replied for her. Once Tom got distracted by his wife’s conversation she added:
“I also studied Medicine. And Psychiatry. I still work at it sometimes.”
She’d hit the target. His face changed and he became even quieter. Shortly after, he said that he needed to make a phone call. He wasn’t too long and remained as quiet as before when he returned. Both Justin and she made their apologies quite early and left together. Once in the street, as he opened his mouth to say goodbye, Mary said:
“Listen, I didn’t know anything about it. I asked Maureen in the kitchen and she told me what happened to Sgt. Leaman. I’m terribly sorry. But Tom hadn’t told me anything. I can see why he invited me, and I must say I found it a bit weird at the time, but he’d always been helpful and kind to me, I couldn’t say no for no reason. I just wanted you to know that I didn’t come here with the intention of analysing you or anything like that. Goodnight then. And good luck.”
As she turned to leave, he asked:
“Could we…talk? In confidence?”
“If you think it might help…”
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t talk much. David was one of the few people I’ve ever talked to…And his wife Lea, but less…She’s too distraught to bother her with the way I’m feeling right now.”
“Let’s go somewhere. Do you know any place?”
“There’s an all-night diner not very far away from here. There’re never too many people there.”
He was right. There were a couple of people having something to eat, but otherwise, the place was dead quiet. Mary ordered a hot chocolate and he had some ice-cream and coffee. He had a spoonful of the ice-cream and put it to one side.
“No appetite? You didn’t eat much at the McLeods either.”
“No. I don’t feel like eating.”
“Have you lost weight?”
“Probably. Clothes seem loose now.” He went quiet. Mary asked.
“Are you sleeping all right?”
“Not really…I fall asleep easily enough, and then…I wake up in the middle of the night. I keep having these horrible nightmares…I can see David being shot in the head over and over again…”
“Did you see it?…I knew you’d been there, but I didn’t realise…”
“Yes. I was there. When I close my eyes I keep seeing him…falling down…Yes, I know…post-traumatic stress and all that crap. I don’t care what you call it; I’m not going to let it beat me. Not after what I’ve been through. I was beaten up by my father, tortured by him, really…He sent my mother and me to hospital time and again until one day…he hit her; she knocked her head against a banister and died. I pushed him downstairs, he was drunk…He didn’t die but ended up in a coma, like a vegetable. He finally died a couple of years ago and I couldn’t have cared less. It was a relief. I was 14 when all that happened. And then…They put me in a children’s home, and I did drugs, and drank, and…other things…And David caught me at a robbery…I was 16 at the time, and…I don’t know what it was, but he felt sorry for me. Lea says I probably reminded him of the son he lost as a child. Anyway, he took an interest, took me home with him and…He can’t be dead!” Justin burst out crying and Mary kept quiet, offering him a tissue after a few minutes.
“I hadn’t cried…for a long time. It makes me feel stupid and…”
“Vulnerable?… We’re all human and we hurt. It’s allowed, you know?”
“No. Not me. If I let everything come out…It’s a can of worms, Mary…Can I call you Mary?”
“Sure you can.”
“It’s…The only way I can get on with my life is by forgetting what went on before. Dave used to tell me that I didn’t have control over what the bastard of my father did to me and that he’d been punished for it, and I might as well concentrate on the rest of my life, because over that…I had some control and I could decide what to do. I could change it over; I could become anything I wanted if I just tried hard enough.”
Here, a reminder of the whole book and links:
Escaping Psychiatry
‘Escaping Psychiatry’ is a collection of three stories in the psychological thriller genre with the same protagonist, Mary, a psychiatrist, and writer. She is trying to develop her literary career but circumstances and friends conspire to keep dragging her back to psychiatry.
In ‘Cannon Fodder’ Mary has to assess Cain, an African-American man accused of inciting a religious riot when he claimed that he could hear God and God was black. He might not be mad, but Mary is sure he’s hiding something.
‘Teamwork’ sees Mary hoodwinked into offering therapy to Justin, a policeman feeling guilty after his partner and ersatz father was killed on-duty. Before Mary can extricate herself from the case, things get personal.
In ‘Memory’ Mary goes missing after an incident with Phil, who is manic as he hasn’t been taking his medication. When she is found, she has been the victim of a horrific crime, but they soon discover she was luckier than they had realised.
The epilogue revisits Mary at the point of the trial of her abductor and sees what changes have taken place in her life. Will she finally manage to Escape Psychiatry?
AMAZON (e-book) KOBO NOOK APPLE SCRIBD
PAGE FOUNDRY OYSTER GOOGLE PAPER
And also in AUDIO: in AMAZON and i-TUNES
And if you want to check a sample of the audio you can go here!
Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the book, thanks to all of you for writing, and remember to like, share, comment, click, review, and to keep smiling!
Hi all:
First, sorry to all of you who’ve been trying to comment on my blog and finding bizarre requests or those who have been notified of posts or pages that don’t appear. I’ve been trying to catch up on the new Data Protection Regulations and exploring different possible plugins to try and facilitate the process, with less than stellar results (sorry again). I have no idea how things will work out but I think it might take a while for me to find a solution, so don’t worry, it’s not you, it’s me.
In case you want to comment but you can’t here, please, feel free to e-mail me: mmxrynz@hotmail.com (and don’t be worried, it’s not WordPress trying to drive me mad. I’m doing it myself).
If you want to check some information about the data protection act in the European Union and how it might affect blogging, you can check here.
As an apology, I thought I’d share a bit of the next book I hope to publish after the summer sometime. It will be the fourth book in the Escaping Psychiatry series (although it is number three, as one is a prequel) and it will be called Deadly Quotes. It was going to be a collaboration with another author, including some characters from one of his own series, but that didn’t work out, so I’ve made some changes. I am not sure the series will go in this direction, but I grew fond of the book, so… The Spanish version has been corrected and the English version will be in the next few weeks. The cover artist is working on the definite cover, but I’ll share my Canva attempts (don’t forget to check this fabulous website here), the description and a little sample from the beginning. If you’re interested and would like an early copy (it won’t be ready until July at the earliest) do let me know.
(Ah, and the images come from Unsplash.com and are copyright free).
Thanks for your patience and your help.
Death by natural causes. That was the official explanation. Until they found the quote.
Killing isn’t as difficult as people think. In fact it can be quite easy.
Was it a novel the dead man had been writing? Was it an eerie suicide note? Was it murder?
Mary Miller and Leah Deakin, friends and doctors, are not sure there is a case worth investigating but are intrigued. Could a serial killer behind bars have orchestrated another killing spree? Can the clues be found in his own autobiography?
The third book in the Escaping Psychiatry series sees Mary, psychiatrist, survivor of attempted rape and murder, and amateur crime investigator by default, team up with Leah Deakin, an FBI pathologist, in a case that pitches them against a man who loves to play mortal games. Will they be able to stop him? And at what price?
If you enjoy reading gripping psychological thrillers, feel oddly attracted to ultraintelligent and twisted baddies, and can’t get enough of challenging mysteries, you can’t miss this novel.
Discover Mary Miller’s new adventure, and if you’re new to the Escaping Psychiatry series, you can read the prequel Escaping Psychiatry. Beginnings, in e-book format, FREE.
Here is my sample:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a murderer will go back to the scene of the crime. Of course, as is the case with any wisdom that has become general knowledge, it must be taken with a pinch of salt, although… (King, T. To Live Killing)
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” One of those sentences that have been attributed to many people through history and through the years. Personally, I prefer Oscar Wilde’s version. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” I’ve always had a weakness for Wilde. Don’t you start thinking now that I share his taste on the opposite sex, or rather, the same sex. But his style… not sartorial, but his behaviour, the way he showed off and he treated others, his genius, his art… And yes, like him I also think that I’ve dedicated my genius to my life, and only my talent to my art.
I’m conscious that not many people see it that way and they don’t believe murder is a talent, something one should cultivate or feel proud about, but I do. For me it wasn’t an impulse, something I did in a moment of insanity, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, overburdened by my emotions or provoked to the limit of my resistance. No, no, not at all. It was a conscious and premeditated decision.
I know there are many who follow family tradition; they start working in their parents’ business when they’re young, or perhaps they end up there, not quite so young, even if they don’t want to. Some try many different things without being able to find their calling, something they’ve been born to do, however hard they try. Others seek advice from counsellors, guides, gurus or coaches, asking them to help them find their true talent. I don’t imagine any of them would ever advice anybody to go into a life of crime or murder, even if they have the ability and the skill for it. I suspect that’s something one discovers alone, be it with desperation, disillusionment or trepidation.
In my case, I realised when I was quite young that I was interested in death. And that I had a certain talent (with time I’ve become modest) to accelerate its arrival. Once I overcame my initial surprise (after all, I come from a normal family and didn’t have, at the time, any criminal connections) I devoted myself fully to it. It’s true that practice makes perfect. And, although I shouldn’t say that, I achieved a certain level of mastery. That’s why, now that due to my sad personal circumstances I can’t carry on practising, I thought that a book, a cross between memoir and manual, could be of interest, not only to those who study people like me, but also to those who might be considering serial murders as a possible career.
Even though, as all artists, I’m against plagiarism and piracy; as I say at the beginning, imitation is a completely different matter. So, if you find here something useful that you might be able to use in your future endeavours, don’t hesitate. Of course, a token of recognition and appreciation will be always welcome.
Mary read the e-mail Leah had sent her to the encrypted account the FBI had set for her.
Hi, Mary:
As you and Elliott have been encouraging me to get into other aspects of investigations, apart from the post-mortem reports, when this case dropped on my lap and I started to make enquiries, I thought about you. Read the information I send you and I’ll phone you tomorrow.
Summary of the post-mortem report:
Steve Burton, male, 45 years old, estate agent by profession, divorced with two sons, with no criminal history, was found collapsed in front of his computer in Sparta, Georgia. They thought he’d had a heart attack and had died of natural causes.
One of the policemen noticed what was written on the computer screen. It seems it was a new document, and they didn’t find any copy of it on Burton’s computer, and the only thing written there, in Times New Roman 36, was: Killing isn’t as difficult as people think. In fact it can be quite easy.
At first, they thought that it might have been a story he was writing, but they could find no evidence that he did any writing. Neither in his computer, nor in his online browsing history, or even in the type of things he read, that weren’t many. It seems that he was interested in football, police-procedural TV series, and little else. That made them suspect that perhaps his death was not natural and that the quote might have been written by the murderer.
I know that apart from being a writer you are also an avid reader. I don’t know if you will think the same, but I thought the statement in question sounded like a quotation. And even more, it sounded familiar to me. So, after thinking about it and it going round and round in my head and the computer, I finally found where it came from. I’m sure you’ll remember Taylor King. A serial killer that terrorised the country a decade ago. You probably remember he was caught and he’s still locked-up, but after plenty of controversy and disputes to and fro, they decided to publish his memoirs, To Live Killing. It’s a quote from that book.
Taylor is in a high-secure psychiatric unit, so it couldn’t have been him, but it may have been a copycat.
I asked them to do more tests, as they didn’t know what had killed Burton. I suggested they look for injection marks, and told them to send the blood samples to some specialized toxicology labs to make sure they had not used a rare poison or some new drug. As you can see from the pictures I attach, there is no evidence that he resisted.
Today they called me to tell me that they had found a needle mark in Burton’s body. In the popliteal fossa, the area behind the knee. And, luckily, a more sophisticated lab managed to find traces of a new sleeping pill, very fast acting, in his blood. It’s called Somnodem. They were tiny traces, but it’s very likely that he was asleep when he was murdered, and that explains why he didn’t resist.
But there are too many things that don’t fit in that made me think this is not just a simple murder, if there ever is such a thing. Although they had only asked me to check the post-mortem, I’ve had an idea. I’ll call you to see what you think.
Thanks and speak to you soon.
Leah
Mary smiled. She had met Leah, a Forensic Pathologist working for the FBI, when they had asked her to become a consultant for the FBI after she survived the attack of a rapist and serial killer, and Leah was in charge of the induction course for the newbies. Mary immediately liked her, although it was evident that she did not enjoy talking in public, even if it was to a small group of people. She was good at teaching, but it bothered her that people were forever asking her about one of her teammates, who seemed to be very well-known in the FBI and had a reputation for being both a weirdo and a genius, Elliott Best. Because Mary was not an FBI insider and did not know the said Elliott, she focused on the topic they were studying and they ended up talking after the course ended, and had kept in touch. Leah had confessed that she was seeing Elliott but they hadn’t told anybody, to avoid interference in their privacy. And now, after much discussion of investigations and cases, in the abstract, it seemed that finally there was something more tangible to work on, perhaps together.
Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading, liking, sharing, and reviewing and remember to keep smiling!
Hi all:
I don’t normally blog on Sundays, but this being a long weekend (at least here in the UK) and with a few posts already programmed for next week (and a few more reviews making their way), I thought I might try.
I haven’t been talking about my books much because… Well, marketing is not my thing, and because I read so many great books that I know what the offer is like and putting my hand up and saying “Me, me, me” is not me. I keep thinking some day I’ll come up with some clever and original idea to promote my books, but so far it has not happened. In the meantime, I’m keeping busy with other things (not a lot of writing, although some, some projects that are waiting on feedback, others that are battling for attention, some that need more research…), including the teaching (waiting to hear about next term), translations, tidying up the place (I want to sell my house and leave), and reading and reviewing. Plenty of that.
But I did post the second book (well, the third if we count the prequel) of the Escaping Psychiatry series on ACX and wonderful narrator Kathy James showed an interest. And now, the audiobook is ready. It is a bit of a departure, as for some reason the other two books in the series had been narrated by male narrators. This time I thought that as the main character is a woman, and women do play a very important part in this particular story, I’d ask for a female narrator, and I’m very happy with the results. So, here it is:
A woman shot dead. No enemies, no motive, only a story about how she swapped bodies with another woman found on her computer. The other woman in the story, the owner of the swapped body, goes into labour and won’t talk.
When FBI Agent Dave Dean asks psychiatrist/writer Mary Miller for her assistance, she doesn’t know that The Case of the Swapped Bodies is not the only mystery in Port Haven. A hit and run, an armed robbery gone wrong and questions about family traditions, priorities and legacies come into play and complicate matters. The line between fact and fiction is more tenuous than anybody realised and suspense is on the menu.
This is the third book in the Escaping Psychiatry series and it poses new challenges for Mary Miller. And not all the challenges are professional ones. How do you carry on when you’ve survived the unthinkable?
Available in Audible.com Audible.co.uk Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk iTunes
Listen to a sample via Sound Cloud:
Or if you prefer a video, here on You Tube:
If you are into audiobooks, or know somebody who is, some of my other books are also available in that format. You can check here.
As this is the third book in the series, in case you are intrigued but don’t want to start there, the prequel of the series is available FREE. I leave you a reminder.
How far would a writer go for a killer story? This is the question psychiatrist Mary Miller must answer to solve the first mystery/thriller of her career. You can get to know the main characters of this psychological thriller series for FREE and test your own acumen and intuition in this novella about the price of ambition.
Dr Mary Miller is a young psychiatrist suffering a crisis of vocation. Her friend Phil, a criminalist lawyer working in New York, invites her to visit him and consult on the case of a writer accused of a serious assault. His victim had been harassing him and accusing him of stealing his story, which he’d transformed into a best-selling book. The author denies the allegation and claims it was self-defense. When the victim dies, things get complicated. The threshold between truth and fiction becomes blurred and secrets and lies unfold.
Escaping Psychiatry. Beginnings is the prequel to Escaping Psychiatry a volume collecting three stories where Mary and her psychiatric expertise are called to help in a variety of cases, from religious and race affairs to the murder of a policeman, and in the last case, she gets closer than ever to a serial killer.
If you enjoy this novella, don’t forget to check Mary’s further adventures. And there are more to come.
AMAZON (e-book) KOBO NOOK APPLE SCRIBD
The book is also available in many other online stores, including Google (although they change their prices at will, that is why I haven’t included the link in case it is not free there), so do check wherever you get your e-books as it’s likely to be there.
And, as I’ve talked about the other two books in the series, well, I had to mention the first one (yes, this was written before the prequel and the first story, ‘Cannon Fodder’ is over twenty years old).
‘Escaping Psychiatry’ is a collection of three stories in the psychological thriller genre with the same protagonist, Mary, a psychiatrist, and writer. She is trying to develop her literary career but circumstances and friends conspire to keep dragging her back to psychiatry.
In ‘Cannon Fodder’ Mary has to assess Cain, an African-American man accused of inciting a religious riot when he claimed that he could hear God and God was black. He might not be mad, but Mary is sure he’s hiding something.
‘Teamwork’ sees Mary hoodwinked into offering therapy to Justin, a policeman feeling guilty after his partner and ersatz father was killed on-duty. Before Mary can extricate herself from the case, things get personal.
In ‘Memory’ Mary goes missing after an incident with Phil, who is manic as he hasn’t been taking his medication. When she is found, she has been the victim of a horrific crime, but they soon discover she was luckier than they had realised.
The epilogue revisits Mary at the point of the trial of her abductor and sees what changes have taken place in her life. Will she finally manage to Escape Psychiatry?
AMAZON (e-book) KOBO NOOK APPLE SCRIBD
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Thanks very much for being there, for reading, and remember to like, share, comment, click and REVIEW any books you read. And enjoy a wonderful weekend! Ah, and if you’ve never used Audible, you can get a free audio with your trial (and the lucky author whose audiobook you choose gets a bonus too). Have fun!
Hi all:
As I promised last week, here is chapter 2 of the prequel to Escaping Psychiatry. Escaping Psychiatry Beginnings.
“Mary! Here you are!”
Phil hugged her and slapped her on the back. He looked well. Dressed casually, well, what passed for casually in Phil’s books, perfectly ironed chinos, Italian black leather shoes, a polo shirt, and impeccably cut and combed hair, and with a huge smile on his face. He definitely had something planned.
“You look like the personification of a WASP on his day off,” Mary said.
He chuckled. “Now, now. I’m wearing full length trousers. No tweed or golfing attire. And in my heart of hearts I’m a small town boy.”
“If you say so.”
He grabbed Mary’s arm by the elbow and picking up the suitcase she had deposited on the floor, guided her inside. “Come in, come in, have a look. You can drop your things in your room, here, and then we’ll have breakfast.”
“I had a drink on the train.”
“But I haven’t!”
Mary had a quick look at the apartment while Phil set the table. Tall ceilings, huge windows and an air of quiet elegance. A bit old-fashioned, but not pretentious.
“What do you think?”
“It’s a nice building and a quiet street, especially for Manhattan.”
“The rent is high, but I prefer it to one of those slick new apartments with no personality or charm.”
They munched on the toast, quietly. Finally Mary asked, “But how do you find the firm? I know you had misgivings. You thought it would be good for your career, but didn’t necessarily like their ethics.”
“I still don’t, although I keep quiet about it. Don’t ask, don’t tell, kind of situation. But they do have some of the best lawyers and I’ve learned a lot already. And there’s plenty more to come, I’m sure.”
“Are you thinking about effecting change from the inside?” Mary asked.
Phil didn’t look up from his plate, and kept playing with the marmalade and the butter, making patterns with his knife. “I don’t have a master plan as yet. So far I haven’t seen them do anything too questionable, although yes, they have a preference for taking cases that attract plenty of attention and are likely to be on the newspapers and TV. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with free publicity.”
Mary put her right hand on his, and managed to make him stop playing with his food and look up.
“Uh?”
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of defecting to the dark side?”
He laughed, although his laughter sounded flat and not genuine. “Let’s not get melodramatic. I think the Force is still with me. They are committed to taking up a percentage of pro-bono cases, and I’ve volunteered. Sometimes one has to compromise. Even the devil can be a good ally if the cause is worth it.”
“Be careful. I fear for your soul.”
As he opened his mouth to reply, his mobile phone rang. Mary didn’t have one and didn’t want one. The thought of somebody being able to get hold of her anywhere and in any circumstances made her quite nervous. She hated being on-call, because you could never be completely at peace and you could be summoned at any time, and she felt that having one of those contraptions would be the equivalent of being forever on call. But Phil loved his gadgets, like most men she knew. And she also suspected it was a status thing. Although, thinking about it, it was probably one of his firm’s requirements.
“Yes. Of course I’m interested in being there when we talk to the client.” Phil put his hand on what must have been the microphone and made a gesture with his head, towards the phone. “It’s about that case I was telling you about. The writer,” he whispered.
Mary nodded. So far, she only knew the case involved a writer in some fashion or other but nothing else. He was doing a good job of building up the suspense.
“Yes. Sure. I’ll be there, Mr Wright. Oh, my friend… yes, the psychiatrist.” Silence. “Yes, of course I’ll ask her. I don’t think it’ll be a problem, if you’re sure the client will be OK with it.” He listened again and then laughed. “See you in half an hour. And thanks!”
“Was that your boss?”
“Yes. Percy Wright. Of the Wrights of Virginia. He doesn’t do much in the firm anymore, only picks up some case he’s interested in, occasionally, but he leaves all the groundwork to other lawyers and he just pokes his nose wherever he fancies. For some reason he’s quite intrigued by this case.”
“I guess he said I could go. But what did he say that made you laugh?”
“Oh, when I mentioned that I thought you’d be happy to come, of course if the client was OK with it, he said the client would be OK with whatever we told him. That he knew we were his best chance and he’d have to earn it. And he’d be grateful.”
“Oh.”
“Sorry for assuming you’d want to come…”
“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it. Now, I’m not sure if I’m more interested in the case or in your boss and the firm.”
“Well, Mr Wright always says that there might be some intrinsic quality attached to good and evil, but the justice system is a completely arbitrary set of rules and which side we are in is at best an accident and at worst just pure bad luck. So perhaps there isn’t much difference.”
Mary wondered if her friend believed what he’d just said or it was a philosophical position. The Phil she knew had always been very convinced of what was wrong and what was right. Jokes apart, she was slightly worried.
They left the apartment and hailed a taxi.
The offices of the firm where Phil worked (Wright and Partners, Attorneys at Law) overlooked Central Park. They occupied a whole storey in a slick commercial building, all glass and shiny surfaces. It was slightly cloudy but Mary imagined that on a sunny day it must have glistened and glowed like a diamond.
While they were in the lobby, waiting for the elevator, Mary said, “How peculiar! I would have thought that somebody like your boss would have an office in an old building, full of the weight of history and following tradition. But no. It couldn’t be a more modern and neutral place if he’d designed it intentionally.”
“I think that he wants to make sure everything is impersonal and can be replaced. Apart from himself, of course. And the same goes for the firm’s name.”
“Don’t the partners query the fact that their names are not on top of the door, so to speak?” Mary asked Phil.
He turned to look at her with a lopsided smile. “Like Mr Wright said about the client, they are OK with whatever he says. And they’re grateful. In my opinion it all boils down to his insistence on not leaving the slightest option open for anybody else to make a claim. The partners might come and go, but there’s only one Mr Wright.”
They reached the top floor of the building and stepped out. As soon as they crossed the massive glass doors, a young thin man who had been pacing up and down, rushed towards them. “Oh, you’re here, Phil. Mr Wright didn’t want to make the client wait too long. You know he likes to strike when the iron is hot, as he says.”
“We came as soon as we could. Traffic was quite heavy. This is my friend, Mary Miller. She’s a psychiatrist. We met at college. This is Ryan Spencer. One of the lawyers here. And aspiring partner.”
Ryan wore black thick-rimmed glasses that made him look child-like, and a beautifully cut suit that looked loose on him. Not as if it was the wrong size, but as if he’d lost weight. He didn’t look sickly, though, only anxious.
“Some days I’d be quite happy if I was just left to do my work in peace, but that’s very unlikely. Pleasure to meet you.”
He extended his arm and bowed slightly as he shook her hand. “And now, let’s go in. Mr Wright said that he didn’t want to formally introduce you, Mary, can I call you Mary?, at least not for the time being. He just wants the client, Mr Fenton, to think that you’re part of the team. No details.”
She nodded. She wasn’t expecting any long term involvement and that would make life easier. No need to overcomplicate matters. Also, people’s reactions on being told that she was a psychiatrist had always been a mystery to her. Some people would take the opportunity to try and get an impromptu consultation, right there and then. Others would retreat, as if they feared that she’d discover their most intimate thoughts and secrets only by looking at them. But Mary had no superpowers, and although at times she might have her suspicions and be able to come up with an educated guess as to what people were thinking, especially people she knew, unless the person talked to her, it was an almost impossible task. There were also the people who treated it as if it were a joke, or a funny anecdote, and asked her if she was going to ‘analyse’ them. Surely if someone asked her that, there would be little need for analysis. And she’d never been an expert in psychoanalysis. Or keen on the idea.
The three entered what looked like a meeting room, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. There was a middle aged woman, dressed in a blue suit, sitting with a laptop in front of her, in the farthest corner from the door. There was a very attractive young girl, blonde, with honey-coloured eyes and wearing a polka dot dress, sitting close to the door. She had a small notebook and a pen and seemed poised to not miss a single word. Next to her was a man, older than Phil and Ryan, probably early forties, impeccably dressed in a navy blue suit, whose greying hair was a bit longer than the standard of the business seemed to impose. Perhaps he had a streak of rebellion in him. Sitting at the centre of the oval-shaped table, was Mr Wright. Although Mary had never met him, once she saw the man sitting there, she had no doubt.
Mr Percy Wright’s appearance was rather peculiar. He was dressed as if he was in the country house he surely had, in tweed, wearing a jacket with brown elbow patches, and his face, with a protruding jaw and a broken nose, seemed more appropriate for a price fighter than for a top layer. On closer look, his green eyes were inquisitive and exuded authority, and his hands were perfectly manicured. Mary wasn’t sure if the man was a genuine puzzle or he had put a lot of thought into wrong-footing his opponents and collaborators alike. Phil’s boss turned towards the door when they entered and nodded curtly. Phil, his hand behind his back, gestured for her to follow him.
When they sat, on the same side as Mr Wright, she was finally able to see ‘the client’. He looked younger than she had imagined, mid-thirties, and was the only one dressed casually, in jeans and a black T-shirt, that she wondered if it was his uniform perhaps, like some very successful people were said to do (always wear similar clothes to be more productive and avoid getting bogged down making inconsequential choices). His eyes were small, so much so that Mary couldn’t see them well enough to decide what colour they were. Nothing too striking. He was slim, but his hands looked skeletal, and she hoped they would not be expected to shake hands with him. The thought that she might feel the bones made her cringe.
“Are we all here, then?” asked Mr Wright. They all nodded. He stared around the table, to make sure he had everybody’s attention, and nodded at his secretary. “Good. We can start, then. For those of you who haven’t met him yet, this is Oliver Fenton, the famous author. Steve, give us the main details of the case.”
Steve, the older man of undefinable age, started talking. “Mr Fenton is accused of aggravated assault, although it could become attempted murder —it depends on the DA and how things evolve—, on the person of a Miles Green. Mr Fenton describes what amounts to serious harassment on the part of Mr Green, who had been pestering his agent, and later him personally, sending letters, making phone calls, and in general making a nuisance of himself, for months. On the day of the incident, Friday the 23rd of April, as Mr Fenton was on his way out of his apartment building in 5th Avenue, Mr Green appeared from behind the reception desk, and attacked Mr Fenton, threatening him and trying to choke him. Mr Fenton managed to overcome his attacker and restrain him onto the floor. As he resisted and tried to attack him again, Mr Fenton hit him on the head with a heavy brass lamp. Very shortly after, it seems, a couple who also lived there arrived, stopped Mr Fenton and called an ambulance and the police. Mr Green was already unconscious then. He hasn’t recovered since and remains in hospital in intensive care.”
That had been around six weeks ago.
“What did you mean when you said that the couple ‘stopped’ Mr Fenton?” Phil asked.
“He was still hitting him with the lamp when the neighbours walked in.”
“Do we have any pictures of the victim?” Phil asked, again.
Steve looked at Mr Wright, who nodded, and Steve passed a folder to Phil. He looked at the contents for a few seconds and then passed it to Mary. She thought she shouldn’t look at them, but realised it would seem weird to the client, and quickly looked over the pictures. She doubted she’d ever be able to recognise Mr Green based on those pictures. His face was so swollen and bruised that it was difficult to make out the slits of the eyes. The bridge of his nose was flattened out, and it looked as if both cheekbones were fractured. The next picture showed a ragged hole in the back of the head, a few inches from the nape of the neck. The impact had been so hard that the skull had caved in.
She passed the file to Ryan, who shook his head, indicating that he’d already seen the contents, and stood up, taking the file back to Steve.
“Any word from Mr Green’s doctors?” Mr Wright asked.
Steve cleared his throat and said, “They have no idea if he’ll make it. They had hoped that with steroids the swelling of the brain would go down and things might improve, but so far that’s not the case. His family have asked that they do some further tests. They seem determined to pull the plug if they can find no evidence of brainwaves.”
As Mary was about to say something, Phil grabbed her arm tightly and she kept quiet. He asked, “What family are we talking about?”
Steve sighed.
“He was, is, I mean, married and they have twins, a boy and a girl, 18 months old. They were separated, and had not lived together for six months prior to the incident.”
“He blames me for the separation. The victim, I mean.” Oliver Fenton had spoken. Although the volume was low, there was steel in his voice and his words resonated around the room. No remorse, no sadness.
They were all looking at the client. Rather than being intimidated by having all eyes on him, Mary thought he seemed to puff up and grow taller, as if he enjoyed public attention.
“Yes, he kept following me everywhere, writing, phoning, turning up at events, insisting that I’d taken everything from him and I was a criminal.”
“How?” Phil asked. “Did you know him? Did you have an affair with his wife? Was that the reason for the separation?”
Mr Fenton shook his head. Mary noticed how his neck was reddening. “I’ve never met the woman. Or him before all this. He was mad. Who knows why somebody as crazy as him does anything?”
“Even when people are ‘mad’, they usually do things for a reason, although perhaps it’s a reason that only fits in with their delusional view of the world. Do you have any idea about what he thought you had done to destroy his life?” Mary asked ignoring Phil’s kick under the table.
“He insists that I’ve written about him in my book. He told everybody that he was the person my main character, David Collins, was based on, and he kept insisting that due to that people were pestering him. It seems that the guy who had abused him had turned up, convinced that he had sold the story, and had threatened his family, and Green had been the victim of all kinds of humiliations.”
“Was it true?” Phil asked, looking at me intently, before turning to the client.
“No, of course not! Yes, I’ve based the book on the story of a person I know, but I’d never met that Miles Green guy before. And I’ve changed the details. Nobody would be able to recognise the individual by just reading my novel. I made sure of that.”
Mr Wright cleared his throat, noisily. It seemed his time to talk had come. He leaned forward and looked at the client intently. Mr Fenton’s face grew paler, but he returned the look.
“So, Mr Fenton… You’re telling us that Mr Green was making a nuisance of himself and following you everywhere, accusing you of all kinds of things and threatening you. Didn’t you think of going to the police?”
“Of course I did! You can ask my agent, Mike Spinner. I called them and we even went to the station to make a statement. They agreed to give him a warning but said that unless he actually tried to do something violent, there wasn’t much they could do. They suggested that perhaps the easiest thing to do would be to reveal who the real person behind the character in the novel was. That way he’d leave me alone and move on to something else. Can you imagine?! Reveal my sources!” Two red marks had appeared on his cheeks and seemed to be spreading and his eyes were bulging with anger. Mary saw now that they were grey.
“Well, you’re not a journalist…” Ryan said.
Mr Fenton jumped from his chair, but Mr Wright raised his hand and waved at him, getting him to sit down again.
“Don’t get excited, Mr Fenton. I guess what Mr Spencer, our young friend here, meant, was that you’re not sworn to secrecy and it’s not a professional obligation. Although I understand your wish to protect your sources. But, I wonder if you could enlighten us and give us some background, as I suspect not everybody here will have read your story, no matter how popular. We tend to have our heads buried in other types of books and papers, so you’ll have to forgive us for our ignorance. If you could be so good as to tell us, what your novel is about, when it came out, etc. We don’t need too many details, but just enough to help us understand the circumstances of the affair.”
Mr Fenton kept looking sideways at Ryan while he talked. “My novel, The Darkest Night, is the story of David Collins, a man who is brought up in a Catholic family, subjected to sexual abuse by one of the priests at the religious school where he studies, and later by a male neighbour, who is also a friend of his father. When he tells his family, they do not believe him, and he ends up on the streets when he is only fifteen. His life is very difficult. He lives on the streets for a while, and survives as best he can until he is literally pushed into an Army recruitment office and decides it must be fate and enlists. And life changes completely for him. He fights for this country and becomes an upstanding citizen.”
“I see. And you say it’s based on a true story,” Mr Wright added, opening the file and seemingly checking something.
“Yes.” The writer’s eyes were fixed on the file.
“At this moment in time we’re not going to ask you to give us the name of that person, although let me make it perfectly clear that it might become necessary that we know, later on, and that here we are obliged, by professional code, to keep the secret, so you don’t need to be worried about that. But in the meantime, if you could tell us how you came across the story, unless the protagonist is based on somebody you’ve always known.”
“No, no. Nothing like that. It’s quite simple, really. I volunteered, years back, and manned a telephone helpline for people thinking of committing suicide, or with mental health problems in general. A young guy phoned me and told me his story. This was a few days before he enlisted and he had hit rock bottom. We chatted for quite a while and he agreed to phone me again in a few days. When he phoned me again, he had enlisted and was ready to go into training. He kept in touch when he could and even phoned me when he got posted to Iraq. When he came back, we arranged to meet and by then I had decided his story should be told, although in novel form. When I suggested it, he agreed, on the understanding that he would read it and I’d make changes to protect his privacy and hide his identity. And that’s what we did.” He only raised his eyes to look at Mr Wright when he finished talking. To Mary’s ears it sounded rehearsed, but then he’d probably been asked the same question quite a few times.
Mr Wright looked around, as if inviting further questions. Phil didn’t hesitate, “Are you still in touch?”
“With the original David, you mean? Once the novel came out and it started to attract so much attention we decided it would be best not to be in contact, to prevent anybody from making the connection between him and the book.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t come forward when he heard you were in trouble,” Ryan said.
Judging by the look Mr Fenton shot at him, Ryan would not be on his Christmas-card list.
“He’s not that easy to reach.”
Mary was surprised that nobody asked him why. Either the information was already known, or they’d all assumed that somebody else would ask the question and now the moment had passed. Ryan was on the edge of his seat, but even he must have thought he’d attracted enough hostility from the client for one day and gave up.
“If it’s OK, I have to meet my agent for lunch. We had organised a book signing tour, and with all this we’ll have to reschedule.”
“Yes, of course. Maggie, my PA, will arrange a few appointments, starting on Monday morning. We have plenty of information to work through. And you haven’t met Mr Mayfield, yet. Although he’s the youngest of my partners in the firm, he has plenty of experience in similar cases.”
Mary looked at Phil and he shook his head slightly, as if to indicate that they’d talk about it later.
The author stood up and nodded briefly. The woman who had been typing in the corner accompanied him out of the meeting room. Once the door closed behind them, Mr Wright cleared his throat. “Phil, will you introduce your friend to all of us, please?”
Phil blushed and stood up. Mary couldn’t help thinking about a headmaster telling off a young kid.
“This is Dr Mary Miller. She’s a psychiatrist. She also writes, although she has not published anything yet.”
Everybody nodded in her direction. Then Phil proceeded to introduce everybody. Steve Burman smiled pleasantly. The young girl, Tania, no surname used in the introduction, was there on a placement from college.
“My Dad works in accounts and thought it would make for an interesting project. And Mr Wright kindly agreed.”
“And Maggie, my PA, who’s gone out with Mr Fenton. So, first impressions?”
“It’s a good story,” Steve said.
“Do you really think so?” Ryan asked. “There are lots of holes in it.”
“Nearly as big as the one in the victim’s skull,” Phil added. “I don’t know how big or heavy that lamp was, but to make a hole that size, he must have hit him with something very heavy and many times. Once the attacker was unconscious, why carry on?”
“Perhaps we’ll have to look at his mental state and mental health. Maybe the harassment became a bit too much for him and he lost control,” Steve said.
“Could we convince you, dear Dr, to consult on the matter? You could do an assessment of Mr Fenton’s mental state and see if there’s anything else we need to do. I mean any tests, imaging, or any other expert we could call that might be of use when putting together his defence,” Mr Wright said, looking intently at Mary.
“He didn’t strike me as particularly disturbed, but the current circumstances aren’t the best to make a judgement. As long as I can fit it in during my visit, I’d be happy to be of assistance.”
Mr Wright smiled at Mary and then stood up, nodding at everybody and officially ending the meeting.
As I told you last week, to prepare for the launch, Escaping Psychiatry is available for only $0.99. Here I leave you a reminder and some links:
Escaping Psychiatry
‘Escaping Psychiatry’ is a collection of three stories in the psychological thriller genre with the same protagonist, Mary, a psychiatrist and writer. She is trying to develop her literary career but circumstances and friends conspire to keep dragging her back to psychiatry.
In ‘Cannon Fodder’ Mary has to assess Cain, an African-American man accused of inciting a religious riot when he claimed that he could hear God and God was black. He might not be mad, but Mary is sure he’s hiding something.
‘Teamwork’ sees Mary hoodwinked into offering therapy to Justin, a policeman feeling guilty after his partner and ersatz father was killed on-duty. Before Mary can extricate herself from the case, things get personal.
In ‘Memory’ Mary goes missing after an incident with Phil, who is manic as he hasn’t been taking his medication. When she is found, she has been the victim of a horrific crime, but they soon discover she was luckier than they had realised.
The epilogue revisits Mary at the point of the trial of her abductor and sees what changes have taken place in her life. Will she finally manage to Escape Psychiatry?
AMAZON (e-book) KOBO NOOK APPLE SCRIBD
Thanks so much for reading and you know… Like, share, comment and of course CLICK!
Hi all:
As you know on Fridays I usually bring you new books and/or writers. With the move and the holidays I haven’t been paying that much attention (I must confess) but I hope to catch up on new books and bring you some. Also, I’ve realised many of my posts didn’t move to this site, so I’ll be refreshing and bringing you reminders and updates.
But, I thought I’d share something. As part of a promotion I participated in to welcome the new year, I’ve put some of my books on offer.
As Escaping Psychiatry. Beginnings should be ready soon, Escaping Psychiatry the three stories with writer/psychiatrist Mary Miller as protagonist, is now on offer for only $0.99.
Escaping Psychiatry
‘Escaping Psychiatry’ is a collection of three stories in the psychological thriller genre with the same protagonist, Mary, a psychiatrist and writer. She is trying to develop her literary career but circumstances and friends conspire to keep dragging her back to psychiatry.
In ‘Cannon Fodder’ Mary has to assess Cain, an African-American man accused of inciting a religious riot when he claimed that he could hear God and God was black. He might not be mad, but Mary is sure he’s hiding something.
‘Teamwork’ sees Mary hoodwinked into offering therapy to Justin, a policeman feeling guilty after his partner and ersatz father was killed on-duty. Before Mary can extricate herself from the case, things get personal.
In ‘Memory’ Mary goes missing after an incident with Phil, who is manic as he hasn’t been taking his medication. When she is found, she has been the victim of a horrific crime, but they soon discover she was luckier than they had realised.
The epilogue revisits Mary at the point of the trial of her abductor and sees what changes have taken place in her life. Will she finally manage to Escape Psychiatry?
AMAZON (e-book) KOBO NOOK APPLE SCRIBD
In case you’re feeling romantic….
I Love Your Cupcakes
Dulce, Adelfa and Storm, the protagonists of I Love Your Cupcakes are business partners, friends and share some “interesting” family connections. All the men Dulce meets only want to talk about her cakes and she’s tired of it. Her friend Adelfa, although she’s a Chemistry Professor, can’t manage to find the recipe for the perfect relationship. And Storm, the third of the partners of their bakery/coffee shop/bookshop/art gallery and ex-fire station, is an artist who is not a master in the art of love. How could they imagine that at the studio of the contest “Do You Have What it Takes to Be the Next Baking Star?” they’d find sexual harassment, cheats, fights and also love? Recipes included (only for cakes, not love!)
AMAZON (e-book) KOBO NOOK APPLE SCRIBD
And my most recent, the full Angelic Business Collection:
Angelic Business. The Full Trilogy
The Angelic Business trilogy tells the story of Pink, a 17 years old girl whose ordinary life gets suddenly invaded by demons and angels telling her she is ‘the elected’ and has the future of humanity, and of Heaven and Hell, in her hands. Or perhaps she isn’t. It depends on whom she believes. Weird things start happening all around her, and her friends and family become possible victims of these paranormal beings. Is Pink the true ‘elected’? And if she is, what will she do about it?
AMAZON (e-book) KOBO NOOK APPLE SCRIBD
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Thanks very much for reading. If you know anybody who might be interested, please pass the links on. And if you read them and love them, tell others why by leaving a review. Ah, and don’t forget that the first book in my YA trilogy Angelic Business is FREE!
Ah, and if you want to be kept informed, don’t forget to sign for my newsletter:
Hi all:
I promised I’d be sharing the prequel to Escaping Psychiatry my psychological thriller book, that collects three stories. Mary Miller, the psychiatrist and writer protagonist of the stories gets in all kinds of adventures in the book.
Here, we see how and when she became involved for the first time in a case. Ah, and the case is about a writer who is being stalked and harassed by a fan/madman, or is it?
Ah, I have a cover now! So consider this a cover reveal too!
And here it is:
“It was terrible! I’m telling you, Phil. Disgraceful! The guy was pouring out his heart and soul and I wasn’t even listening to him! What kind of a psychiatrist am I? Where is my empathy? Caring profession! Ha! Couldn’t care less profession, maybe!”
“Come on, Mary. Don’t beat yourself up. It was the early hours of the morning and you had been working all day.” Phil seized the opportunity when Mary had to stop to breathe, to try and get his point across. He wasn’t a lawyer and the voice of reason for nothing. His friend Mary, usually level-headed and calm, was in a bit of a state. Yes, she had a pretty stressful job, working as a trainee psychiatrist in a busy hospital. But she was quite senior now and not usually given to catastrophizing.
“That wasn’t his fault. Damn, the guy was talking about his life, his girlfriend had left him and he was contemplating suicide and I was… away with the fairies. I haven’t the slightest idea of what he told me.”
“Nothing happened. You gave him good advice and evidently must have heard enough. You probably only switched off for a few seconds. And you gave him what he needed.”
“How so? He wanted somebody to listen. And I wasn’t listening!”
Phil realised that he was likely to inflame the situation, no matter what he said, and decided to allow Mary to vent. She’d run out of steam at some point. Hopefully.
She stopped talking after a few more minutes of lamenting her lack of empathy. Phil decided it might be safe to intervene.
“Why don’t you—”
“It’s a con game,” she interrupted him. “Do you remember that movie, House of Games?”
“The one about the female psychiatrist and the con men? David Mamet’s, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, precisely that one. I’m coming to the conclusion that they had a point. We just put on a performance and as long as we are credible, good actors, and have the appropriate props and jargon, we get away with it.”
“From that point of view, I guess all professions are a con game,” Phil said.
“Perhaps. But most of them don’t take the moral high ground or go around telling people what to do.”
Phil was about to contradict Mary, but realised that she seemed to be calming down and it would be better to try a different tack.
“You must be due a vacation, Mary. Why don’t you come and spend some time with me? You could always accompany me to work. Get a bit of distance and see how it feels to be an insider somewhere else.”
“Won’t your law firm have something to say about that? Client privilege and all that?”
“I’ll vouch for you. And I’m sure I could convince them that having you ‘consulting’ with us could be useful. To give us a different perspective. Especially if you aren’t going to charge them for the service.”
“I’m starting to wonder if you have a case you wanted my opinion on, and my call has just been the perfect excuse,” Mary said, in a more upbeat tone.
“You have a very suspicious mind, dear Mary.”
“When a lawyer says that, it’s time to worry.”
Phil was used to people making jokes and saying not very complimentary things about lawyers. He did some pro-bono work, but had no illusions that he would change society with his profession. But it was interesting nonetheless.
“So, what do you say? Are you coming to spend some time with me?”
Mary was quiet for a few seconds. She finally said:
“Won’t I be in the way?”
“In the way of what?”
“You’re single, well, divorced, and a bloke. Don’t you have a woman in your life at the moment?”
“You know I’m still recovering from my divorce.” Phil made an effort to sound as sincere as possible. Mary had a very finely tuned bullshit detector.
“Ha! That’s funny! I haven’t seen you cry or be sad at all about your failed marriage. I’ve never truly understood why you married Iris.”
“Well… She was hot.”
“Sure, but otherwise… Not up to your intellectual standards, Phil. And you sent her to your mother’s as soon as you went back to Law School, and I’d say you might have seen her a handful of times in the three months your marriage lasted, at a push. I’m sure you saw me more often than your saw her.”
“Well, if you had played your cards right, perhaps you could have become my wife instead.” Phil didn’t know where that had come from. He hoped Mary would take it as a joke. Because that was what it was, right?
“You would run a mile if you thought I had any design on you.”
Phil burst out laughing. “Probably much farther than a mile. Don’t get me wrong. I do love you, but I think we’d probably drive each other insane if we were a couple. We know each other far too well.”
Phil realised he wholeheartedly believed what he’d just said, although he’d never formulated the thought before. Could he be truly open and honest in a relationship? Perhaps that had been the problem all along. He didn’t let anybody get close enough, at least not the people he ended up in a relationship with.
“So you think having secrets from each other is the recipe to a successful relationship. Based on that premise, I’m not surprised you’re still on your own. And yes, no need to remind me I’m also on my own. Relationships are not my priority at the moment. Trying to decide what I want to do with my life is. I don’t need added complications. And of course, I suspect lots of men would think that I’m not hot enough to make good partner material.”
“You talk yourself out of it before you even try, dear Mary. But I’m sure we can chat about that in more detail when you’re here. When will that be?”
“I’ll have to check with my bosses, HR and the other doctors, but there aren’t school holidays coming up or any such things, so we might be lucky. I’ll speak to everybody tomorrow, if I can, and I’ll let you know.”
“Good. I hope it’s soon.”
“Why?” She sounded suspicious.
“Because the firm has just taken up the defence of a writer, and I know you love reading and writing.”
“Oh, I see. Yes, you’re right. And perhaps taking up writing again would be helpful. What’s the case about?”
“You’ll probably hear about it soon enough, but I can’t give you any inside information until I know the firm is OK about your involvement, and you’re actually coming. That would be careless, not to say unethical, on my behalf.”
“Of course. Let’s talk tomorrow, then.”
“Speak to you tomorrow.”
“Phil?”
“What?”
“You’ve done a good job.”
“What are you talking about?”
“First of putting up with the moaning, but more than that, of setting up the hook. I’m intrigued about the case, now.”
He punched the air in silent celebration. ‘Yes!’ he thought. “Just something that suddenly came to mind while we talked.”
“Yes, sure… Night.”
“Good night.”
Mary phoned Phil back the next day and confirmed she would be going to spend a couple of weeks with him. “I’ll arrive on Saturday morning, if that’s OK. But, honestly, let me know if I’m going to be in the way. I can always book myself in somewhere. At a hotel or something.”
“No, no, that will be unnecessary. You can stay here. Ah, and by the way, I did have an informal chat with my boss, and he was interested in your perspective and opinion on the case, both from the psychiatric point of view and from an insider’s.”
“An insider’s?”
“I told Mr Wright that you also write. He was so interested that he even offered to let you stay in one of the firm’s apartments. They have several for clients from out of the city and for newly arrived lawyers. I told him we’d made other arrangements but he was serious.”
“And why is he interested in my psychiatric opinion?”
“We’ll talk about that when you’re here. I’ll be eagerly waiting for you on Saturday morning.”
Thanks so much to all for reading, thanks to Ernesto for the great cover, and well, like, share, comment… and if you want to click… I’ll leave you a link to Escaping Psychiatry, that by the way, it’s only $0.99 at the moment!
Escaping Psychiatry in Amazon. For many other links, follow the Books page at the top!
