Helpful Score: 3
Many books are hyped as something entirely new in the mystery genre; this book is exactly that.
Set in a mental hospital in the 1970's, the primary plot line concerns the murder of a young nurse-trainee, and the repercussions of that time on one of the patients many years later. Seeing the events through the eyes of a schizophrenic is both eerie and compelling. The portrayal of life for patients in a mental hospital in that time period is painfully accurate and disturbing, their treatment basically a program of constantly adjusted medication cocktails and farcical group therapy sessions. The reader grows to know and sincerely care about the characters of several patients; the characters of the doctors are far less sympathetic.
The book succeeds on many levels: as compelling character study, genuinely puzzling mystery, page-turning thriller, and portrayal of fairly recent history. It's also occasionally reminiscent of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but with less black humor and more edge-of-seat drama. If you're in the mood for a very different puzzler, give this book a try!
Set in a mental hospital in the 1970's, the primary plot line concerns the murder of a young nurse-trainee, and the repercussions of that time on one of the patients many years later. Seeing the events through the eyes of a schizophrenic is both eerie and compelling. The portrayal of life for patients in a mental hospital in that time period is painfully accurate and disturbing, their treatment basically a program of constantly adjusted medication cocktails and farcical group therapy sessions. The reader grows to know and sincerely care about the characters of several patients; the characters of the doctors are far less sympathetic.
The book succeeds on many levels: as compelling character study, genuinely puzzling mystery, page-turning thriller, and portrayal of fairly recent history. It's also occasionally reminiscent of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but with less black humor and more edge-of-seat drama. If you're in the mood for a very different puzzler, give this book a try!
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