Private Practices

Private Practices by Stephen White
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this Stephen White mystery because reviews for the latest book in this series, The Last Lie, were so enticing. I started with this, the second in the series starring Dr Alan Gregory, because the library didn’t have the first. I’m about to remedy that by buying a copy and giving it to the library. Stephen White is a skilled mystery writer and I’m hooked.

Here’s what his web site says about Private Practices:

Why have two witnesses scheduled to appear before a local grand jury died violently just prior to giving their testimony? That's what Detective Sam Purdy, thrust into an uneasy partnership with Dr. Gregory, wants to know. From the first pages of the novel, when Gregory's office is invaded by a homicidal husband seeking revenge on his wife for her decision to divorce him, until Private Practices powerful climax, Purdy and Gregory strive to make sense of the pieces of an increasingly complex puzzle. In these Rocky Mountains, nothing is quite as it seems.

A pivotal character is one of Dr. Gregory's patients, seventeen-year-old Randy Navens. He has been in psychotherapy since he survived a plane crash that claimed the lives of his parents and his sister. Now he is living with his aunt and uncle, and is haunted by nightmares and suicidal impulses. The unique course of his treatment takes Alan Gregory on a quest that soon ensnarls both doctor and patient in a dangerous web that threatens both their lives.

2011 No 113