| Description: |
|
Product Description
Dr. Frank Clevenger, a brilliant forensic psychiatrist, is eager to leave the world of the criminally insane behind-until he receives a chilling phone call. Close friend and former colleague North Anderson, now the Chief of Police on the exclusive island of Nantucket, is desperate for help in solving a shocking case: One of the infant twin daughters of billionaire Darwin Bishop has been murdered in her crib at the family's estate. The suspected killer is her adopted brother Billy, and investigators believe that the fugitive teenager has targeted the surviving twin.
But as Clevenger maps the Bishop family's psychological layers he uncovers some disturbing revelations that lead him to believe Billy may be innocent. The Bishops are a deeply troubled family. As charming as he is ambitious and cruel, Darwin seems determined to protect his son-but is he actually trying to railroad him? Why does Garret, Bishop's other son, despise his father so intensely? Is beautiful Julia Bishop a mother grieving for her murdered child or a manipulative seductress with a dark secret to hide?
As Clevenger fights to protect the innocent and hunt down the guilty, aspects of the case begin to collide with demons from his own past. After a life-threatening attack the forensic psychiatrist knows he must penetrate the killer's psychosis in order to identify him before the Bishop family-and Clevenger himself-become the next victims. Using his mastery of psychiatry, Clevenger lays a trap to reveal the murderer in an unforgettable finale.
Amazon.com Review
Billy Bishop, the Russian-born adopted son of a billionaire, has all the classic signs of a sociopath, but before he's arrested for the murder of Darwin and Julia Bishop's infant daughter, his half sister, Nantucket police chief North Anderson wants another opinion. Frank Clevenger, the forensic psychiatrist evaluating Billy, isn't convinced of the teenager's guilt, especially when he learns that Darwin has been abusing Billy for years. The victim of his own father's abuse, Frank has difficulty maintaining appropriate emotional boundaries in his dealings with the Bishops--not just with Billy, but also with Julia, who becomes his lover. All the loose ends in this tidy little psychological thriller are tied up a bit too neatly, and the denouement comes as no surprise to anyone except perhaps Frank himself, who's a little too quick to abandon his professional objectivity. Keith Ablow, a forensic psychiatrist like his protagonist, has used his medical background before (Denial, Projection), but in his effort to make the defenses and motivations of the characters in this novel completely comprehensible to his readers, he sacrifices its subtlety and diminishes its suspense. --Jane Adams
|
