Shrink Rapt

The murder of the arrogant chairman of Behavioral Health Sciences shocks the faculty, staff and patients of Franklin University Medical Center, none more than the four unstable subjects in his pilot research study. All are members of a treatment program directed by psychologist April Simon, 34, newly divorced and discouraged about her academic prospects. When the late psychiatrist's death propels her patients into bizarre and threatening behavior and pits her colleagues against each...
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The murder of the arrogant chairman of Behavioral Health Sciences shocks the faculty, staff and patients of Franklin University Medical Center, none more than the four unstable subjects in his pilot research study. All are members of a treatment program directed by psychologist April Simon, 34, newly divorced and discouraged about her academic prospects. When the late psychiatrist's death propels her patients into bizarre and threatening behavior and pits her colleagues against each other, April faces three challenges. She must solve the riddle of her patients' dangerous transformation, avoid becoming the killer's next target, and decide whether to trust an attractive, world-weary detective who seeks her help - when he's not treating her as a suspect.

Shrink Rapt takes the reader into the halls of academic medicine, setting death, betrayal and romance against a real-life backdrop of the fraught alliance between medical research and Big Pharma. The murder of Dr. Lowell Morgenstern turns psychologist April Simon and detective Sam Perone into potential allies and sometime adversaries, each trying to unravel (and keep) secrets as they parse the crime. The tug of war between a smart, lonely professional woman and a cop whose brash exterior masks the scars of a tragic past, yields a story about the tenuous development of trust in a world where no one is what they seem.

Epitomizing the genre of psychological thriller, Shrink Rapt is a classic whodunit featuring a psychologist protagonist. The author, also a psychologist, draws on her insight as a therapist to treat themes of abandonment, sexual trauma, abuse and addiction with a deft and sensitive hand. The rich cast of characters is replete with likely murder suspects, providing twists, suspense and a stunning climax. Readers will warm to April Simon and her struggle to distinguish friend from foe, while battling her own inner demons. Razor-sharp dialogue and crackling chemistry between April and Sam will delight fans of Kathy Reichs and Linda Fairstein.