Anybody who’s ever puzzled “What’s my therapist actually considering?” shall be fascinated by Louisa Luna’s foray into the thoughts of the wholly compelling Dr. Caroline Unusual.
In Inform Me Who You Are, her seventh e book and first standalone thriller in practically 20 years, Luna—recognized for her Alice Vega sequence, together with 2023 Edgar Award-winner Hideout—introduces an unapologetically assured and cynical New York Metropolis psychiatrist who favors white Alexander McQueen fits (“It’s not a fucking sq. dance; it’s work”) and lives in a rich Brooklyn neighborhood the place “botox meets craft butchery, and even the homeless individuals can do a imply upward-facing canine.”
As Dr. Caroline breezily explains, she’s accustomed to deconstructing all method of human flaws and foibles, therefore the snarky nicknames she (privately) offers her sufferers: Deluded Delia, Bilious Byron, Pouty Petra and extra. So it’s simply one other day at work when a brand new affected person named Nelson Schack tells her he’s in all probability going to kill somebody they each know. A seemingly unfazed Dr. Caroline is shocked when NYPD detectives arrive quickly after, indicating they contemplate her a suspect within the missing-persons case of Ellen Garcia, a journalist who named her one of many “Prime Ten Worst Docs in Brooklyn.” Dr. Caroline is satisfied that Nelson has one way or the other framed her for Ellen’s disappearance, and he or she quickly embarks on her personal covert investigation.
As a chase across the metropolis will get underway, Luna layers within the views of a younger Caroline’s neighbor Gordon Sturdy (hinting at horrors within the good physician’s previous) and Ellen, who’s dropping hope for rescue. Progressively shorter chapters will elevate page-flipping readers’ coronary heart price because the previous inches nearer to the current and Luna’s characters cope with mounting hazard.
Dr. Caroline herself is not any stranger to trauma. It’s what motivated her to grow to be a psychiatrist, and what comes again to hang-out her. She could be unlikable—however is she additionally unreliable? Luna expertly retains her playing cards near her chest till practically the nerve-wracking finish of this engrossing, twisty character examine of a sophisticated girl.