THE TREATMENT PLAN

In this novel, a psychiatrist is forced to question his life’s work.

Dr. Oliver Powers had the perfect life. He was a highly successful psychiatrist who specialized and wrote about religious delusions. He had a wonderful wife, Hannah, and a charming daughter, Emily. Emily seemed perfect until she was overcome by mental illness and turned to spirituality for an answer. Her suicide left Oliver reeling and mentally checked out from his marriage. He was left drowning in his own guilt and grief. That’s all that he can remember when he wakes up in a hospital, strapped to a bed (“I look down at my body. It’s clad in a hospital johnny—cowboy-boot patterned for no conceivable reason—and draped in a bedsheet. From the hall come the sounds of a medical device pinging, a loud phone ringing, a speaker paging Dr. Mukherjee”). Oliver is told his name is Cornelius T. Greenbird. What follows is a series of terrible events where he must face the sins of his past and transform into a different person if he hopes to survive. He’s left behind a trail of failed patients with varying severities of mental illnesses, and now they’ve come back for revenge. At the heart of the conspiracy is Harkins Hovarth III, a disturbed former patient with a tragic past who has the wealth to orchestrate the strange scheme. He doesn’t intend to let Oliver off easy and will do anything to force him to change. The journey Oliver embarks on and the treatment plan he undergoes will bring into question everything he thought was true. And in the end, he will find himself in a place beyond belief. Wolfendon’s ambitious novel offers unpredictable plot twists and unexpected disclosures. But while the plot is full of thrills, the story has a few problems. Many of Oliver’s decisions and much of his character development only happen because he is tortured. In addition, the ending includes a significant revelation that will mystify and dissatisfy some readers. There are also passages about mental disorders that are debatable. For example, the legitimacy of medication for the treatment of mental illness is questioned. That said, the tale is well written, and Oliver’s narrative voice is engaging, empathetic, and at times entertaining.

A surprising, exciting, but uneven psychological thriller.