PRIVILEGED INFORMATION

A psychologist suspects a patient of murder but can't speak out because of therapy's seal of silence...That's the nut that White, himself a psychologist, gnaws to a pulp in his slow and somber first novel. Boulder therapist Alan Gregory, who narrates with a maximum number of two-dollar words, is enduring a dark year: His wife has left him; and now one of his patients, Karen Hart, has killed herself, leading to an investigation of Alan for possible sexual misconduct and a likely lawsuit by Karen's parents. Then Alan's year turns really black: another patient dies in an auto accident; a third is murdered; his practice thins out; and, to cap it off, his dog is run down by a car. A new love affair with pretty Deputy D.A. Lauren Crowder sparks a little light, but soon Lauren confesses she has MS and in any case doesn't trust men; besides, she's angry that he won't divulge details of his sessions with Karen or the other victims. And Alan is chafing against that ethic as well, especially when a creepy new patient, Michael McClelland, begins to harass him (trailing Alan to Mexico, vandalizing his car) and to appear—mostly from evidence Alan gathers by some clumsy amateur sleuthing—the likely killer of Alan's murdered patient. Which indeed Michael is, with the novel's moderate suspense generated not by whodunit but by how to stop him from doing it again—specifically, to Lauren, whom crazy Michael—acting out a complex scenario of transference that's explained in talky if authoritative detail—has seduced away to an Aspen retreat, where a violent climax, centered around a surprising revelation, unfolds. White's professional expertise shows—but as a storyteller, he's done in by pompous narration, snail pacing, and much predictable plotting.