Publisher's Weekly Review
Several old cases preoccupy Alan Gregory in bestseller White's fine 19th thriller starring the Boulder, Colo., psychologist (after 2010's The Last Lie). On the personal side, Gregory's longtime professional partner, Diane, whose emotional condition has been shaky for several years, faces a new crisis in her disintegrating marriage. Gregory is also trying to keep the lid on an old crime-the murder of a psychotic woman in a neighboring town-for which he and his friend, Det. Sam Purdy, were partially complicit. And, as always, a new patient, Amanda Bobbie, is clouding the picture with a cryptic backstory that leads to a stunning cliffhanger involving Gregory's wife, Lauren. Longtime fans and newcomers alike will enjoy spending time in the company of the always hospitable Gregory. In an author's note, White explains why he's bringing the series to an end with the 20th installment. There's one patient left in the waiting room, however. Let's hope it's a long session. Agent: Robert Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
After two decades and 18 novels, White has decided to bring the Alan Gregory series to a close. This is the second-to-last novel about the Colorado clinical psychologist; the final one, the twentieth, will take Gregory to the end of his long and winding road. Here we see the beginning of the end. Forest fires are reducing chunks of the Boulder Valley to tinder and ash; Alan's colleague and close friend, still recovering from a terrible trauma, appears to be approaching a psychological breakdown; and new evidence in an old case causes Alan to reexamine decisions he made in the past, putting his entire career at risk. White is a fine storyteller, and Gregory is a complex, compelling character whom fans have grown to love and respect. It will be hard for them to say good-bye, but at least his creator appears to be planning to give him a first-class send-off.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
As a series of wildfires swoop ever closer to his Boulder office, psychotherapist Alan Gregory's life threatens to go up in metaphorical flames even before their arrival. As part of his deep-laid plan of revenge against Alan and his friend, Detective Sam Purdy, Alan's incarcerated ex-patient Michael McClelland sicced Currie Brown on the oh-so-susceptible Sam. When he realized that Currie planned to kill his own family and Alan's, Sam reacted in the way every cop dreams of: by staging a fake suicide that would neutralize Currie's threat for keeps and telling Alan what he'd done. One night the two conspirators, meeting over a comatose accident victim at Community Hospital, review their actions and assure themselves that they're safe. But that very conversation puts them back in the hot seat when the accident victim, threatened by a variety of police charges himself, makes a complete recovery, checks out of the hospital, comes after Alan with what he's learned, and vows to bring down Sam in order to keep himself out of jail. Meantime, Alan's begun to treat Amanda Bobbie, who insists she wants his advice about a friend who's about to go broke, then reveals that she's a paid-companion-with-benefits to said friend, who begins to sound an awful lot like somebody Alan knows. The two plot lines take quite a while to get established, but once they do, the pressure on Alan mounts relentlessly until a stunning coincidence sends the unrelated two stories crashing together. White (Dead Time, 2008, etc.) makes it clear that Alan's 19th appearance is his penultimate case; the next case will be his swan song. Judging from the risks he takes this time, fans won't want to miss the sequel.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
With Colorado's Boulder Valley under a Red Flag Alert for forest fires, clinical psychologist Alan Gregory and Sam Purdy, a former Boulder policeman and Alan's longtime friend, scramble to deal with newly uncovered evidence from an unsolved homicide case that could end both their careers. Escort Amanda Bobbie and drug dealer David Cohen, both patients of Alan's, reveal cryptic details during their counseling sessions pertaining to the homicide of Justine Winter Brown, a local, psychotic woman whom Sam used to date. However, they also disclose additional sensitive facts to others that eventually reach local law enforcement officials. Meanwhile, Diane, Alan's emotionally unstable professional partner, targets Alan's wife, Lauren. Ending his 19th thriller with a shocking cliffhanger, White prepares for bringing his series to a close with the next volume. Verdict White clouds his intriguing plotlines with excessive, inconsequential details. His sophisticated vocabulary and prose style may impress clinical psychologists and faithful fans but may be off-putting to general thriller readers. Still, die-hard readers who have followed the series for 15 years and through 18 books will want this. [See Prepub Alert, 2/5/12.]-Jerry P. Miller. Cambridge, MA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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