Anscombe (Shank
) returns with a riveting, mental obstacle course of a novel. Paul Lucas, a brilliant forensic psychiatrist struggling to move on after the death of his infant son, is treating venomous Craig Cavanaugh, the teenage scion of a wealthy family. Sent to the Sanders Institute for stalking Natalie Davis, a mousy teaching assistant at Harvard who rejected him repeatedly, Cavanaugh sets out to match wits with, and destroy, Lucas. Told in Lucas's voice, the novel is fueled by Cavanaugh's ego and deep-seated obsession, and by Lucas's quick-witted, lie-discerning one-upping of the clever adolescent. As Lucas struggles to stay in control, their grueling sessions devolve into chest-puffing wars of strategy, lies and threats. Cavanaugh stealthily invades Lucas's personal life, works alongside his distraught wife, Abby, at her social work agency, and then murders the police officer who pulled Abby out of the wreck that killed their child—and frames Lucas for the crime. The possibly overmatched psychiatrist must clear his name, attempt to reunite with his estranged wife and generally stop Cavanaugh from throwing a lit match onto Lucas's well-lacquered existence. Anscombe, a forensic psychiatrist himself, delivers precise, perfectly calibrated thrills one after another in an implosive story that takes oedipal struggle to the breaking point. (June 1)
