Mental Case

Rating:
Summary: A good story, clear-cut characters, little depth
Review: In James Neal Harvey's "Mental Case," detective Ben Tolliver is presented with the case of a murder-suicide. There is no doubt about what happened. A woman, the daughter of a prominent citizen and Tolliver's friend, walked into a jewelry store, calmly began shooting everyone, and then turned the gun on herself. But there is one question that plagues Tolliver: Why? The detectives in charge of the case are content with the resolution; with the death of the perpetrator, the case is tied up neatly. Soon, however, another apparently random murder occurs, and Tolliver suspects that the two might somehow be linked. The two are linked, of course, and the link is a nefarious psychiatrist who has been experimenting with mind control through drugs.

Though many critics have called the book a thinly-veiled attack on anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac, I did not read it that way until the last paragraph. For the most part, the story involves the contest between the detective and the doctor. These two are presented as simple characters. One is bent on solving the case, while the other is the personification of evil. There is, in other words, little of depth here--just a popcorn story. But the story is well told, and the writing is sufficiently crisp to keep the pace moving along quickly. Great literature this is not, but the title probably serves as a tip-off on that point. For readers in search of a good story, though, "Mental Case" fits the bill.

Rating:
Summary: A good story, clear-cut characters, little depth
Review: In James Neal Harvey's "Mental Case," detective Ben Tolliver is presented with the case of a murder-suicide. There is no doubt about what happened. A woman, the daughter of a prominent citizen and Tolliver's friend, walked into a jewelry store, calmly began shooting everyone, and then turned the gun on herself. But there is one question that plagues Tolliver: Why? The detectives in charge of the case are content with the resolution; with the death of the perpetrator, the case is tied up neatly. Soon, however, another apparently random murder occurs, and Tolliver suspects that the two might somehow be linked. The two are linked, of course, and the link is a nefarious psychiatrist who has been experimenting with mind control through drugs.

Though many critics have called the book a thinly-veiled attack on anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac, I did not read it that way until the last paragraph. For the most part, the story involves the contest between the detective and the doctor. These two are presented as simple characters. One is bent on solving the case, while the other is the personification of evil. There is, in other words, little of depth here--just a popcorn story. But the story is well told, and the writing is sufficiently crisp to keep the pace moving along quickly. Great literature this is not, but the title probably serves as a tip-off on that point. For readers in search of a good story, though, "Mental Case" fits the bill.