Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Dr. Eric Parrish's wife has filed for divorce, and he is trying to remain a caring and involved dad to his seven-year-old daughter. Then Parish, chief of the psychiatric unit at a leading hospital outside Philadelphia. is called to consult on an elderly woman dying of cancer, but he quickly realizes it's her 17-year-old grandson, Max, who needs the help. Max is suffering from a severe case of OCD repeating rituals every 15 minutes plus depression issues exacerbated by his alcoholic mother and terminally ill grandmother. Max agrees to treatment, but a few sessions in, his grandmother dies, and he admits to having fantasies of killing a particular young woman, who shortly ends up dead. Max promptly disappears. The extremely empathetic Eric becomes way too involved in searching for his missing patient and putting himself in harm's way. By invoking doctor-patient privilege, he incurs the wrath of the police department and becomes a person of interest himself, getting suspended from his job and giving his wife ammunition in the child-custody battle. Occasional chapters from the killer's viewpoint seem to lead the reader toward an obvious conclusion, but Scottoline has plenty of tricks up her sleeve. Every Fifteen Minutes is a stand-alone, but it won't disappoint fans of her popular Rosato & Associates series and may well attract new readers. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A 250,000-copy market distribution will get Scottoline's latest off to a fast start.--Alesi, Stacy Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of bestseller Scottoline's standalone thriller, Dr. Eric Parish, the head of the psychiatric unit at Havemeyer General Hospital in suburban Philadelphia, is experiencing a professional high and a personal low. His team's psychiatry service has just been ranked #2 in the nation by U.S. Medical Report, while his wife Caitlin has filed for divorce, sold the family home, and is trying to limit his visitation time with their daughter, Hannah. Things take a downward turn at work too, when Kristine Malin, a med student, sues him for sexual harassment, and almost simultaneously, the uber-antagonistic wife of a violent patient is threatening another suit against him and the hospital. Topping things off, Eric becomes the prime suspect in the murder of a young woman. The chronicle of his decline is infrequently interrupted by the first-person narration of a homicidal sociopath who claims responsibility for Eric's dire state. Since this mysterious killer is already a character in the story line, reader Newbern is posed with the problem of giving it away vocally. The actor (TV's Scandal) solves that difficulty by having several characters sound somewhat like the murderer. In addition to keeping the killer's identity a secret (and the reveal is a genuine jaw-dropper), Newbern maintains just the proper pace to take us through the book without being stopped by some of its hero's less honorable moves. A St. Martin's hardcover. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In what seems like a split second, Dr. Eric Parish's life as chief psychiatrist at Havemeyer General Hospital, devoted father, and committed husband falls apart. His wife files for divorce; he is suspended from his post at the hospital after a female medical student files a sexual harassment complaint against him; and he is allowed only limited contact with his beloved daughter, Hannah. Parish's problems are caused by a nameless, invisible sociopath who has targeted him for destruction. George Newbern does an excellent job reading this psychological thriller and bringing each character to life. Newbern captures the cool, unemotional demeanor of the sociopath, the confused desperation of seven-year-old Hannah, and the nervousness of Parish's troubled patient Max. VERDICT This stand-alone work is recommended for all Scottoline and psychological mystery/thriller fans who enjoy surprise endings. ["A nail-biting stand-alone with two heart-pounding climaxes and several pulse-racing twists": LJ 3/1/15 starred review of the St. Martin's hc.]-Ilka Gordon, Beachwood, OH © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A sociopath targets a suburban Pennsylvania psychiatrist whose success is only the prelude to a series of nightmarish reversals.It's true that Dr. Eric Parrish doesn't have everything. His wife, Caitlin, is divorcing him and being difficult over the joint custody they've arranged for their 7-year-old daughter, Hannah, and his latest private patient, 17-year-old Max Jakubowski, seems much more in need of help than his dying grandmother does. But Eric's colleagues like and admire himone of them, medical student Kristine Malin, is clearly in hot pursuitand so does U.S. News and World Report, which is about to announce that the psych unit Eric heads at Havemeyer General Hospital ranks second in the nation. It all goes south with a suddenness that would be shocking outside the pages of Scottoline. Kristine files harassment charges after Eric rejects her come-on. Max phones Eric to say that his grandmother's died and then takes a powder. Rene Bevilacqua, a girl Max tutors in math and otherwise worships from afar, gets murdered the morning after Eric follows her home, looking in vain for a lead to Max's whereabouts. The cops haul Eric in as a person of interest, then invade his office and home looking for evidence when he demands they find Max, whom he considers a suicide risk, but won't say any more about him. The colleagues who so recently toasted Eric lock him out. And that's all before Max takes five teenagers hostage and announces that he's going to kill one every 15 minutes before he blows up the King of Prussia Mall. Who can possibly be pulling so many different strings? A proficient, mounting-stakes actioner that proves Scottoline is just as comfortable with a shrink determined to go to the wall for a troubled teen as she ever was with Bennie Rosato's all-female law practice (Betrayed, 2014, etc.). Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
