All the way gone

Having left the Chicago Police Department to open her own detective agency, Annalisa Vega lands a doozy of a first case. And yes, there's more. According to the title of the book that Dr. Mara Delaney's written about him, Dr. Craig Canning is a stellar example of The Good Sociopath. He may lack empathy or genuine emotions concerning anyone else, but he's a skilled neurosurgeon who's saved countless lives and left many patients grateful. So Mara really doesn't want her $1 million book deal blown up by Canning's proximity to the death of Victoria Albright, the socialite across his courtyard who plunged to her death a few minutes before Canning began his day at the hospital, and she asks Annalisa to look into the case and make sure Canning's not one of those bad sociopaths. No sooner has Annalisa agreed than her own teenage stepdaughter, Cassidy Weaver, who's wangled her way into becoming her assistant, presents her with an unofficial case of her own: her girlfriend Naomi's search for her mother, Elizabeth Johnston. Naomi doesn't exactly have a sentimental reunion in mind. She desperately needs a new kidney, and she has yet to turn up a match. How likely is a mother who abandoned her child before she turned 3 to donate a kidney to her now--especially since the more information that emerges about Elizabeth, the worse she looks? About as likely that Craig Canning is a good sociopath--or, for that matter, the only sociopath who emerges from this utterly characteristic thicket of secrets and lies, each of them more unsavory than the last. Enough to keep you awake long after you turn the last page, though perhaps one sociopath too many. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.