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Alan Gregory, Book 1

By: Stephen White

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Alan Gregory is a clinical psychologist with a thriving practice in Boulder, Colorado. His life begins to unravel when one of his female patients is found in an apparent suicide and the local paper begins printing accusations from an unnamed source of sexual impropriety between the woman and Dr. Gregory.

He launches a psychological and personal quest for the truth that rapidly intensifies when more of his patients die untimely deaths, and Gregory suspects not only that the deaths are related but that another one of his patients may be somehow involved. Lacking facts but roused by suspicion and troubled by seemingly random acts of terror around him, Gregory starts to fear for the safety of the people he loves.

The question of the inviolability of confidential disclosures made to Gregory by his patients - privileged information - becomes crucial as the psychologist pursues an unsettling romance with Lauren Crowder, a lovely deputy district attorney investigating one of the deaths. Bound to silence, Gregory follows the psychological tracks of someone he fears may be a cunning and disturbed killer, while turning to his enigmatic but supportive partner, Diane Estevez, for counsel, and to his tart-tongued female urologist neighbor for support.

The sinister, surprising drama unfolds against Boulder's Rocky Mountain backdrop, in the arresting natural beauty of Aspen, and in the midst of a baroque Halloween costume party in downtown Boulder. Finally, in a lonely mountain lodge enshrouded in menace, the story comes to its breathtaking climax.

Investigate more mysterious doings with Dr. Alan Gregory.

©2004 Stephen White (P)2006 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Stephen White fun to listen to as a Boulder born

person it's fun to look back as a lot has changed. Good listen narrated well

No characters here to be sympathetic with. Trite

It's not very long because it's abridged so you can kind of muscle your way through this very predictable mystery.

Women won't like this self-centered protagonist

The main character, Dr. Alan Gregory, is someone who appears unable to see women as anything other than entities there to serve his needs - his needs for company, for comfort, for sex, for admiration. The book does NOT pass the Bechdel test - there are not two women characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.
Furthermore, a clinical psychologist who is convinced that all of his female patients have sexual fantasies about him is simultaneously tiresome and creepy. I don't think it's terribly realistic. Especially for such a profoundly unlikable person as Dr. Gregory.
In fact, none of the characters were particularly likable, so I just didn't care what happened to them.
Maybe the author has gotten more adept at mystery writing since this first novel, but the story was clunky. Were we supposed to think that Dr. Gregory was some incredibly ethical clinician who always held the line on privilege when the novel begins with him completely violating his patient's privilege in talking to the police? Furthermore, the revealing of the bad guy/bad gal was not suspenseful enough or secretive enough to be engaging.
I certainly won't be reading/listening to any others to find out if the author got better. Don't waste your time or dollars on this one.

The narration was well-done, although it was one of those annoying (though not uncommon) male narrators who voices women characters in an unnaturally high voice, instead of just narrating. It's a choice many narrators make - just not one I really like, because it pulls you out of the story and makes you aware that you're listening to narration -distracting.