“Turn of Mind”, by Alice LaPlante

 

320 pages, Grove Press, ISBN-13: 978-1594135798

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante centers on Dr. Jennifer White, retired orthopedic surgeon, and the murder of her friend, Amanda O’Toole (whose fingers were surgically severed after death, to boot). Dr. White is the prime suspect but, complicating matters for her and the police is the fact that she is suffering from advanced-stage Alzheimer’s and can remember nothing or, when memories do spring to mind, are always fractured and out of sorts. The structure of the book is told from the viewpoint of the unfortunate Dr. White, a viewpoint that, as one can well imagine from a person with dementia, is out of sorts and unreliable. It also serves to make the book smaller in fact than it purports to be, as it is written as a series of small, brief, paragraphs separated by a blank line or two (to say nothing of a very fast read).

One thing that suffuses this book is the loss of Jennifer; not literally, or course, as she is the narrator and principle voice of the book. But hers is a broken voice, spoken by a woman who is no longer there, mentally. When she is most cognizant is when she remembers the past – the far past, if you will, rather than the recent, which she cannot grasp. This woman was so much more than what she is now and to see such an accomplished and respected woman brought low by a disease that robs one of their intellect and dignity is a damn shame (it also proves that there are, in fact, fates worse than death). In this state we learn more about Jennifer and discover that she is flawed; indeed, one of her sins especially proves that her late husband, James, was a saint for putting up with her in her normal, pre-Alzheimer condition.

As mysteries go, however, Turn of Mind is not very…mysterious. The murder of Amanda is supposed to be at the center of the book but, in fact, Jennifer’s Alzheimer’s is the engine of this car. Seeing as it is told from Jennifer’s fractured and unreliable point of view this makes sense, as we puzzle along with her what is real and what is misremembered fantasy; what are relevant facts and what are irrelevant meanderings. The suspect list is thin and the final reveal – dealing as it does with our demented heroine fleeing the facility she was placed in and attempting to solve the crime on her own – is rather shocking (to me at any rate). Whenever I finish a mystery that fools me I usually go back and reread certain portions to try and determine why I didn’t sniff it out; Turn of Mind was no different, and I kick myself for not having uncovered the perp.

So Turn of Mind requires patience on the part of the reader as you try to puzzle out Jennifer’s thoughts and the motivations of those around her. But stick with it, as the final reveal will make it all worthwhile.