cover image The Patient

The Patient

Jasper DeWitt. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $23 (224p) ISBN 978-0-358-18176-7

DeWitt’s taut debut, a psychological thriller with horror elements, purports to be a manuscript that “was posted in several installments under the thread ‘Why I Almost Quit Medicine’ on... a now-defunct forum for medical professionals.” Parker, a Yale medical school graduate recently hired as a psychiatrist at the underfunded Connecticut State Asylum, becomes fascinated with Joe, an isolated, long-term patient, whom no one has successfully diagnosed since he was committed as a child. Ignoring the advice of Nessie, a veteran nurse, as well as his superiors’ instructions, the arrogant Parker delves into Joe’s background and uncovers years of medical negligence at the asylum. When Nessie dies, the latest victim in a decades-long string of caregivers whose interactions with Joe induced deadly feelings of anger or self-harm, Parker seizes the chance to volunteer to treat Joe. Parker’s brushes with the supernatural heighten the tension. Fans of Alex Michaelides’s The Silent Patient will want to check this one out. [em]Agent: Joel Gotler, Intellectual Property Group. (July) [/em]