The Pain of Pleasure

Loyd’s vibrant if confounding latest (after The Affairs of Others) involves alternative medicine and a missing person’s case. In an experimental neurology clinic in the basement of a deconsecrated church in Brooklyn, Dr. Louis Berger treats his patients’ migraines with marijuana and other, less orthodox, methods. Berger’s patron, Adele Watson, who came to him because of her own headaches, suspects he might be responsible for the disappearance of a former patient named Sarah and hires Ruth, a nurse, to investigate. In a journal kept to provide a record of Sarah’s migraine triggers, Ruth comes across references to an affair, and suspects Sarah was sleeping with Berger. The colorful cast also includes unethical physician Ed Konradi, Berger’s closest friend, whom Berger calls in for consulting. Though the story can be hard to follow as Loyd delves into each player’s side of the story, she crafts memorable characters (here’s Konradi: “His capacity for disruption was all through his DNA, and in the volume and size of his lungs and his great, full chest and stomach.... He couldn’t practice, but that hadn’t stopped him. Nothing could”). This is worth a look. (June)