Missing Persons » (Reprint)

Writers often use elements of their own personalities to craft their most-enduring characters, and Stephen White has certain done so in creating fellow-clinical psychologist Dr. Alan Gregory. However, White s electrifying series of crime thrillers aren t likely to be mistaken for autobiographies anytime soon.

Psychologist Alan Gregory finds his own colleague dead, while one of her patients-a young girl-has gone missing from Boulder on Christmas Day. With the police baffled, the answers to both cases may be locked inside the mind of a deeply disturbed client Alan has been treating. Running a maze of dilemmas, Alan takes a bold risk that will cost him his career-or his life. REVIEW; White's best. (Denver Post)

Library Journal

Truth and fiction blur a bit in White's latest novel featuring psychologist Alan Gregory when 14-year-old Mallory Miller goes missing from her Boulder, CO, home on Christmas, eight years to the day after a six-year-old girl (JonBenet Ramsey, unnamed here) was kidnapped from the same neighborhood. Soon others go missing, revealing connections to Mallory and her family, including possibly the untimely death of Hannah Grant, a colleague and close friend of Alan's partner, Diane. Doctor-client privilege is a staple in this series, but it has never proven more complicated than here. Rest assured, Alan's integrity remains intact, his wife's MS is no worse, daughter Grace is developing delightfully, and detective Sam Purdy is divorced and slimmed down. With an emphasis on mental illness, this installment is sadder and a little less suspenseful than others in the series, but the pleasure is in seeing these well-developed characters in action again. That alone makes this essential. [See Prepub, LJ 11/1/04.]-Michele Leber, Arlington, VA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.