Privileged Information (1991)

Mystery where main character, Alan Gregory, is a psychologist, girlfriend is a DA with MS, and Gregory has a soon-to-be ex-wife. His patients start dying and another of his patients is responsible. Tedious reading. ( )

Clinical psychologist Dr. Alan Gregory faces professional and personal disgrace when several of his attractive female patients are found dead. When the first murder victim is found with a diary detailing her bizarre sexual infatuation for Dr. Gregory, he becomes the prime suspect in the investigation. As more of his patients are murdered, Alan faces a dilemma, the evidence that will clear his name is privileged information that he can't reveal at the risk of breaching his professional ethics. But in order to save his life, Dr. Gregory must discover which of his patients is a potential killer.

I have had this book on my bookshelf for about three years and have only just sat down to read it. I'm so glad that I did as it was truly an engrossing read that I almost didn't want to end. I give this book an A+! and look forward to tracking down more of Stephen White's books to read. There are now about nineteen or twenty books in the Alan Gregory Series, and I can't wait to read more from Stephen White. ( )

Very fun to read a mystery that takes place in Boulder... knowing the streets, the buildings, the events, etc. make it seem very real. A fun read, I look forward to more Stephen White books. ( )

delighted to see that his first book is as good as the fifteenth. some joy taken away because i had read a later book in which the villain appears, hence knew who it was from his first appearance. still, good. ( )

This first book in the mystery series featuring psychologist Alan Gregory, is a light, quick, and entertaining read, very good for the genre. It seems Gregory is having a problem with keeping patients alive. And after he is accused of sexual misconduct, he is having a problem with keeping any patients at all. While he is trying to determine what is behind the deaths and if there is any common denominator, as well as clearing his name, his hands are tied by the ethics of his profession. On top of that, he is separated but not entirely emotionally detached from his wife and he falls for a prickly deputy district attorney, Lauren, who often treats him badly.

The setting is Boulder, Colorado, as it's fun to read books set in my neck of the woods. I fell in love with the Bouvier des Flandres, Cicero. The storyline is plausible and for a mystery, not gruesome. I did question Alan's initial failure to see an overly coincidental meeting with someone he knew as something other than coincidence. Some of my favorite quotes from early in the book are:

“I carried a bottle of red and a bottle of white, unsure which went better with brine.”

“In the tropics people are evacuated when the winds hit seventy miles an hour; in Boulder, when the Chinooks gust past ninety, people compensate by talking a wee bit louder, rescheduling tennis matches and bicycle rides, and leaning a little bit when they walk.”

“Her hair was the color of good topsoil....”

“Adolescence is a disease from which total recovery is rare.” ( )