Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline
My rating: 
(3 / 5)
“How do you tell the psychiatrists from the patients in the hospital?
The patients get better and leave.”
Dr. Eric Parrish kinda had it together. He had a wife he thought was unbelievably cute in every way, a daughter who was just like him in the best of ways, a great house in the suburbs, and was the head of his department at the hospital where he worked, a department that was getting accolades from all around. He had a few friends, some private patients, and his own anxiety issues had been resolved long ago.
Then everything started to come apart.
His wife wanted a divorce. He had to move out of his pretty, suburban house (even if he was guilted into coming back to do repairs and yardwork…). He was suddenly under investigation at work. His new private patient was losing it, big time, and he couldn’t seem to fix anything. He just wanted his life back, but in a tornado of events, everything starts coming apart.
Why?
Well, that would be because a sociopath, who narrates alternating chapters in the books, has decided that their next project would be ruining Eric’s life.
“I’m a sociopath. I look normal, but I’m not. I’m smarter, better, and freer, because I’m not bound by rules, law, emotion or regard for you.”
Now, here I have to say that my first guess at who the anonymous sociopath was, was absolutely correct. But the author is great at throwing red herrings in at every turn, and I doubted myself sometimes. But, ultimately, I was right.
I kind of wish I’d been wrong. It’s more fun when that happens in a book. Oh, well.
This is an interesting, fast moving little mystery. I had a little trouble with the main character, Eric, because he’s one of those “too good to be true” heros in a book. I think his anxiety issues were supposed to be his “fatal flaw” but given that those were resolved before the book began, it didn’t really work for me. I mean, there is the fact that he’s too nice and ends up getting taken advantage of – which he seems weirdly aware of, but doesn’t care enough about to do anything to change. He just really annoyed me in some places. I understood, in a way, why his wife left him. But he’s also a really good dad, and I’m a sucker for a good dad in a book.
I found this hard to put down, mainly because I was really invested in finding out if I was right about who the anonymous sociopath was.
“They don’t realize evil lives on their streets.”
Because their chapters are really creepy.
“They never see me coming.
Know why?
Because I’m already there.”
And made me wonder about my friends and neighbors, honestly.
“I’m neither your friend nor your frenemy, unless you have what I want.
In that case, I’m not only your enemy, I’m your nightmare.”