The more I read of The Dark Water, the more I’m reminded of the BBC’s Sherlock. I highly recommend this book to any Sherlockian who eagerly awaits the return of the hit show; with only three 90-minute episodes in each of its seasons thus far, Sherlock can be a bit of a tease. I almost feel like an addict, grasping for my next fix. Two weeks ago…

One section I enjoy in particular discusses that this business of the Mayan calendar ending on December 21st, 2012 is based on a misunderstanding of the Mayan concept of time. December 21st is merely the end of the current Mayan cycle. There are several other larger cycles that continue to record dates well into the distant future…

…some of my peers bullied a younger teenager. I didn’t understand why they were attacking her. I didn’t really know her well, but she seemed like a nice kid and her two siblings were popular peers. She died of an accident one summer. I remember a friend talking about how awful she felt that she had ostracized this girl. It seemed to me that the reality of the situation left behind at least two victims: the girl who was bullied and the…

I love Kathy Kinney’s character. She’s an ‘infiltrator’ for the magazine where she and Simone work, playing the role of a tabloid journalist turned masterful actress, infiltrating funerals, charity benefits, weddings, and other sundry affairs. She takes on the vain and the vapid. She spies, she dresses to the 9s, she quizzes, she follows, and she creates drama as a distraction. Intelligent, gorgeous, and funny, I want to be her friend.

It’s excruciatingly hard not to analyze him in the same way I would any other character in a story. Part of me feels guilty, as if I’m touching on something taboo or too sensitive, but with the whole book written…

I’m all for the United States’ justice system—the ideas that people are innocent until proven guilty and that every person deserves to be defended. So I understand that there’s a need for criminal attorneys. But does it have to be Haller? The immediacy of the first person narrative brings me close to him, allowing me to feel like I know him personally, just like I would a family member or a close friend—close enough that I feel…

‘Great big piles of greasy, grimy gopher guts…’ is the song line that unfortunately comes to me as I’m reading these beginning chapters. The usual gory beginning of an Alex Delaware/Milo Sturgis case, as always, leaves me wanting to read more…

I need only look as far as my twenty-six years as a therapist to realize the potential horrors this syndrome of not being able to forget anything would invite into my life. I already have memories of crack house murders, head decapitations, gang rapes, childhood sexual abuse, animal tortures, ritualistic…

One of the reasons that I return to this series over and over is because I like the characters. I’m interested in them and their relationships. I’m particularly invested Robin character. She builds custom guitars in her backyard workshop and I think that’s very cool. It’s the relationships…

Fascinating things I’m learning while reading this book: the correct way to cut my wrists while attempting suicide; how to create panic, fear, and terror within a large group that will later lead to severe PTSD symptoms; and how to make nitroglycerin. The first two things I already know from being a therapist, and the last tidbit is really one I don’t think I’ll need in my everyday life.

For a person diagnosed with schizophrenia, the hallucinations may be psychotic, or they may be the subconscious mind asserting itself and telling the person and the world that life must be looked at through different lenses than the conscious mind. I always need to be able to explore these differences and listen to what is really being said and done as the soul speaks in so many languages, and unfortunately, I’m not multilingual.

Drugs, sex, rock n’ roll. Ok, so there’s no rock n’ roll, but I’ve got everything else I could want in a mystery novel: drugs and sex, prostitution, counterfeiting, history lessons, skulls and bones, thieving, international intrigue, murder, politics, rape, and psychopathology. I’m engaged by the blending of…

Lehane’s descriptions are amazing. They make me feel like I’m standing where his characters are standing. They make me feel like I’m looking at the people he’s describing. I can’t believe how easy it is to see the characters the way he describes them. I can feel Patrick’s admiration for Angie every time he looks at her. When Beatrice McCready speaks, I…