A review by carolpk
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

3.0

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante may just be the talk of the summer. I read it in one sitting, it was that riveting. Sixty-four year old Dr. Jennifer White retires from her orthopedic practice when she discovers she has early on-set Alzheimer’s. When her old friend is found murdered with mutilated hands and missing fingers, Dr. White becomes a prime suspect. What could be a run of the mill murder mystery becomes a complicated story of a woman experiencing rapid dementia and declining memory. I can only liken it to experiencing a horrible nightmare over and over as we follow Dr. White’s thought process in this first person narrative. The story goes backward, forward and round and round in an attempt to give us the whole picture; yet in a voice that so confused that sometimes we feel our own memory is failing us. With a deceased husband, two children and a caretaker also on board, Dr White’s story is fleshed out and we eventually understand what happened.

I fear that calling Turn of Mind a mystery may lose some readers and what a loss this would be. If you were able to read Still Alice by Lisa Genova, frightening as the topic of Alzheimer’s can be, then don’t miss Turn of Mind. Disturbing but thought provoking, it’s a different take on the topic of dementia and its many manifestations.