Turn of Mind

A New York Times bestseller, Turn of Mind is a literary thriller about a retired orthopedic surgeon suffering from dementia and accused of killing her best friend. With unmatched patience and a pulsating intensity, Alice LaPlante's debut novel brings us deep into a brilliant woman€s deteriorating mind, where the impossibility of recognizing reality can be both a blessing and a curse.

When the book opens, Dr. Jennifer White€s best friend, Amanda, has been killed, and four fingers surgically removed from her hand. Dr. White is the prime suspect and she herself doesn€t know whether she did it. Told in White€s own voice, fractured and eloquent, a picture emerges of the surprisingly intimate, complex alliance between these life-long friends-two proud, forceful women who were at times each other€s most formidable adversaries. As the investigation into the murder deepens and White€s relationships with her live-in caretaker and two grown children intensify, a chilling question lingers: is White€s shattered memory preventing her from revealing the truth or helping her hide it?

A startling portrait of a disintegrating mind clinging to reality through anger, frustration, shame, and unspeakable loss, Turn of Mind examines the deception and frailty of memory and how it defines our very existence.