Don’t mix business with pleasure. Especially when your business is psychiatry and your pleasure is your patient. You may end up in deep trouble. You may end up dead.

Detective James Gurson is on the scene of an apparent suicide in Central Park. A snow covered Mercedes, cloth stuffed into the tailpipe, man behind the wheel a vivid red. In the man’s wallet, a note. “I have become accessible to consolation…” On the seat next to him, a small sparrow. Wings sliced off. Like something straight out of a Witkin photo. Segue to a beautiful junkie, life heading steadily downhill. She’s found a couple with deep pockets and deep problems to keep smacked. She heads to Central Park to score. The next day, the body of a woman is found, torched. Slits in the back like something from a Witkin photo. Gurson and his partner Kane are called in to investigate what happens when business and pleasure mix and when all the lines are crossed.

This is a first book from Yapalater. It has a good premise, has obviously been researched extensively, and moves quickly. But, at times, the dialogue is contrived and the repartee cliché. Not a bad first effort.

Jennifer Jordan