Book Review--White Lies, Anna Salter

This is the third book in Salter's series featuring forensic psychologist Michael Stone, and probably my favorite.

Reginald Larsen is a noted anthesiologist who may have just made an important discovery regarding adverse reactions to anesthetics. He has been suspended from his hospital pending an investigation of claims of sexual impropriety. He is confident that he can fight the charges against him and wants Michael to do an evaluation as soon as possible. Michael has dealt with the lies of too many sexual offenders to be so sure of his ability to fight the charges.

While Michael is dealing with the Larsen case, a fellow psychologist, Marv, consults with Michael about a case of his where his client has recovered memories (unaided by him) of sexual abuse by her father. She wants to confront her father in a therapy session, which Michael is sure is a very bad idea, since it's unclear if the memories are real and the client has had mush time to work through this in any case. She tries to discourage Marv from allowing this to happen, but Marv says that his client is going to confront her father with or without Marv's help, and Marv feels that he needs to be there for his client. So Michael gets permission from all parties for her to observe behind a one-way mirror, so that at least she can be a witness for Marv if the family sues.

Michael's involvement in these two volatile cases proves to be quite dangerous. Michael has to protect not only herself, but those around her. Michael is brave to the point of being a little crazy, but maybe you'd have to be in her line of work.