The Patient’s Secret by the bestselling Canadian author is the best mystery I have read in years, and that’s saying a lot because I read a crapton of them. The novel has twists even I didn’t anticipate, and at this point I usually anticipate all of them.
Reading a huge number of suburban murder dramas like this one helps one notice that they are imbued with the anxiety over who deserves to belong to the shrinking middle class and who doesn’t. It’s very easy to fall out of it but increasingly hard to claw your way back in. And it isn’t about justice or fairness. If you can wear a daily corset of self-control and self-monitoring, you have a chance. If you want to indulge yourself and avoid boundaries, you will be forever excluded. These popular bestsellers are rulebooks for living in fluidity.
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