Virgin Lies

One summer day, Boston forensic psychiatrist Paul Lucas gets a call from his social worker wife, Abby: A nine-year-old girl has gone misisng. Paul, an expert interrogator, is called in to help evaluate the testimony of the only witness: a homeless woman who happens to be a paranoid schizophrenic.

Further interviews with other possible witnesses go nowhere, frustrating detectives and calling into doubt Paul’s role in the case. Believing the girl is alive but soon to die, Paul is pushed to the brink of a professional abyss—harangued by local media, distrusted by police, and pressured to save the day by Abby, whose stake in the search becomes deeply personal.

With time running out, Paul has to make a choice: to uphold the central oath of his profession or to do whatever it takes to find the girl—even if he must crack the mind of a vulnerable patient, and risk everything he has in the process.

Roderick Anscombe, M.D., is a forensic psychiatrist who has interviewed more than two hundred murderers. He is an expert in the detection of deception and teaches interview technique at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of The Interview Room, The Secret Life of Laszlo, Count Dracula, and Shank, and lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Visit his Web site at www.roderickanscombe.com.