Turn of Mind

Dr Jennifer White’s life-long friend Amanda is dead—murdered. Four of her fingers were surgically removed after death, and Dr White is the main suspect. But she doesn’t know if she did it.

As dementia takes hold of White, a picture emerges of two proud, forceful women, who were both best friends and formidable adversaries. And of White’s family—her two grown children, her strictness and exactitude. As the police investigation closes in, and her relationships with her children intensify, White searches her ever-fragmented mind for images of herself in Amanda’s house that day. Is her shattered memory preventing her from finding the truth or helping her to hide it?

Turn of Mind is a remarkable debut: literary and thriller, and a stunning exploration of a crumbling reality. Through White’s eloquent, fractured voice, Alice LaPlante examines the frailty of memory and how it defines our very existence.

Praise for Turn of Mind:

‘Really terrific—ambitious, clever and human.’

Nicci French

‘LaPlante’s characters are completely convincing, the plotting masterful.’

Donna Leon

‘Wonderful. This harrowing exploration of the slow disintegration of the mind is deeply touching and utterly heartbreaking, while also being a compelling page-turner. I loved it.’

S. J. Watson

‘…a fascinating look at the unspooling of a mind, and how dementia can lead one into the darkest alleys of consciousness.’

NPR

‘The plot is one of those smart ideas that could so easily have been a disaster of a book, but she’s pulled it off with agile and technically brilliant writing…What this book is about is the reader having a front row seat to the deterioration of a oncebrilliant mind. It’s clever, clever stuff…one of the most absorbing novels I’ve read all year.’

Herald on Sunday (NZ)

‘This poignant debut immerses us in dementia’s complex choreography… . Dr. White is … by turns brilliant, hallucinatory, and heartbreakingly vulnerable.’

People

‘This debut novel is a work of remarkable courage, sophistication and intelligence…This chillingly authentic portrait of a brilliant mind, tragically aware of its own disintegration, is an extraordinary achievement. Highly recommended.’

Sunday Canberra Times

‘Jennifer White, once a brilliant orthopaedic surgeon, is losing her mind to Alzheimer’s disease…. The story is told entirely from Jennifer’s point of view, a fiendishly difficult task that debut novelist LaPlante handles with aplomb.’

Courier Mail