Escaping Psychiatry. Beginnings (Prequel): Escaping Psychiatry

By Olga Núñez Miret

How far would a writer go for a killer story? This is the question psychiatrist Mary Miller must answer to solve the first mystery/thriller of her career. You can get to know the main characters of this psychological thriller series for FREE and test your own acumen and intuition in this novella about the price of ambition.

Dr Mary Miller is a young psychiatrist suffering a crisis of vocation. Her friend Phil, a criminalist lawyer working in New York, invites her to visit him and consult on the case of a writer accused of a serious assault. His victim had been harassing him and accusing him of stealing his story, which he'd transformed into a best-selling book. The author denies the allegation and claims it was self-defence. When the victim dies, things get complicated. The threshold between truth and fiction becomes blurred and secrets and lies unfold.

Escaping Psychiatry. Beginnings is the prequel to Escaping Psychiatry a volume collecting three stories where Mary and her psychiatric expertise are called to help in a variety of cases, from religious and race affairs, to the murder of a policeman, and in the last case she gets closer than ever to a serial killer.

If you enjoy this novella, don't forget to check Mary's further adventures. And there are more to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Olga Núñez Miret
• Release date: Feb 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781910214381

Olga Núñez Miret

Me llamo Olga Núñez Miret y soy escritora. También traduzco las obras de otros autores. ¿Qué más? Nací en Barcelona, España, pero llevo viviendo en el Reino Unido hace muchos años. A lo largo de mi vida he hecho y estudiado muchas cosas y he tenido otras vidas pero no importa cuánto me aleje de esto, siempre acabo volviendo a los libros y las historias, mis dos amores primeros. Cuando leer ya no me bastó, empecé a escribir. Mi primer libro fue publicado en 2012 y mi obra cubre muchos géneros, desde la ficción literaria al romance, la novela juvenil y los thrillers psicológicos. Planeo escribir más novelas en los mismos géneros y si mi imaginación así lo decide, exploraré otros. Me encanta conectar con los lectores, así que no dudéis en poneros en contacto conmigo. Si queréis estar informados de mis novedades, ofertas, y promociones, podéis suscribiros a mi lista, aquí: http://eepurl.com/bAWjPj También me podéis encontrar en los lugares habituales y siempre incluyo enlaces al final de mis libros. No os olvidéis de echarle un vistazo a mi página web y a mi blog (http://www.authortranslator.com). Siempre descubriréis alguna sorpresa. ¡Y gracias por leer!

Book preview

1.  The Crisis

It was terrible! I’m telling you, Phil. Disgraceful! The guy was pouring out his heart and soul, and I wasn’t even listening to him! What kind of a psychiatrist am I? Where is my empathy? Caring profession! Ha! Couldn’t care less profession, maybe!

Come on, Mary. Don’t beat yourself up. It was the early hours of the morning and you’d been working all day. Mary had to stop to breathe and Phil seized the opportunity to try and get his point across. He wasn’t a lawyer and the voice of reason for nothing.

His friend Mary, usually level-headed and calm, was in a bit of a state. Yes, she had a pretty stressful job, working as a trainee psychiatrist in a busy hospital, but she was quite senior now and not usually given to catastrophizing.

"That wasn’t his fault. Damn, the guy was talking about his life, his girlfriend had left him and he was contemplating suicide and I was...away with the fairies. I haven’t the slightest idea what he told me."

Nothing happened. You gave him good advice and evidently must have heard enough. You probably only switched off for a few seconds. And you gave him what he needed.

How so? He wanted somebody to listen. And I wasn’t listening!

Phil realised that he was likely to exacerbate the situation, no matter what he said, and decided to allow Mary to vent. She’d run out of steam at some point. Hopefully.

She stopped talking after a few more minutes of lamenting her lack of empathy. Phil decided it might be safe to intervene. Why don’t you—

It’s a con game, she interrupted him. "Do you remember that movie, House of Games?"

The one about the female psychiatrist and the con men? David Mamet’s, wasn’t it?

Yes, precisely that one. I’m coming to the conclusion that they had a point. We just put on a performance, and as long as we are credible, good actors, and have the appropriate props and jargon, we get away with it.

From that point of view, I guess all professions are a con game, Phil said.

Perhaps. But most of them don’t take the moral high ground or go around telling people what to do.

Phil was about to contradict Mary but realised that she seemed to be calming down and it would be better to try a different tack. You must be due a vacation, Mary. Why don’t you come and spend some time with me? You could always accompany me to work. Get a bit of distance and see how it feels to be an insider somewhere else.

Won’t your law firm have something to say about that? Client privilege and all that?

I’ll vouch for you. And I’m sure I could convince them that having you ‘consulting’ with us could be useful. To give us a different perspective. Especially if you aren’t going to charge them for the service.

I’m starting to wonder if you have a case you wanted my opinion on and my call has just been the perfect excuse, Mary said in a more upbeat tone.

You have a very suspicious mind, dear Mary.

When a lawyer says that, it’s time to worry.

Phil was used to people making jokes and saying uncomplimentary things about lawyers. He did some pro-bono work but had no illusions that he would change society with his profession. But it was interesting nonetheless. So, what do you say? Are you coming to spend some time with me?

Mary was quiet for a few seconds. She finally said, Won’t I be in the way?

In the way of what?

You’re single—well, divorced—and a bloke. Don’t you have a woman in your life at the moment?

You know I’m still recovering from my divorce. Phil made an effort to sound as sincere as possible. Mary had a very finely-tuned bullshit detector.

Ha! That’s funny! I haven’t seen any indicators that you’re sad at all about your marriage failing. I’ve never truly understood why you married Iris.

Well... She was hot.

Sure, but otherwise... Not up to your intellectual standards, Phil. And you sent her to your mother’s as soon as you went back to Law School, and I’d say you might have seen her a handful of times in the three months your marriage lasted, at a push. I’m sure you saw me more often than you saw her.

Well, if you had played your cards right, perhaps you could have become my wife instead. Phil didn’t know where that had come from. He hoped Mary would take it as a joke, because that was what it was...right?

You would run a mile if you thought I had any design on you.

Phil burst out laughing. Probably much farther than a mile. Don’t get me wrong, I do love you but I think we’d probably drive each other insane if we were a couple. We know each other far too well.

Phil realised he wholeheartedly believed what he’d just said, although he’d never formulated the thought before. Could he be truly open and honest in a relationship? Perhaps that had been the problem all along. He didn’t let anybody get close enough, at least not the people he ended up in relationships with.

So you think having secrets from each other is the recipe for a successful relationship? Based on that premise, I’m not surprised you’re still on your own. And yes, no need to remind me I’m also on my own. Relationships are not my priority at the moment. Trying to decide what I want to do with my life is. I don’t need added complications. And, of course, I suspect lots of men would think that I’m not hot enough to make good partner material.

You talk yourself out of it before you even try, dear Mary. But I’m sure we can chat about that in more detail when you’re here. When will that be?

I’ll have to check with my bosses, HR and the other doctors, but there aren’t school holidays coming up or other such things, so we might be lucky. I’ll speak to everybody tomorrow, if I can, and I’ll let you know.

Good. I hope it’s soon.

Why? She sounded suspicious.

Because the firm has just taken up the defence of a writer, and I know you love reading and writing.

"Oh, I see.