The Listener

Halfway through Rachel Basch’s third novel, The Listener, the reader gets the feeling that the title is ironic. Malcolm Dowd is a psychotherapist at the college in his town. His job is to listen; no doubt his skill at listening has saved the sanity or even the lives of the sad people who unburden themselves…

On the last page of Shira Nayman’s dark and probing psychological thriller, Dr. Henry Harrison awakens from a deep sleep to one startling thought: “Doctor, heal thyself.” The reader has sensed this all along; the doctor is not well, his sanity and madness inextricably connected. It’s a testament to Nayman’s skill that Harrison’s final realization…