Danger to Others

As if witnessing a police shooting between a mentally incapacitated man and the two police officers accompanying them for a work assignment is not enough, Grace Vaccaro and her co-worker, Annie, find themselves thrown deep into a case where one of their mentally-ill patients, Laurel, is marked as the prime suspect for a murder. Talk of flying from a hot pot into the fire! Not willing to let Laurel be a victim of a society which still stigmatizes mentally ill patients, Grace is determined to keep Laurel healthy while at the same time using her resources, time, and energy to scout around for the real culprit in the murder case.

If you thought a murder mystery involving rogue members of the society was entirely captivating, wait until layers upon layers of mystery and secrets are unearthed where the main suspect is a boundless mentally ill character! It’s delicate yet weighty, captivating yet sympathetic, and suspenseful yet screaming for calmness-kind of a situation. Undoubtedly, readers will give it up for Martha Crites for picking up a theme, mental illness, that is utterly fragile and throwing into it a strong-willed sleuth who has to find evidence, against all odds, to prove the innocence of a mentally ill patient who already confessed to committing the crime. Just breathtakingly astounding. What takes a couple of tiny little bits from the enthralling nature of this tale is the occasional hasty move from one part of the story to the next. All lovers of spicy murder mysteries will find “Danger to Others” absolutely stunning as their world is taken up for an unusual spin!

JM Lareen