The Best Minds

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen  562 pp.

In 1973 the Rosen family moved into a house in New Rochelle, NY, across the street from the Laudor family. Young Jonathan Rosen and Michael Laudor soon were best friends and inseparable through high school and into college. Both young men were highly intelligent and ambitious. Michael completed college in three years as Summa Cum Laude. He soon went to work for a high power consulting firm. Before long Michael is hospitalized after a psychotic break and is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Johnathan does his best to be supportive while living in California earning Masters and Doctorate degrees. Michael spends time in a halfway house before using his deferred acceptance to Yale Law School. The administration and faculty are very supportive and accommodate Michael's difficulties which includes daily hallucinations of his room engulfed in flames and his parents being Nazi imposters. In spite of that he received his law degree. Soon he was in talks with Ron Howard's production company about making a film of Laudor's life. However, mental illness is unpredictable and things soon went sideways. Michael and his fiancée, Caroline Costello, shared an apartment until the day in 1998 when he brutally stabs her to death. He was captured that night after assaulting police officers It took six weeks before he realized she was dead after not understanding why she hadn't come to see him. Because of the vagaries of the legal system in such cases it took awhile before Michael was incarcerated in an institution in New York. He remains there and his illness is reevaluated for the possibility of release every two years . Much of this book is an examination of the treatment of the mentally ill by both the medical and professions. Because mental illness is so unpredictable it is impossible to find a black & white solution. In spite of his closeness to Laudor and his family, Rosen presents a balanced, informative, and compassionate story of a tragic situation.

Ron Howard never produced a film about Michael Laudor but made "A Beautiful Mind" about schizophrenic mathematician, John Nash a few years after the murder of Costello.

Corpse in Waiting

Corpse in Waiting by Margaret Duffy (2010) 218 pages

Patrick and Ingrid are taking a vacation in Bath, England, close to home, just the two of them. Patrick recently had a bad health issue and Ingrid is still recovering from childbirth, and they're having a lovely time until they run into one of Patrick's ex-girlfriends. From there, the vacation goes awry: Patrick's ego is lifted by the attention that Alexandra heaps on him, while Ingrid seethes. Alexandra is looking for a new home and when she asks Patrick to help her, Ingrid comes along. One of the houses, which has been vacant for a while, is perfect—for Ingrid—who has been looking for a place to write her novels. She puts a bid in on it before Alexandra can. It's a real mess, and just gets worse after a body and head are found in there, in different cabinets.

Further complicating the issue is the difficulty in identifying the body. Can Patrick and Ingrid help solve the year-old murder, even while they continue to spar about Alexandra? The case grows in intensity when there are indicators of human trafficking going on.

This is a fast read, told from Ingrid's point of view. I like the style, as well as the way the relationships are depicted between Patrick and Ingrid, their family, and their colleagues.