Bedlam (Alexander Gregory Thrillers #3) by @ljross_author #RichardArmitage #Mystery #AudiobookReview @WFHowes

Author: LJ Ross

Performed by Richard Armitage

Published July 2020 by Whole Story Audiobooks

Category: Crime, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, AudioBook Review

In a world gone mad, who can you trust?

Fresh from a high-profile case in the Paris fashion world, elite forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Dr Alexander Gregory receives a call from the New York State Homicide Squad. The wife of a notorious criminal has been admitted to a private psychiatric hospital and can no longer testify in his upcoming trial. Without her, their case will collapse, but amid reports that the staff are as unpredictable as their patients, who can the police trust?

Dr Alexander Gregory and his friend and mentor, Professor Bill Douglas are visiting Quantico, Virginia. They have been invited to deliver a presentation on criminal profiling at one of the regular international conferences held there. They were met by Special Agent Hawk and Agent Johnson, who later asked for their assistance with a highly classified case involving the Romano crime family.

The FBI agents’ request would entail Gregory going undercover as a patient at the Buchanan Psychiatric Hospital and ascertaining whether a key witness is still in the hospital and, more to the point, alive. The witness in question is inextricably linked to the mafia family so this wasn’t going to be any easy task. Admitted as ‘Michael’, Gregory was able to make use of his own experience and expertise as a psychologist to play the role of a patient and, as expected, things don’t go according to plan and it’s not always obvious who can be trusted.

“There’s no obligation,” Douglas said, unwittingly rubbing salt into the wound. “You’re not committed, yet.”

But he was, Gregory thought. Not only because the FBI had turned over a stone and found the secrets he’d tried to conceal, but because he owed something to his profession. With every patient whose life he improved, he felt he’d gone some way to paying back the goodwill that had, even unwittingly, been extended to him. Every minute he continued to call himself ‘Doctor’ was lived on borrowed time, until the Hospital Board discovered the grubby truth and stripped him of all he’d worked for, all that was meaningful in his life.

Gregory plays his part and blends in among the residents of the Buchanan Hospital while on the lookout for one in particular. They are a diverse and colourful group, who added much to the story, with varied and complicated issues. Gregory finds, considering his background, it’s not such a great hardship to take on this new persona.

Bedlam is a well crafted mystery, the pace steady as it builds up to a tense finale. There’s a much deeper insight into Gregory’s complex character which makes him more relatable…the events that made him the reserved and contained man he is today and how he’s learning to recognise and deal with his his own physiological issues, even if it could mean the end of his career. Bill Douglas is Gregory’s only real friend up to now, but perhaps after his recent experiences he will be able to let more people in. Performed wonderfully by Richard Armitage.

Initially the Alexander Gregory stories were billed as a trilogy but perhaps Bedlam has possibilities for a continuation…

I chose to listen and review Bedlam based on an Audio copy kindly supplied by Whole Story Audiobooks and WF Howes.

Book links ~ Amazon UK | Amazon US

About the Author

Louise was born in Northumberland, England. She studied undergraduate and postgraduate Law at King’s College, University of London and then abroad in Paris and Florence. She spent much of her working life in London, where she was a lawyer for a number of years until taking the decision to change career and pursue her dream to write. Now, she writes full-time and lives with her husband and son in Northumberland, where she enjoys reading all manner of books, travelling and spending time with family and friends.

Louise is a keen philanthropist, and is pleased to have supported numerous non-profit programmes in addition to founding several of her own, including the Lindisfarne Reading Challenge and the Lindisfarne Prize for Debut Crime Fiction.

Author links ~ Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads