Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Emma Lewis is on top of her game. She’s working in London, helping her patients at a busy hospital, when the phone call comes. A man has been found on a beach in Norfolk. He had no identification, no phone, no memory, no name. And when Dr. Lewis’ mentor calls her to see if she could help, she jumps at the chance. After all, she wrote a paper where she asserted that patients with fugue, like this man has, is often misdiagnosed. This is her chance to undo the mistakes of her peers. This is her chance to prove she’s right.
But it means going back to Norfolk. Where it happened. It’s been 14 years, and she’d changed her name and how she looks, but still. If anyone figured out who she really is, she would have to change her name again, move away again, start all over again. Is this case worth the risk?
Emma decides that it is. The rarity of a true fugue patient, not someone who is lying and faking, is the kind of thing that comes along once in a career, if you’re really, really lucky. She has to do it. It’s the only way to prove her her theory is correct. So she goes to Norfolk, back to where it happened, to meet Mr. Nobody.
An incident at the hospital where Mr. Nobody is under the care of a nurse he’s found an unspoken connection with, unspoken because he’s not talking yet, and he gets the name Matthew. A series of tests concludes that he has no physical damage causing the memory loss or the muteness. Dr. Lewis knows it must have been from psychological trauma. With that in mind, she tries to connect with Matthew, and to connect him to his memories.
But then someone connects Emma to her past. And all her hard work, not just with Matthew but with her own life, threatens to come tumbling down. Emma has to decide if helping Matthew, if all her life’s work, is worth the threat on her life. When push comes to shove, what’s a neuropsychiatrist to do?
Catherine Steadman took the book world by storm last year with her debut novel Something in the Water. Now she’s back with her second thriller, Mr. Nobody, and it’s even better than her first. Mr. Nobody is a page-turner with lots of psychology and danger and characters you want to keep rooting for, even when they tell you not to. Don’t miss this one. It’s so amazingly good!
Galleys for Mr. Nobody were provided by Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through NetGalley, with many thanks.