The Last Lie, by Stephen White

I love these books and not only because they take place in Boulder. The characters are complicated and real and current and sometimes frustrating and unlikeable. This was all about a drug-rape that occurs in the house next to Alan's in which he becomes involved via two routes other than only the neighbor one. All tied together at the end, though far from neatly.

Dead Time by Stephen White

I believe I've missed a book. Or something. I was very confused about where this picks up the timeline of Dr. Gregory's life.

However, this books finds both the doctor and his cop friend not working due to emotional issues. Sam is on administrative leave--or something--from the police force. Alan is coping with the death of an old and very close friend, the 'inheritance' of her son and her pushy brother, and a startling distance in his relationship with his wife. In the midst of all this, his ex-wife appears on the scene and asks him to track down the woman who is carrying her child to term.

OK, weird. It involves a trip this other woman took into the Grand Canyon a few years ago, during which ANOTHER woman disappeared mysteriously. It's all strange and spooky and menacing.

But rather shockingly good. I literally couldn't put the book down towards the end, staying up till 2 a.m. to finish it! I haven't done that in awhile.

Kill Me, by Stephen White

A very different book from the usual Alan Gregory novel: Dr. G is extremely peripheral in this one. Rather than being told from his point of view, the majority of the novel is about one of his patients, a short-timer in a couple of senses.

The deal is this: wealthy bigshot has near-death experience, makes it clear that if he ever gets into a situation where he can't live at his full capacity he wants to die, he hires people to follow those wishes explicitly, he suddenly discovers he has a teenage son he never knew about, and then finds out he's got cancer which means his "Death Angels" contract goes into effect.

As he says to Dr. Gregory, he's dying, but there are complications. Not of the usual kind. He wants to connect with his son, and he needs more time than the Death Angels are willing to give him. It's a fascinating premise since we all think we know that we'd rather die quickly than slowly...until it comes right down to it in fact.

The story gets a little out of control, but the action sequences and descriptions of character and scene are fabulous. Having just driven the area of I-70 where a large chunk of the excitement takes place, it was quite easy to picture the whole thing, but I think even if the reader hasn't been there the description is good enough to see the panorama.

The end? The end is unexpected and more than a little pat. But good in the sense of leaving the reader hanging on a whole lot of issues. Nice to see Dr. G from "the outside," i.e. what his patients think of him, instead of what he thinks of himself.