"Turn of Mind" by Alice LaPlante

"Turn of Mind" is a novel about a retired orthopaedic surgeon suffering from onsets of dementia just when her memories are needed the most: she is the main suspect-cum-witness in the murder of her best friend.

The flow of the story can be found as exasperating every now and then, because she will remember certain bits and pieces of conversations from her younger days (which are long-term memories) and her breakfast menu that day (which are short-term memories).

The book is divided into four parts: The first two parts are written on the days when she still has her sanity and (half of) her memories and hence, written in the first-person. The third part is written on the days after she is committed into an old people's home. Here, she starts losing most of her sanity. The switch to second-person perspective in this part is striking, because readers can finally see her world thru her shoes, sometimes reliving memories from her childhood too.

The fourth part of the book, which is written on the very last 15 pages or so of the novel, focusses only after the discovery of who the murderer is (which is a shocker, I tell you!). It takes her off the sane world altogether. Here, despite her mental delusion, she somehow regains most of her memories back on what she remembers out of that murder event.

Sort of an odd turn of events, I say...but on the whole, it is a satisfactory read.

Verdict: 6 out of 10 stars