Domenic Stansberry. The Confession (2004) 218 pp. [pbo]
For an educated man, Jake Danser isn’t very smart. He leads a privileged life. He has a successful practice as a Marin County criminal psychologist, frequently acting as an expert witness in murder cases. He has a beautiful wife and a nice house on the bay with a view of San Quentin from the deck. He also has a series of mistresses and suffers from Hayes Syndrome, which causes him to black out occasionally. When one of his girlfriends, a young attorney in the public defender’s office named Sara Johnson, is found strangled with Jake’s necktie, he is obviously the prime suspect. Is he an innocent man being set up? Did he kill Sara during a blackout? Or is he a very clever psychopath? The novel, sixth publication in the acclaimed Hard Case Crime series, won the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original.