Title: GROUP
Author: Lynne Turner
Publisher: Friesen Press
ISBN: 978-1-5255-9985-9
Pages: 102
Genre: Fiction / Mainstream Literary / Mystery
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop

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Wit, wisdom, and irony find themselves roommates between the pages of author Lynne Turner’s understated novel, GROUP. It’s a bit of a psychological study meets mystery in a laid back look at the human condition in La La Land. Ennui, angst, and the various and sundry emotional elements that make mental health such a thriving West Coast economic catalyst, are on full display as an attempt to help a young woman’s coping capabilities turns into a cerebral whodunit.

Will Osgood is a Hollywood psychologist recently divorced. He’s gotten the short end of the stick as it relates to post-marital living accommodations, but in fairness, he has been granted custody of the ex-couple’s three-legged cat. Hey, nobody said breaking up in Los Angeles is not without some degree of bizarre equity. Be that as it may, his practice is about to get an infusion of strangeness (as if he didn’t have enough already) when a high-rolling talent agent brings him a new patient and beaucoup cash to assure that Will takes her on.

Loretta is a young girl with enough problems to start her own reality show. She’s standoffish, uncommunicative, and occasionally hygienically challenged. It’s not until Will (not without considerable trepidation) introduces her to his group therapy collective that the plot begins to thicken with a cast reminiscent of progeny from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. There’s little Danny who isn’t little and insists he dying of AIDS. There brawny Bruno who’s afraid of being an empty nester even though he’s single. There’s Hamilton (not the guy from the hit musical or the one on the ten-dollar bill) who is extremely short of stature but incredibly long on intellect. There’s Dahlia, a woman of a certain age committed to the regenerative powers of plastic surgery. There’s Oscar, an Indiana native who longs to be a writer but is perhaps more capable of being a waiter. And there’s Ramone who…well, you just have to actually experience Ramone.

When Loretta spills her guts to the group about her questionable upbringing and the dastardly doings of the agent who bought her entry into Will’s stable of unfortunates, tensions rise; reaching a fever pitch when the aforementioned talent agent is shot.

Author Turner is a skilled writer who keeps her fingers flying to accelerate the pace of this tale like an expensive sports car deftly maneuvering the twists and turns of  L A’s canyon roads. While she acknowledges the occasional absurdity of situations surrounding her characters, she never ascribes blame without appropriate compassion. Her years as a psychotherapist enhance authenticity without getting in the way of a quick quip or a deft description.

If you’re in the mood for a mystery that’s more sly narrative and less psychobabble, you just might want to sit in on Lynne Turner’s GROUP.