Dr Neruda's Cure for Evil, by Rafael Yglesias (Black Swan, £7.99 in UK)

A brilliant psychiatrist, bothered by the suicide of a patient he considered "cured", ventures outside his consulting room and…

A brilliant psychiatrist, bothered by the suicide of a patient he considered "cured", ventures outside his consulting room and becomes embroiled in the office politics of the computer company where the man worked - it doesn't sound like the stuff of an engrossing thriller, but once it gets going this novel is one heck of a page-turner. Yglesias - author of the screenplays for Death and the Maiden and his own novel, Fearless - combines a natural gift for storytelling with a keen interest in matters neurological, and in the process takes the reader on a thoughtful, thought-provoking guided tour of current psychiatric theory. A.W.