The Fregoli Delusion, the third Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel

In our last two posts we've featured a refresh of the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series, including Blood Passage and Marcie's Murder. Let's take a look now at the most recent novel in the series: The Fregoli Delusion.

Premise
What if the only eyewitness to a high-profile murder suffers from a rare psychotic disorder causing him to misidentify people? What if the person he insists he saw running away from the crime scene is the person who is the object of his delusional paranoia? And what if you're Detective Karen Stainer and you're the only one who believes him?

The Story
Billionaire H.J. Jarrett has been shot to death on a bike path in the prestigious Granger Park neighborhood in Glendale, and the chief of police has personally assigned Lieutenant Hank Donaghue to the case. Is it because Hank's mother, retired state's attorney and political backroom power broker, has pulled some strings? Or because Hank, thanks to his family background, knows many of Jarrett's associates and friends, and the chief wants these important people to be handled with kid gloves?

As he and Detective Karen Stainer investigate the Jarrett homicide, they find themselves coming into conflict. While Hank believes you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, Karen is pure vinegar by nature and doesn't know any other way to handle potential suspects than the direct and in-your-face approach!

In a world where money and power buy privilege and influence, can Donaghue and Stainer run a proper murder investigation without interference to find their killer?

The Inspiration for the Story
Fregoli syndrome is a rare but documented condition in which a person believes that different people are in fact a specific individual stalking them while in disguise. Named after Leopoldo Fregoli, an Italian stage actor famous as a quick-change artist, this condition most often appears in conjunction with paranoid schizophrenia or similar pre-existing psychoses.

In the novel, the eyewitness Brett Parris suffers from the ongoing delusion that a man named Richard Holland is persecuting him by appearing to him disguised as strangers in a crowd or even family members or friends. When Parris tells police it was Holland he saw running away from the scene of Jarrett's murder, no one believes him, assuming it was a re-occurrence of his delusional psychosis. No one, of course, except Karen Stainer.

What to Look For
While Marcie's Murder gives readers a chance to get to know Karen Stainer better, The Fregoli Delusion unwraps the personal life and motivations of Hank Donaghue, focusing on his family ties, his social connections, and some of his lifestyle choices as a member of the so-called One Percent, the wealthy ruling class. It also updates his relationship with Meredith Collier, whom he met in Blood Passage.

Despite all this, does Karen Stainer once again manage to steal the show? You'll have to read it to find out!

Where to Buy It
The Fregoli Delusion is available in paperback from any bookstore that has online access to the Ingram Catalog. They can order it for you right away. It's also available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sources throughout the world.

The Fregoli Delusion is available in eBook format from Amazon for Kindle, Barnes & Noble for the Nook, iTunes for any Apple device with an e-reader app, and Kobo.