Psychologist as Detective: A Guest Post by Matthew Blake
Anna O is a psychological thriller about a 25-year-old writer who murders her two best friends while sleepwalking and then never opens her eyes again. At the start of the book, Anna Ogilvy, known by her social media handle @AnnaO, is admitted to the Abbey Sleep Clinic in Harley Street. She has been stuck in a deep sleep for over four years. The staff at the Abbey Clinic must try and wake her so she can stand trial for murder.
The novel was inspired by two real-life phenomena: first, people who commit murder while sleepwalking, with their eyes open but their brains still asleep; and, secondly, the mystery illness called ‘resignation syndrome’, where people fall into a deep sleep for years on end and can’t be woken up. There are famous cases of resignation syndrome in Europe, Asia and all around the world.
My research into mystery illnesses also inspired the title. The most famous book on mystery illness is Studies on Hysteria by Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer published in 1895. It begins with the study of a patient called ‘Anna O’. Her real name was Bertha Pappenheim and her case is the starting point for psychoanalysis. The alias ‘Anna O’ is arguably still the best known patient name in history.
Studies in Hysteria invented the discipline of modern psychology as we know it. But it also presented each case study as a mystery, more like a Sherlock Holmes short story than a medical textbook. The format is archetypal: the psychologist investigates the patient’s personal history until the mystery of their illness is solved and the cause of the symptoms discovered, usually buried deep in the patient’s past.
The idea of the psychologist as a detective was a eureka moment for me. In my novel, Dr Benedict Prince is a sleep psychologist at the Abbey Sleep Clinic. The Ministry of Justice instruct him to wake Anna Ogilvy up so she can be tried in court. To do that, Dr Prince must discover what led Anna to commit the double murder on that terrible night four years earlier and what caused her sleepwalking and resignation syndrome.
When I began the novel, there was only ever one candidate for the title. I wanted to acknowledge the inspiration behind the novel: Anna Ogilvy, or Anna O, was born. Believers in her innocence call her ‘Anna O’. Believers in her guilt call her ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
In the original fairy tale, of course, Sleeping Beauty is eventually woken from her deep sleep by a Prince. But Anna O is no fairy tale. And Dr Benedict Prince is no saviour. To wake Anna, he must delve into the darkest recesses of her mind and discover if she really intended to carry out the murders that night. Is Anna innocent or guilty?
But Dr Prince has secrets too. And awakening Anna O isn’t the end of the story, it’s just the beginning…
Hardcover $30.00
Anna O
Anna O
In Stock Online
Hardcover $30.00
Perfect for fans of Tana French and Paula Hawkins, this psychological suspense lives in the sweet spot of a commercially propulsive plot and meaningful human emotion. Built on an unusual premise, it’s nonetheless universal in its takeaways.
Perfect for fans of Tana French and Paula Hawkins, this psychological suspense lives in the sweet spot of a commercially propulsive plot and meaningful human emotion. Built on an unusual premise, it’s nonetheless universal in its takeaways.