The Mask of Sanity - Hardcover

Jacob M. Appel is a physician, attorney, and bioethicist based in New York City. He is the author of six collections of short fiction, two novels, and a collection of essays. His short stories have been published in more than 200 journals and have been short-listed for the O. Henry Award, Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. His commentary on law, medicine, and ethics has appeared in the New York Times, New York Post, New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, and many other major newspapers. He taught for many years at Brown University and currently reaches at the Gotham Writers Workshop and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

"Dr. Jeremy Balint is a man who has it all. He's a respected community leader, a cardiologist with a thriving practice and a family man with a beautiful wife and two lovely young daughters. But when he discovers that his wife is having an affair with one of his colleagues, he begins methodically planning to take the man's life. Balint pretends the colleague is his best friend and feigns ignorance of his wife's infidelity. To avoid any hint that he has a motive for murder, he allows the affair to continue for months.He studies murder cases, both real and fictional, to learn how to avoid mistakes, always careful to leave no trace that could lead back to him. Finally, he decides that the best way to avoid being caught is to make it appear that the murder he is planning is just one in a series of random attacks by a deranged serial killer which means he has to kill six or seven times. As Balint begins his rampage, he is somewhat surprised to discover that he can bash and strangle without remorse.

That's the premise of The Mask of Sanity, a novel that is both a suspenseful yarn and a chilling portrait of the mind of a high-functioning sociopath. The author, Jacob M. Appel, knows his subject well. He is a physician, an attorney and a former Ivy League professor who has made a study of sociopaths. And his crisp, muscular prose comes as no surprise from a prolific short story writer who has been shortlisted for the O'Henry Award and whose first novel, The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up, won the Dundee International Book Prize in 2012." --Associated Press

"Dr. Jeremy Balint, 'the youngest head of any medical division at Laurendale-Methodist Hospital,' discovers his inner psychopath in Appel's deeply unsettling novel set in what might be upstate New York. When Balint discovers that his wife, Amanda, is having an affair with his fellow doctor Warren Sugarman, he feels an overwhelming desire to murder Sugarman, and fulfilling this need soon consumes his otherwise normal life. As the wronged husband, Balint realizes that he'd be the logical suspect no matter how Sugarman dies-unless Sugarman appears to be the random target of a serial killer. So Balint sets out methodically murdering random strangers and tying lengths of green ribbon around their necks. Now known as the Emerald Choker, he takes no pleasure in the killings, but neither do they bother him. Each, after all, brings him closer to his goal of eliminating the detested Sugarman. Through matter-of-fact, nonjudgmental prose, Appel (The Biology of Luck) shows us the world through Balint's eyes and leaves the reader with a horrifying understanding of his actions." --Publishers Weekly

"In The Mask of Sanity, Jacob Appel delves into the mind of a murderer as he plots his version of the perfect crime. Upon learning that his wife is sleeping with one of his colleagues, Dr. Jeremy Balint decides to kill his rival-and to become a serial killer in order to hide his motive. Like its protagonist, the book is tightly focused on the crime, featuring lots of attention to detail and elaborate schemes to keep the outcome unclear. Along with the murders at the heart of the story, Appel gives Balint plenty of secrets to keep: having his own relationship with a woman who doesn't know he's married, working with the man he plans to kill, and hiding from his wife that he knows her secret. There isn't much sense of what Balint was like before discovering the affair, but his sociopathy influences nearly every aspect of his life. This isn't a character trying to overcome his demons, but one fully in league with them, and that keeps The Mask of Sanity moving." --Foreword Reviews