Always Watching

The central character of Always Watching, by Chevy Stevens, is a female psychiatrist at a crossroads. The book takes us through a turbulent period of her life where her present meets her past with some mysterious twists and turns along the way. Although this isn’t classical literature, it does make for an entertaining read.

Nadine Lavoie is a mid-career psychiatrist who has just started over in a new city after losing her husband to cancer and her daughter to substance dependence and the streets. A depressed young woman who is admitted to the hospital under Dr. Lavoie’s care is struggling with her decision to leave a local cult-like community, and their chance meeting begins to reawaken memories from Dr. Lavoie’s childhood that are at once troubling and confusing. Ultimately, Nadine undertakes a journey to help reconcile her past, make amends with several critical relationships, and begin to develop new ones.

This thriller not only incorporates a character who is a psychiatrist but also multiple descriptions of psychiatric illness and psychiatric treatment. The author has some understanding of these concepts but feels the need to educate the reader throughout the book—and not always accurately. For example, “Young men have a particularly difficult time with depression as they don’t have the emotional skills to work through it.” Another particularly concerning stereotype she resorts to is that the violent character in the book is “mentally ill.”

The book is the third by best-selling author Chevy Stevens, and the character Dr. Lavoie is a constant in all three, although she plays a smaller role in the first two books. The author lives and works on Vancouver Island, and the book is set in Canada as well. Ms. Steven’s biography explains that troubled relationships and family dynamics, such as between a mother and daughter, are particularly of interest to her. Consistent with that concern, complicated family relationships and a flawed main character are central to the story. She also used her own childhood experiences with hippie communities as a jumping-off point for the book’s discussion of isolated communities with charismatic leaders.

In summary, Always Watching is a thriller that uses mental illness and its implications as a central component of the book. It is entertaining to read, but as a mental health professional, I found the constant simplistic “education” about mental illness and its treatment, as well as the use of negative stereotypes about this population, distracting and disquieting. Ultimately, I am less interested in reading the next book in the series.