Asylum (Delaney and Murphy #1)

From author, Jack Adams – ‘Asylum’ – a psychological thriller series featuring childhood best friends – psychologist, Adam Murphy and private investigator, Nate Delaney – who learn that the mysteries of childhood can have wider impacts than ever imagined.

Joe was their friend; the man they spoke to through the wire fence of the Lunatic Asylum, along the banks of the river, and 10-year-old best friends, Nathanial Delany and Adam Murphy, knew he wasn’t insane. He couldn’t be… he must have been locked up by mistake. Joe was an artist, and gentle, although sometimes he was confused and had burn marks on his skin.

They were two boys from opposite sides of the track and firm friends. Nate lived in a modest house in the new Riverlink Estate and went to the public school. His dad worked in sales; his mother baked cakes for the school fete and Nate was the centre of their world. Adam Murphy lived on the rich side of the estate with a jetty and water access, and went to the private college. Adam’s media mogul father also managed the career of Adam’s model mother, Winsome – the IT girl, and they spent their days interstate, leaving Adam in the care of his eccentric widow grandmother, Audrey, who lived on the property.

Outside of school hours, the two boys spent their days at the creek, climbing trees, fishing, riding on their bikes, and talking with their friend, Joe, who was old – at least forty.

Then, one day, Joe was gone; life went on.

Hitting their thirties—jobs and divorces in their wake—ex-cop, current P.I. Nate and psychologist Adam decide to share office space and a receptionist in Stones Corner, Brisbane… home to op-shopping and more coffee outlets than inhabitants. It’s there that the letter arrives advising them that they have received ‘Expectations’. A quaint, old-fashioned bequest delivered by a solicitor which amounts to an inheritance for two boys – left by Joseph O’Connell, a missing-believed-deceased former patient at the River Park Lunatic Asylum. Their friend, Joe.

The two men begin to investigate the mystery of Joe’s disappearance and start sharing more than office space; this case needs both of their skills to find Joe. But Nate and Adam find the more they dig, the more dangerous it gets.