Dance in a Madhouse
New York City, 1905. Owen Townsend, a medical intern just recovering from typhoid, suffers a psychotic episode in Central Park. His father, occupied with political ambitions, orders his son confined in an asylum after Owen is diagnosed as schizophrenic. But Owen can’t accept the diagnosis and is determined to prove his sanity and return to medical school and his fiancée, Maude. On Owen’s first day in Fairmount Lodge, one of the doctors is killed in a fire. The police are called, and Owen is a suspect. As the story unfolds and Owen becomes involved with other patients, both he and reader ask themselves: is Owen sane? Is his paranoia real or imagined? And can he find an explanation for what happened to him in Central Park?
Dance in a Madhouse is an enjoyable thriller inspired by real historical events, including the asylum’s hosting evenings where members of the public watch patients dance. Owen is repelled by this, but it’s here that he encounters Celeste, a young dancer damaged by trauma. A central question in the novel is whether Owen is the hero he thinks he is, and in his interactions with Celeste I had my doubts. I did warm, however, to the secondary characters, most notably the novelist, Lilian, who is entirely sane and only in the asylum for research purposes. That’s her stance on it, anyway. Possibly the first in a series.
