Rich, strong characterizations and stream-of-consciousness flashbacks permeate The Chocolate Debacle, an intriguing, psychologically astute mystery by Karen Winters Schwartz (Where Are the Cocoa Puffs?). Told in short, compact chapters, the story centers on Trey Barkley, a 26-year-old professional dog walker. A straight-A student at Brown University before he mentally unraveled, he now lives with his affluent parents in the small town of Skaneateles, N.Y. Trey, a self-conscious young man plagued by schizophrenia, caters to 15 dog clients and their owners, though some folks in the close-knit community consider him an unstable outsider and keep their distance.
He finds a friend in Florence Loughton, a lonely, 58-year-old widow who dotes on Hector, her fluffy little white dog. While under Trey's charge, however, Hector is accosted outside the town grocery store by a rambunctious child indulging in a messy chocolate bar that sullies the little dog's fur, and Trey's carefully controlled daily routine is suddenly upended. Matters grow more complicated when Florence is found murdered and Trey becomes the prime suspect in her homicide investigation.
As in her other novels, Winters Schwartz (president of the Syracuse affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness) continues to explore, with skillful and insightful authority, psychological disorders and the far-reaching impact mental illnesses and their stigma have on patients, families and entire communities. This thought-provoking narrative hinges on elements reflecting "misperceptions of reality," as well as on the fragile psyches of those struggling to make personal sense of life and its challenges. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines