Three of Elinor Mersh's neighbours have lost something they cannot name. They went to a new therapist on Sycamore Street - gifted, genuine, doing real work in the right direction - and came back unable to find their way home to themselves.
Elinor knows that territory from the inside. What begins as a single practitioner's sincere error becomes something older and more deliberate: a man who found the real thing thirty years ago, and decided to become it rather than serve it.
A man who has spent fifteen years standing between people and the thing they are seeking - and calling it help.
The energy that rises toward the wrong destination does not simply stop. It reverses. And the reversal costs everyone in the room.
The energy rising correctly is the entire aim.
The energy rising toward the wrong thing is the entire harm.
The Still Point Mysteries - Book Five of seven.
For readers of Louise Penny, Alan Bradley, and Jacqueline Winspear.