The Best of Friends

Lucinda Berry has a working knowledge of clinical psychology, and her novels deal with the complex, life-changing effects of psychological trauma on children and families. For years, Berry worked as a licensed psychologist, before branching into creative writing with her first novel, Missing Parts (2016), about a “perfect” mother concealing a traumatic past of sexual abuse and murder. The psychological thriller genre has given Berry a means of sharing her clinical knowledge of human psychology, exploring how its darker impulses and traumas impinge on the everyday suburban lives of her characters.

Berry sees no incongruity between her clinical background and her new career as a best-selling novelist, believing that “psychology and writing […] are quite similar” (Berry, Lucinda. “One of Our Own.” Criminal Element, 2021). Both disciplines, she says, require you to “suspend” your own beliefs, judgments, and way of seeing the world in order to “get inside someone else’s head” (Berry, Lucinda. “One of Our Own.” Criminal Element, 2021). Her professional expertise allows her to create psychologically complex characters whose inner lives feel authentic, even when they’re navigating extreme emotional terrain. In The Best of Friends, Berry blends clinical insight with empathetic storytelling, crafting a