On Friday night, Anita and Benno Servi were sitting on the front stoop of their Manhattan apartment building, necking like teenagers. By Monday afternoon, Benno was the prime suspect in the murder of their babysitter, Ellen Chapman.

Benno had walked the young, black Columbia grad student back to her new apartment, helped her fix a bookshelf, and then come home. When she didn�t show up on Monday to pick up the Servi�s adopted daughter, Clea, Anita went to Ellen�s apartment. That�s when she found the body, stabbed with a screwdriver that Benno had given her. The only fingerprints on the tool were his. And so the questions began: Was he having an affair with the young woman? Why would he kill her? And why, everyone around her wanted to know, did Anita refuse to accept the evidence: Benno�s a man; men have affairs. Benno was the last person known to have been with Ellen. His fingerprints were on the murder weapon. It was so clear. To make it worse, Anita began to discover some things on her own, things that didn�t make sense. Answering the questions about his possible guilt as a murderer were only part of her problem now; what about his guilt as a husband�?

Anita had to clear Benno�s name, and free herself of the fear that not only might he have murdered someone but also that she might not know him at all. Guilty Mind is a brilliant investigatory novel, filled with the insights and subtleties that made Marcuse�s debut novel, The Death of an Amiable Child, a critical and popular success.