Mind-Altering Murder is the fifth and final book written by William Rabkin based on the television series Psych. The book was published in 2011.
On the request of Brenda Varda, president of computer-game company VirtuActive Software, Shawn and Gus take on the case of the missing Macklin Tanner, the company’s founder and CEO. Shawn tries looking for clues within a revolutionary new VR game they were working on called Criminal Genius, but Gus decides to quit his detective gig with Psych and focus on his main career when he’s offered a cushy executive job at the rapidly-growing Benson Pharmaceuticals, led by the young, idealistic, and easily manipulated CEO “D-Bob”. Meanwhile, Juliet and Lassiter are working on the apparent suicide case of a former Benson employee named Mandy Jansen when their investigations lead them to Benson, and working with Gus to see what’s going on. Unfortunately, things don’t go as smoothly as Gus wanted, and shortly after, a fellow executive at Benson is found murdered – the one directly above Gus, in fact. As more people involved in Gus' Orphan Drugs project begin to die, Gus quickly realizes he will need Shawn more than ever if he doesn’t want an early, permanent retirement.
This book includes examples of the following tropes:
- Acting Unnatural: A VERY subtle example: Gus tries hiding the fact that he’s flying into San Francisco for a job interview from Shawn by taking the most unobtrusive flight he can, calling it in from a pay phone, and waiting for a time where Shawn is distracted. All this does is alert Shawn that Gus is up to something – since he’s never usually this sneaky – and he’s already in San Francisco when Gus’ plane lands.
- The Atoner: After being responsible for running over an old homeless man, Tanner joins the homeless population to try to atone in some way for his actions.
- Call-Back: Shawn mentions the events of the previous two novels took place over the last couple of months. Gus apparently took a mistake he made in the previous book – and the death of another man that came as a result – very hard.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Jerry Fellows, Benson’s cheerful old mailman, is a former aspiring member of the IRA, and killed three of his former friends to prevent them from slaughtering everyone in an orphanage before emigrating for America in 1970.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Jerry Fellows and his daughter Chanterelle truly loved each other… to the point where the latter killed multiple people after they failed his dreams of making Benson Pharmaceuticals push more Orphan Drugs.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Shawn briefly thinks Gus has left Psych for a bigger, more profitable detective agency. Him confronting Gus has very blatant overtones of being a jilted lover.
- Growing Up Sucks: Gus’ final conclusion near the end; he re-joins Psych after his fast-track “mature” corporate job ends with him nearly getting killed, and at the beck and call of a man who’s just as immature as Shawn but not half as clever.
- Hypno Fool: Chanterelle uses her knowledge of hypnosis, combined with a few of Benson pharmaceutical’s mind-altering medications, to convince Mandy Jansen to hang herself.
- Identical Stranger: Juliet is shocked when Mandy Jansen, a young woman who hanged herself in her basement apartment, bears a striking resemblance to her – just a few years younger. She grows obsessed with the case, clearly horrified at the idea someone so similar to her committed suicide.
- The Infiltration: Shawn takes the new position of head of security for Benson Pharmaceuticals in the aftermath of the string of untimely deaths.
- Just One More Level!: Shawn quickly becomes rather obsessed with Criminal Genius, initially playing it to look for a clue to Tanner’s disappearance and being convinced that a clue is hidden in the game somewhere.
- Murder Simulators: Criminal Genius seems to be rewiring Shawn’s brain to be far more aggressive and vicious after playing it too long. This is what happened to Macklin Tanner; he forgot he was in reality for an instant while driving, and ran a man over in a hit-and-run. It’s established that this is largely due to being an extremely advanced, hyper-realistic VR game, rather than a trait of video games in general.
- Never Suicide: Juliet’s investigation of a young woman who apparently hanged herself is based on the fact that she made several future plans after she died. It turns out she’s correct.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: D-Bob, Benson’s CEO, is a hopelessly incompetent idiot who takes advice from anyone who can frame an idea well, no matter how idiotic.
- Proscenium Reveal: The first couple chapters have Shawn and Gus in a very shady part of town, blowing random things up, and eventually talking about shooting various people. Eventually, Gus breaks his own neck by pulling his VR helmet off, revealing they were playing a video game. Inverted near the end when Lassiter, Juliet, and Psych stride down a dark alley gunning down the local homeless population, apparently playing Criminal Genius, but it actually turns out that the whole thing was a real-world sting to bring Macklin Tanner out of hiding and the "shot" people were undercover officers.
- Shout-Out: A number, but a big one comes when Gus realizes a major clue is found in a book in Criminal Genius: The book is titled “The One That No One Has Actually Read”, by Edgar Allen Poe. Gus realizes that this means lots of people know the book’s big twist, but never actually read it themselves, and narrows it down to The Purloined Letter.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Sanjay and Simon, two Benson officials from the Mumbai and London offices, respectively. Gus gets them to reconcile briefly by threatening to give Mumbai’s sales and marketing responsibilities to the Paris branch. The two of them immediately pull an Enemy Mine.
- This Is Reality: Gus desperately wants a “realistic”, “mature” job that doesn’t involve fooling around with Shawn and running through some of the more unrealistic and outrageous plots of Psych episodes, where the friendliest people don’t turn out to be killers and the world is steady and safe.
- Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: The computer game Criminal Genius is largely a Grand Theft Auto clone in VR where the player is rewarded for acting as horrible and amoral as possible, and Shawn spends most of his time reveling in being a cheerful psycho. Juliet is more than a little horrified.
- Undying Loyalty: For a final essay project as kids, Gus deliberately tells Shawn what to write, and screws his own essay up, so Shawn won’t be held back and he won’t be put in an advanced class and they can stay together.
- Vice City: Darksyde City, the setting of Criminal Genius, is a nightmarish place swarming with rabid dogs, feral children, and criminals of all stripes.
- Yet Another Stupid Death: Criminal Genius is VERY easy to get killed in, and Shawn suffers a number of ignoble and embarrassing deaths while trying to maneuver his way through the game’s logic. Five seconds after starting the game for the first time, he’s mauled by rabid dogs, so it can be assumed the game is
Nintendo Hard.
