Title: Shutter Island Author: Dennis Lehane

The year is 1954.  U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient.  Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept in a locked, guarded cell under constant surveillance.  As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades - with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war.  No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems.  

The story of Teddy Daniels is told to us by an ageing doctor who once worked there over 20 years ago.  He knew Teddy, remembered his time there.

Teddy's story starts with him face hanging over a toilet, seasick, on a ferry to the Island.  He meets Chuck, his assigned partner, for the first time and they hit it off right away.  The two Marshals are met at the landing dock by the deputy warden and some orderlies.  They're given a quick tour and are briefed on the situation.

They meet Dr. Cawley who shares extra information with them about the missing patient.


'"Rachel Solando... drowned her three children in the lake behind her house... Then she brought them back into the house and arranged them around the kitchen table and ate a meal there before a neighbour dropped by.'"

They go on to question anyone who had seen or had contact with Rachel the day she disappeared; doctors, orderlies, staff, even other patients.  Teddy asks questions trying to find holes, or weaknesses in the stories they hear.  Teddy quickly become suspicious, suspecting it's an inside job.

'"A woman disappears from a locked room... escapes onto a tiny island and no one can find her?  [We] have to at least consider that she had help."'

Dr. Cawley is reluctant to let the Marshals look at the personnel files of the staff, especially the doctors.  He persuades the Marshals to focus on finding Rachel.  Dr. Cawley shows them a note she's written and left behind.

'THE LAW OF 4

I AM 47

THEY WERE 80

+YOU ARE 3

WE ARE 4

BUT

WHO IS 67?'

The men try to guess, but any idea they initially have sounds impossible.

'"We could be the three," Teddy said.  "The three of us right now, standing in this room."

"[How'd] she... predict that?"'

Dr. Cawley explains that Rachel, as a schizophrenic, concocts wild fantasies, impossible, truly brilliant games.

'"Her delusions... are conceived on a very delicate but intricate architecture.  To sustain the structure, she employs an elaborate narrative thread to her life that is completely fictitious."'

What he means is the note could mean anything.

They search the grounds, try to come up with ideas, but the disappearance always comes down to two points; the fact that she vanished out of a locked room, and that she was barefoot.  No theory works.  It's an island.  A heavily guarded island.

That night a fierce storm threatens the island.  A hurricane blows in and pelts everything with bullet-like rain.  The Marshals are assigned a bunk with some of the workers.  A game of cards is started, poker, for coins, or cigarettes.  Chuck proves himself to be an excellent player and wins most hands.  

That night Teddy can't sleep, plagued by nightmares of his dead wife.  He gets up in the morning convinced he's cracked Rachel's secret code.  He and Chuck take the note to Dr. Cawley.  Teddy begins to explain his idea, adding up numbers, assigning each number the corresponding letter of the alphabet. 

'"It's not the 'law of four.' it's the law of 13.'

He goes on to explain his theory to the others.

"What are you?" - Chuck asks.  "... Einstein?"

With her code broken Teddy believes it's only a matter of time before they find her.  However, there is one number, 67, that they can't figure out.  Teddy believes it's a 67th patient, one that isn't in the books.  He even goes so far as to make a guess to who that extra patient is, and reveals why he's so eager to find him.

'"Andrew Laeddis... killed my wife," he admits to Chuck.'

The man was never convicted due to lack of evidence, and Teddy has no proof, but he's convinced all the same.  

They continue their investigation for Rachel, but are met with mystery and more questions than answers at every turn.  As they explore the Island and question the inhabitants, they come to discover many unsettling truths about what goes on.  Teddy confronts Dr. Cawley about the discrepancies and the questions he's uncovered.  When, quite nonchalantly, Cawley reveals that Rachel had been found, that very afternoon.

'"You can rest now, Marshals, your quest is over."'

Teddy isn't ready to call it quits until he's found Laeddis.  He knows he needs to access the restricted C Ward.  Convincing Chuck to help him, the two disguise themselves as workers to gain access to the ward.  Because the storm knocked out the power, the wards entire patient population got lose.  In the chaos, Teddy loses Chuck and tries to find Laeddis.  Instead he finds riddles, but has yet to make any startling realizations.  Frustrated, and confident the doctors in the facility are deliberately hiding something from him, he narrows his attention to the seemingly innocuous lighthouse they claim is a sewage facility.  To get there the Marshals have to climb down a sheer cliff.  Chuck refuses to follow him down.  

'"Try not to break your neck," are the last words Teddy hears from his partner.

Halfway down Teddy realizes the journey is as dangerous as Chuck supposed.  Teddy manages to climb back up, but when he does Chuck is no where to be seen.  Looking down, Teddy is convinced Chuck fell.  Hurrying back to the compound Teddy tries to report the emergency.  After some apparent confusion Cawley insists, "you don't have a partner, Marshal.  You came here alone."

With that Teddy knows for sure there is a conspiracy keeping him on the island.  with some pushing Teddy yearns to lean the truth, but can he accept what he discovers?