Author Chats
Rich Morvillo's Debut Novel Turns on Testimonial Privilege
September 10, 2026
In Patient's Privilege, Rich Morvillo tells the story of Timothy Shea, a clinical psychologist accused of murder. The protagonist's attempts to mount a defense are complicated by a web of patient–physician privileges.
In his writing, Morvillo drew upon his experience as the co-chair of a large international firm's white-collar defense and investigations group, and as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center teaching ethics and professional responsibility. The book is a gratifyingly surprising whodunit, an action-packed race against a ticking clock, and a thoughtful examination of the tension between society's need to protect certain communications between professionals and their clients and the necessity to expose the truth in seeking justice.
What inspired you to write a novel and why the murder mystery genre?
Transitioning into fiction was a kind of necessary escape from the rigidity of legal writing. There's an incredible sense of freedom you get when you sit at a typewriter or [computer] and let your imagination take over. Unlike in the practice of law, where the facts are dictated to you, oftentimes by clients, this was an opportunity for me to dictate the facts. I chose mystery because I thought it would be fun, and I had a core concept in mind.
I'll be the first to admit that every writer secretly wants to write the great American novel, but I haven't come up with a concept that has that kind of universal appeal, at least not yet … we'll see if I can get there, but mystery offers a kind of playground in which to be inventive, with regard to [both] the plot and characters. I love the idea of being able to come up with twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the very end.
I also think that the genre appealed to me because my legal background helps give the endeavor some air of legitimacy or authenticity.
How did your career as an attorney influence your novel?
There is a direct connection. The inspiration for my book was an old insider trading case in which a patient allegedly tipped his psychiatrist off to inside information [over] the course of their therapy sessions. Whether he did so intentionally, or the doctor misappropriated the information, I don't remember, but the premise stuck with me.
With my background in white-collar and SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] matters, it was natural for me to develop a plot around a breach of fiduciary duty and the way in which [client] privilege can interfere with the truth. I have done a lot of work over the years relating to privilege, which helped me create an intricate set of facts that could drive a murder mystery. It helps to know how to build a case when attempting to break one.
Finally, there is a bit of advocacy involved in writing fiction, at least one in the mystery genre. To be successful, you've got to make it believable. I have spent my career taking client stories and converting them into persuasive and coherent narratives. Legal writing can, as I said, be stultifying in some respects, but it also helps you learn to tell a story.
Was it difficult writing a character who is a clinical psychologist?
Yes and no. Coincidentally, my daughter is a clinical psychologist, but she never talks shop with me. I didn't find that I needed to do much research at all because I tried to keep those elements pretty general.
I introduced some basic concepts of psychology in order to make the characters believable, but I didn't want to get bogged down in psychotherapy jargon. By keeping Tim's advice general, I didn't have to show what a charlatan I really am, and I was able to focus on driving the plot to a conclusion that made sense for the characters I developed.
The hard part of building the characters wasn't their professional identity. The hard part was developing the character traits that are necessary to make the climax both satisfying and plausible without giving the game away.
What other influences inform your work?
I've had some readers compare the book to Philip Marlowe novels. My cultural and cinematic influences are probably Scott Turow on the legal side, with his legal modernism, and on the cinematic side, I'm drawn to courtroom dramas that involve quiet rooms with ethical issues, like Witness for the Prosecution and 12 Angry Men.
Culturally, I wanted to comment on the shared value we have in our society that privileged communications with doctors, lawyers, or clergy are elevated over the absolute value of truth. I wanted to explore how common law privilege operates to prevent people from doing pure truth seeking. It is a conflict that is ever present, and we have decided that balancing these interests in a commonsense way with exceptions to confidentiality, where a higher public interest is at stake, is necessary to protect people's rights. That conflict is at the heart of my novel.
Your book is full of twists and turns. How do you plan and develop a plot?
Somebody once told me — and it seems to be good advice — that the first thing to do is to come up with the "what if" question. Here it's "what if a psychiatrist abused patient information to his own advantage?"
Having established that, crafting twists and turns was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the writing process. I did not plot them out in advance … to be honest, I didn't even know who the killer was going to be until I was well into the drafting process.
I have found that writing is like coming up with a series of forks in the road where you have a sense of the general destination, but when you reach each junction, you've got to figure out whether you're going to take the expected path or throw the reader a curveball. By keeping my options open, I think I was able to have a plot that drove the twists and turns as much as the twists and turns drove the plot, and where everything comes together to forge a natural conclusion.
Where can readers find your work?
My novel is available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can go to my publisher, mascotbooks.com. I also have a website, richmorvillo.com, where you can purchase the book and get additional information about it.
