Alex Winter

The Din within the Loony Bin Alex Winter

The Din within the Loony Bin is the story of Riley Wood, a nurse at a psychiatric institute that houses patients with a multitude of mental health disorders. Riley had wanted to be a psych nurse ever since her autistic brother committed suicide, and is now dedicated to her career in spite of its many pitfalls. Though her husband's political aspirations eschew her work, a gun-wielding patient breaks into her house, and she shares a growing attraction with a co-worker, Riley remains devoted to her patients: Marin, who has fits of catatonia and dissociative fugue resulting from her brutal childhood; Danielle, a codependent bulimic with suicidal tendencies; Craig, a paranoid schizophrenic trying to avoid the tragic end so common to his disorder; and narcissists Lilah and Pauley, who delight in wreaking havoc among those around them. But nothing is as it seems, and sometimes those working with the mentally ill are even sicker than the ones they serve. The impact of insanity on the lives of those associated with the institute pales in comparison to an even darker force at work that will ultimately attempt to destroy them all.