"Brimming with vivid characters and a deeply humanizing humor from the very first page, Kevin O'Hara's brilliant memoir of three decades spent among the "cider heap" of humanity-as one eloquent patient calls the psych ward-rolls along at a rollicking pace that makes it hard to put down. Ins and Outs of a Locked Ward is provocative, poignant and a genuine pleasure to read, even its grimmest moments."

- Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography and author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age

"Fans of O'Hara's radiant memoirs, A Lucky Irish Lad and Last of the Donkey Pilgrims, will love this account of his tumultuous years as a psychiatric nurse. He handled his patients the same way he treats his readers: with respect, a gentle sense of mischief and a subversive willingness to break the rules in the name of kindness and humanity. When they finally put me away in a locked ward, I'm going to call him out of retirement. What fun we'll have!"

- Donald Morrison, author of The Death of French Culture, columnist at The Berkshire Eagle, podcaster at NPR's Robin Hood Radio, and former editor at Time Magazine

"In the best tradition of Ken Kesey's classic book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, this engaging journey through a psychiatric ward captures both the challenges and the humor of the human condition."

-Donald Meichenbaum.Ph.D., Research Director of the Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention, Miami

"I know of very few writers who find the truth to the stories of our lives like Kevin O'Hara does. If this was fiction I'd rate him up there with Twain and Thurber. But these stories are true.

Red Smith once famously said, "Writing is easy . . . all you have to do is sit down and open your veins . . ." Well, O' Hara bypasses the veins and goes right to his own heart, which bleeds right into yours. This is a treat of a book."

- Matt Tannenbaum, owner, The Bookstore, Lenox, MA