Karen Robards ,Obsession

Obsession

Karen Robards

Putnam, April 2007, $24.95, 352 pp.

ISBN 0399154167

Katherine Lawrence feels as if she is in the middle of a draconian nightmare as thugs, spooks or terrorists break into the house where she is living that belongs to her lover Ed Barnes, the deputy director of operations for the CIA. They tie her and her friend Lisa up and they torture Katherine, trying to get her to tell them where the safe in the house is. She never knew Ed has a safe but they don't believe her but Katherine manages to get her mouth free of the tape so she can scream.

Her next door neighbor Don scares them off and takes her to the hospital where she feels like she knew him in another life. She also thinks she is losing her mind because when she looks in the mirror it isn't the face she remembers and when she takes a shower it isn't the body she remembers. For some reason she is afraid of Ed and with the help of Dan she loses the two agents he has guarding her. Ed soon picks up her track and when he finally gets his hands on her she feels she like she is living in the middle of a Hitchcock movie.

Readers will love OBSESSION, a stunning and powerful tour de force thriller. Katherine doesn't know what is real and what is a figment of her imagination but she has clues that all is not right. Her rings are loose, her clothes are not comfortable and the tiles where her head bashed the kitchen floor seem to have shrunk. Readers will eagerly wait to find out what is happened to the vulnerable and frightened Katherine. Karen Robards proves once again she is a stupendous storyteller.

Harriet Klausner