Exposure
Brandilyn Collins
Zondervan, Jun 2009, $14.99
ISBN: 9780310276432

Rationally Kaycee Raye knows her fears are irrational; she has told herself that logically nothing is out there at least a zillion times, but thinking everything is okay never works at least for her. The fear factor of breathing is greater than any rational thought in her mind and gut. All her life she has been psychotically paranoid; she even plausibly believes it is in her DNA as her mom was insane. Kaycee knows how screwed up she is as does everyone in her hometown of Wilmore, Kentucky and elsewhere since she writes a popular self-deprecating newspaper column lampooning her fears as her form of confronting the foolishness of them.

Kaycee arrives home to find a camera in her kitchen; she wonders how it got there. However, the camera contains a photograph of a dead man. She calls the police hysterically, but when they arrive the camera is gone. The cops write it off to her well known mental illness though they confuse schizoid with paranoia. Soon other disturbing events happen to her and she begins having dreams that feel more like memory recall because they are so vivid.

This is an exciting character driven psychological thriller that grips readers from the onset with a need to know if it is the heroine's paranoia or is there someone sinister proving sometimes they are out to get you. Kaycee is terrific as the heroine in peril, but readers are not sure whether she going insane or if an unknown adversary is after her. With a fabulous final spin set up throughout the plot yet just not obvious and a brilliant use of faith, Brandilyn Collins provides a great tale of how fear can take control of a person. Capturing how crippling an anxiety disorder can be, those still skeptical also should read THE EARL CAMPBELL STORY: A FOOTBALL GREAT'S BATTLE WITH PANIC DISORDER.