A complex, multilayered, and psychologically acute tale about a predatory physician: well done.
As a narcissistic gynecologist targets his next vulnerable patient, he comes under suspicion by the state medical board’s inexperienced investigator in this novel.
At age 14, Diane Morrell became pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption. Now 16, she continues to see Dr. Hartwicke Zeus, 43, a gynecologist, for vague follow-up appointments at the Christian counseling center where he volunteers. Supposedly, he’s helping Diane deal with the changes to her body and offer advice. Actually, Zeus takes the opportunity to touch the girl sexually and groom her for a relationship. Handsome and married (“Legally, yes. But not really”), the doctor pursues Diane with attention, drugs, presents, and visits to his yacht and condo. For her, the sex is fun, but the way he talks to her is better. For Zeus, it’s all a game: “He wasn’t going to be able to dupe” Diane “like the stupid cunts he’d got off on before. But if he could slowly break her and train her to do what he wanted, it would be ten times the fun.” Meanwhile, Dave Green, 25, new in his job as investigator for the Board of Medicine, learns of Zeus’ past abuses. But when Dave keeps digging, he is forced to confront a rigged system that makes prosecution seem unlikely. These matters of affluence, class, and status also affect Dave’s relationship with his girlfriend; she comes from wealth while Dave struggles beneath six figures in student loan debt. As Dave works to close a legal trap on Zeus, the doctor makes increasingly grandiose, malicious, and reckless decisions that could endanger Diane. With Zeus, Keech (Hot Box in the Pizza District, 2015, etc.) draws a remarkably accurate picture of an especially dangerous sociopath—not the serial killer of the public imagination but a white-coated, well-educated, and highly respected doctor. Zeus uses his good looks, prosperity, and prestige to molest, drug, and rape his patients, counting on the system and his network of lies to protect him. Keech ably shows the step-by-step process through which Zeus manipulates those around him. For example, with money troubles and divorce looming, Zeus even tells his 12-year-old daughter, Kyra, that the split is because her mother thinks the girl is trying to tempt her father sexually. Keech also is perceptive about what drives Diane to accept Zeus’ suggestions; she’s lonely, feels blame for the pregnancy, and wants to feel good about herself. The story’s minor characters are also well-drawn and contribute importantly to the plot, particularly Robert, a young would-be pastor who keeps pestering Diane because Jesus wants them to be together, and Woody, a high school friend with surprising inner fortitude despite a sketchy past. The book’s strengths include how Dave’s conflict with his girlfriend touches on real-world economic and ethical concerns that aren’t easily solved. The plot moves with energy, building toward a dramatic but believable conclusion. It’s hugely satisfying watching the efforts of Dave and his team as they try to expose Zeus’ lies.
A complex, multilayered, and psychologically acute tale about a predatory physician: well done.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 289
Publisher: Real Nice Books
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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