Fear

June 12, 2006
In Abbott's hypercharged ninth thriller (after 2005's Panic
), Miles Kendrick, a former spy for the mob who's now in the federal witness protection program, has built a new if fragile life in Sante Fe, N.Mex. With the aid of Allison Vance, his psychiatrist, Kendrick struggles to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder, which developed after he killed his best friend while assisting the FBI. Kendrick is soon overwhelmed by more feelings of guilt when his shrink is blown up in her office after asking him to help her with a delicate matter. Kendrick later discovers Vance was involved with a new miracle drug touted as curing PTSD. In his search for the drug, which takes a bewildering series of twists and turns, he crosses paths with a number of unsavory characters with various motives. Readers will need to suspend some disbelief as the body count mounts, but few who start this book will stop turning the pages.

L.J. Ganser portrays the complicated world of Miles Kendrick and its sizeable cast, including Andy, Miles's best friend whom he killed and who appears as a sneering specter that symbolizes Miles's fear. Recovering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, Miles is suddenly swept into new fears as two more PTSD patients come into the story. Together, the three must overcome their phobias to find a cure for their ills. We have to understand Miles's world quickly, for it changes almost as fast as Ganser describes it. Just as we come to believe in Miles's tender, troubled therapist, Dr. Alison Vance, she's murdered--and Miles flees one nightmare only to find villains and new terrors waiting in the next. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine