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The Delilah Complex
A Dr. Morgan Snow Mystery
M. J. Rose
Mira (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN: 0-7783-2215-7
Publication Date: January, 2006
List Price: $6.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): As one of New York's top sex therapists, Dr. Morgan Snow sees everything from the abused to the depraved. The Butterfield Institute is the sanctuary where she tries to heal these battered souls.
The Scarlet Society is a secret club of twelve powerful and sexually adventurous women. But when a photograph of the body of one of the men they're recruited to dominate -- strapped to a gurney, the number 1 inked on the sole of his foot -- is sent to the New York Times, they are shocked and frightened. Unable to cope with the tragedy, the women turn to Dr. Morgan Snow. But what starts out as grief counseling quickly becomes a murder investigation, with any one of the twelve women a potential suspect.
The case leads Detective Noah Jordan -- a man with whom Morgan has shared a brief, intense connection -- to her office. He fears the number on the man's foot hints that the killings have just begun. With her hands tied by her professional duty, Morgan is dangerously close to the demons in her own mind -- and the flesh-and-blood killer. .
Review: The Delilah Complex is the second mystery (after The Halo Effect) to feature sex therapist Dr. Morgan Snow, a specialist at The Butterfield Institute in New York City.
This is an unusually effective mystery. Though there is very little action in the book, the pace of the story is brisk. The characters are all believable and their interrelationships true to both the story and each other. Though the author is generous with clues throughout the book, the somewhat lurid ending will no doubt come as a surprise to some readers.
Dr. Morgan Snow is a very interesting character. Her education and experience has taught her to help others come to terms with their problems, yet she, herself, is full of conflicts: she has the normal issues of being the divorced parent of an adolescent who may be on better terms with her father than her mother; she is unsure of the personal relationship she has with the detective handling the case; she is torn between treating her mentor at the institute as both a mother-figure and a colleague; and her professional ethics dictate a course of action that may be at odds with solving the mystery. This is a character that has the potential of continuing to grow and be of interest to readers for many mysteries to come.
Special thanks to Book Trends for providing the ARC of The Delilah Complex for this review.
Review Copyright © 2006 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books
Other mysteries by M. J. Rose:
The
Halo Effect
A Dr. Morgan Snow
Mystery
Mira (2004)
ISBN:
0-7783-2080-4
The Venus Fix
A Dr. Morgan Snow
Mystery
Mira (2006)
ISBN:
0-7783-2317-X
