The Venus Fix

A Dr. Morgan Snow Mystery

M. J. Rose

Mira (Paperback)

ISBN-10: 0-7783-2317-X (077832317X)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-2317-4 (9780778323174)

Publication Date: July, 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. From high-profile clients with twisted obsessions to courageous survivors, the Butterfield Institute is the sanctuary to heal battered souls.

Morgan Snow's newest patient is a powerful, influential man -- secretly addicted to watching Internet Web cam pornography. He's not alone in his desires. She's also working with a group of high school teenagers equally and dangerously obsessed with these real-time fantasies.

Fantasies that are all too accessible.

Then the women start dying online, right in front of their eyes.

Now it's all about murder.

Review: M. J. Rose continues to impress readers with her latest thriller to feature Dr. Morgan Snow, The Venus Fix. In this mystery, the third in the series, Rose has created an intricate set of relationships around a series of unexplained and seemingly unrelated murders that makes for a very suspenseful novel. 

Morgan is still struggling with the various issues in her personal life in The Venus Fix, but this time her professional life is focused on her work with two cases that deal with webcam pornography. That these cases have something in common and are connected in some way to the murders is a given; what, how, and why form the basis of the mystery. Rose very creatively allows the reader to make assumptions that may or may not be relevant to the resolution of these online murders all the while subtly laying a foundation for the surprising denouement.

Apart from the mystery itself, Morgan's obsession with protecting her daughter is so passionately written that one wonders if Rose is projecting some personal aspect of her life into the pages of her books. If not carefully contained, or better yet settled, this simmering mother-daughter conflict has the potential to detract from Rose's finely developed suspense plots in the future.

Special thanks to Mira for providing a copy of The Venus Fix for this review.

Review Copyright © 2006 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books

Other mysteries in this series by M. J. Rose:

The Halo Effect
A Dr. Morgan Snow Mystery
Mira (2005)
ISBN: 0-7783-2197-5

The Delilah Complex
A Dr. Morgan Snow Mystery
Mira (2005)
ISBN: 0-7783-2215-7