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Peter Zaks Mystery #4
Obsessed
Dr. Peter Zak is obsessed with finding the stalker who is terrorizing his new intern Dr. Emily Ryan and sets out on a trail of escalating violence as it leads him into dark and deadly places too close to home. Obsessed with isolating a cure to a fatal brain disease that could mean international recognition and millions of dollars, researchers will stop at nothing, break every rule, use every deviant act-including mutilation and murder-to achieve their goal. Bent on destroying the vicious web of deception, sexual jealousy, and death that threatens Ryan and the lives of his patients, Dr. Peter Zak must expose the deviant killer even if he has to risk his own life to do it...
- GenresMystery
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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46 people want to read
About the author
G.H. Ephron
6 books11 followersHallie Ephron and forensic neuropsychologist Donald Davidof are co-authors of the Dr. Peter Zak medical/psychological mysteries. They write under the shared pseudonum G.H. Ephron. The character of Dr. Zak is based loosely on Don, who runs a unit at the McLean, Harvard's psychiatric hospital, and often consults as an expert witness for the defense in criminal cases.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 1, 2018
The beginning dragged a bit for me. If the book’s premise didn’t sound so appealing to me, I would’ve put the book down after the first two pages. Having said that, although the book’s premise, in my opinion, is very misleading, as is the title, I much enjoyed this book and am ultimately glad I did not put it down.
The extreme use of medical or scientific terms did take me out of the story now and then, being that I’m not a professional in that industry and could not picture what I read in some instances. Also, the constant use of the word ‘now’ became very annoying. Apart from that, the book is very well written, suspenseful and keeps you in the moment.
BUT
If you expect a read about a “stalker” issue, about some guy’s “obsession” with a woman, you’ve got the wrong book. As I said, the book’s title and blurb are extremely misleading. This book is a great mystery, but while it begins with a stalker incident, most of the middle of the book revolves around the main character’s girlfriend’s uncle and his medical condition. For chapters upon chapters the writer goes on about this uncle all the while the stalking incident has disappeared into the background. Truthfully, the stalking is merely a small tool for the grander scheme, a minor subplot really. This novel is about medical advance through research in an illegal and inhumane way. It is ultimately a murder mystery that has little to do with stalking.
Bottom line: it is NOT what I expected but I still enjoyed it very much, although it took me quite some time to get over my disappointment of it not being what I expected, so for me it only really got good about midway through.
The extreme use of medical or scientific terms did take me out of the story now and then, being that I’m not a professional in that industry and could not picture what I read in some instances. Also, the constant use of the word ‘now’ became very annoying. Apart from that, the book is very well written, suspenseful and keeps you in the moment.
BUT
If you expect a read about a “stalker” issue, about some guy’s “obsession” with a woman, you’ve got the wrong book. As I said, the book’s title and blurb are extremely misleading. This book is a great mystery, but while it begins with a stalker incident, most of the middle of the book revolves around the main character’s girlfriend’s uncle and his medical condition. For chapters upon chapters the writer goes on about this uncle all the while the stalking incident has disappeared into the background. Truthfully, the stalking is merely a small tool for the grander scheme, a minor subplot really. This novel is about medical advance through research in an illegal and inhumane way. It is ultimately a murder mystery that has little to do with stalking.
Bottom line: it is NOT what I expected but I still enjoyed it very much, although it took me quite some time to get over my disappointment of it not being what I expected, so for me it only really got good about midway through.
June 5, 2020
Dual authors score with psychological Dax thriller
I had not realized that this was the fourth of the Peter Dax, PhD series. It does just fine as a stand alone novel, but I am of course looking forward to going ahead and reading the three earlier books in the series. Dad is a believable character complete with human flaws. He works as director at Pearce, a public mental illness and dementia facility. His postgraduate assistant Emily is a beautiful young woman who seems to attract serious problems. Is she manipulating the situations or is she a victim of circumstances. Dax's legal investigator girlfriend Annie has doubts about Emily but is more concerned by her beloved uncle Jim's quick descent into dementia. Another Boston institution University Medical Imaging is involved in cutting edge research in the field. Emily works there too. Soon deaths begin to add up and is it paranoia to think they are linked? Although a bit predictable the journey to answer that question and others is enjoyable.
I had not realized that this was the fourth of the Peter Dax, PhD series. It does just fine as a stand alone novel, but I am of course looking forward to going ahead and reading the three earlier books in the series. Dad is a believable character complete with human flaws. He works as director at Pearce, a public mental illness and dementia facility. His postgraduate assistant Emily is a beautiful young woman who seems to attract serious problems. Is she manipulating the situations or is she a victim of circumstances. Dax's legal investigator girlfriend Annie has doubts about Emily but is more concerned by her beloved uncle Jim's quick descent into dementia. Another Boston institution University Medical Imaging is involved in cutting edge research in the field. Emily works there too. Soon deaths begin to add up and is it paranoia to think they are linked? Although a bit predictable the journey to answer that question and others is enjoyable.
July 10, 2017
Another good one in a very good series.
February 26, 2024
Wasn't a fan of the prose. Not everything contributed to the plot, either.
October 21, 2013
RATING: 3.5
Dr. Peter Zak is a forensic neuropsychologist at the Pearce Psychiatric Institute. He's always been fascinated by studying the brain, and often works in the area of dementia, especially interesting to him since his father was a victim of Alzheimer's. At the Institute, he is supervising a post doctoral candidate by the name of Emily Ryan who was working part time on a fellowship. Emily also has another job at an MRI facility called University Medical Imaging (UMI) which is doing leading-edge work on the brain, and particularly working with victims of a disease known as Lewy body dementia.
Emily is an attractive young woman who behaves in a very seductive manner to the males around her, and Peter finds he is not immune to her charms, in spite of the fact that he is happily involved in a relationship with an investigator by the name of Anne Squires. Emily is being stalked, and Peter finds himself feeling very protective of her, to the point where he is having difficulty maintaining his clinical distance. As the narrative continues, she faces other dangers; and Peter begins to suspect that she may have set up the situations herself since she has a strong need to be the center of attention, which sometimes interferes with her ability to work effectively with her patients.
At the same time, the activities at the MRI center don't seem quite kosher. Annie's uncle is sent there after he exhibits signs of dementia and has a rather unpleasant MRI experience. Afterwards, his health deteriorates rapidly and the center is in a hurry to harvest his brain. As a result, Peter decides to have an MRI done. Although that goes smoothly, the results of the test are unexpected and lead him to face personal fears about his own mental health.
The suspense builds as the stalking incidents escalate. When one of the doctors at UMI is killed in a bizarre accident involving the MRI equipment, it opens the door for an investigation which shows several suspicious patient deaths, which Annie and Peter proceed to investigate. Was the death an accident? Did Emily cause it through carelessness with the equipment? Or perhaps the head of the center, a man with an unparalleled ego, felt threatened by his peer and murdered him.
Ephron really excels at planting the seeds of doubt about the actions of several of the characters. I was never sure until late in the book whether Emily was guilty or not. However, the ending was very close to over the top, and some of the characters became caricatures—you could almost hear one of them cackling. In spite of that, I enjoyed the book and the information on the study of dementia. It was not overly technical, and the suspense element was very strong. Fans of the medical thriller will enjoy Ephron's work.
Dr. Peter Zak is a forensic neuropsychologist at the Pearce Psychiatric Institute. He's always been fascinated by studying the brain, and often works in the area of dementia, especially interesting to him since his father was a victim of Alzheimer's. At the Institute, he is supervising a post doctoral candidate by the name of Emily Ryan who was working part time on a fellowship. Emily also has another job at an MRI facility called University Medical Imaging (UMI) which is doing leading-edge work on the brain, and particularly working with victims of a disease known as Lewy body dementia.
Emily is an attractive young woman who behaves in a very seductive manner to the males around her, and Peter finds he is not immune to her charms, in spite of the fact that he is happily involved in a relationship with an investigator by the name of Anne Squires. Emily is being stalked, and Peter finds himself feeling very protective of her, to the point where he is having difficulty maintaining his clinical distance. As the narrative continues, she faces other dangers; and Peter begins to suspect that she may have set up the situations herself since she has a strong need to be the center of attention, which sometimes interferes with her ability to work effectively with her patients.
At the same time, the activities at the MRI center don't seem quite kosher. Annie's uncle is sent there after he exhibits signs of dementia and has a rather unpleasant MRI experience. Afterwards, his health deteriorates rapidly and the center is in a hurry to harvest his brain. As a result, Peter decides to have an MRI done. Although that goes smoothly, the results of the test are unexpected and lead him to face personal fears about his own mental health.
The suspense builds as the stalking incidents escalate. When one of the doctors at UMI is killed in a bizarre accident involving the MRI equipment, it opens the door for an investigation which shows several suspicious patient deaths, which Annie and Peter proceed to investigate. Was the death an accident? Did Emily cause it through carelessness with the equipment? Or perhaps the head of the center, a man with an unparalleled ego, felt threatened by his peer and murdered him.
Ephron really excels at planting the seeds of doubt about the actions of several of the characters. I was never sure until late in the book whether Emily was guilty or not. However, the ending was very close to over the top, and some of the characters became caricatures—you could almost hear one of them cackling. In spite of that, I enjoyed the book and the information on the study of dementia. It was not overly technical, and the suspense element was very strong. Fans of the medical thriller will enjoy Ephron's work.
August 5, 2013
This was a fast read, given the length of the book. Rather than being a compelling mystery, though, it reminded me of a fifty-minute TV show where you're pretty sure you know the ending but decide to wait it out just to be certain. If you're looking for intellectual stimulation, this is not the book for you. It offers a quick, breezy mystery to distract you from life for a few hours.
December 13, 2008
Another good fast read from this mystery series, interesting characters, with Dr. Zak, a forensic psychologist as the leading character. Start the series with "Amnesia" to know the story line.
November 27, 2010
A nice, engrossing page turner - bummer someone had do die. But that's most of mystery, right?
August 13, 2010
A great medical thriller.
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February 22, 2014good read, ending was certainly different not what I had expected.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews