Synopsis: Khedlar is an adult as this thriller begins. He takes you through the present with frequent flashbacks to prior parts of his life. As the book begins the story he weaves is straightforward, but as the story moves along, you can see and be as fooled by life events as he is. His bizarre childhood is horrible, but not enough to turn him into the psychopath he becomes, but the threads start there. The reader moves from reality to questioning what reality is to reality that conflicts with any previous reality, and only at the end does the reader finally understand how the threads that connect us to clear reality can be utterly deceptive and mind breaking. Even the reader gets lost in what's real. It's not that Khedlar's experience causes the reader to end up sympathetic to what Khedlar does, but the reader, starting with no understanding of the psychopath, can gain a bit of understanding how the mind can be removed from normal to psychopath
Critique: Catherine Nuza has written many words to replace what a short chapter in a non-fiction book could provide in knowledge. In doing so, she takes the reader through not only the surface experience of how the mind can be brought to ruin but also the opportunity to share experientially Khedlar's views as the reader moves through the book. The experience of reading the book adds depth to the surface knowledge of a non-fiction chapter, instead becoming a virtual reality. For the mental health uninitiated this can be a disturbing book. The work is amazing in what it has to offer even if disturbing. I highly recommend this book for academic and community libraries.