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The blurb on the back:

"Ronald Scott Thorn has shown how an intricate story can be presented with all the drama and tension of a first-class 'who-dunnit' ... the story is crisply told, and the suspense ... had me wishing for more plots of this type." Books And Bookmen
"There are passages that are sheer horror, powerfully contrived ... thoroughly convincing." Oxford Times "This is strange material for a novel, but Mr Thorn handles it superbly, and his vivid writing produces a book of unusually exciting reading.” Sheffield Telegraph "Macabre and terrifying ... the climax is terrifying." John O'London's

So there’s this guy, and on the day of his wedding he and his bride are in a car crash that gives him serious injuries and leaves him psychologically impotent. Some time later, the couple are holidaying in the South of France where they meet a disturbing and possibly deranged doctor. His unorthodox and unethical approach resolves the impotence but leaves the husband with a fixation on strangling his wife. The three gradually become locked into a weird love-hate-triangle hat can surely only result in tragedy.

It’s a bizarre little book – a psychological thriller, I guess, but suffused with a contemporary Gothic atmosphere as it charts a man’s mental decline in the most prosaic of circumstances. And it’s absolutely gripping, really very hypnotic as it lures you into a parallel world where nothing is quite certain.

Much recommended. Though the 1961 film version (known in the States as Stop Me Before I Kill) apparently isn’t, despite being directed by Val Guest.

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ARTISTIC MERIT: 4/5
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 4/5
HIPNESS QUOTIENT: 2/5

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from the maker of

Upstairs and Downstairs

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